My Mojito

His Teeth: finally done!  His attitude: fabulous!  My Mr. Mojito is back in action.  The humorous part about this is that I finally did the last few rides I still owed his old owner on her horse and so officially got his papers on Sunday, the first day I have worked him in so long.  Sublime.

Pre mane trim, looking like a fatty

Truly never thought I would have a horse with one of these

Such a snuggle bug

So Sunday I lunged him so he could get the feel of the bit without any pain from his pointy teeth.  He was good, checking things out, realizing it felt fine.  Then he threw a fit (I was all seriously!?), finally we stopped and I looked him over and noticed that the bit seemed really tight for no good reason.  WTF are there bit imps pulling it around in his mouth?  No just my oraly fixated horse sticking his tongue over the top of the bit for grins and giggles.  I fixed it, life continued on in a normal manner.

awkward angle here

Check it out a nice frame even without side reins attached.  He is a lovely.

Then today I rode him.  He stood still to mount, walked nicely and there was none of the don't you dare touch my mouth attitude.  He gave to the bit, trotted around (after some swift kicks saying yes you do have to go) and that was it.  Side note: the wind was howling.  He is gonna be fun.

Lookin at the world

Post ride bliss

Oh and he ground ties.

More fire

No where near my horses this time, but many of my friends are nearing evacuation over near Sun Valley where the worst fire in the nation is burning, the national guard has been called in.  Facebook is filled with images that make the fire here a few weeks ago look like child's play.

Rain, snow?

photo by: Nadia Novik

https://www.facebook.com/KTVB7?sk=photos_stream&app_data  more pictures here.
Really no words for this.

Risking sounding callus here, I worked on my tack-room last night!  I didn't ride because no one was around and I would rather not get on a young horse in a new place 13 miles from town with no one to handle a phone;)

And I cleaned tack

Impromptu saddle rack, real ones are tomorrow's project

Random carving I have yet to move out...maybe he should stay?

Great evening light

Sunflowers are always cheery

I know I know

Blame the lack of posts on fence building and living vicariously through sprinklerbandit's amazingly good times with the world's best and newest OTTB.  Seriously, he is amazing.

Fence building is almost done and as soon as Suzie the pony's new owner picks her up, the boys and Diva are headed out to the 100 acres of awesomeness.  Can't. Wait.

Down the road from the 'acres'

I took a lesson on Gigi at the fancy barn and it was great.  It reaffirmed that the things I work on with her are correct and gave me some new items to work on as well.  The biggest challenge on her is finding 'neutral.'  She likes to fuss and generally act like a redhead;)  When she is right she is so right though, I think the mare will have a nice future in dressage.  The most fun part of riding her is the lateral work, it is very natural for her.

Going sideways

So fancy

Thanks to the sprinklerbandit for playing photographer that day...and this day:

This guy is huge

And so is his trot

This is Winkie and I feel like a shrimp on him.  He is a lovely horse, but on the rude side so we are working on that until his regular rider heals up from a cracked pelvis.

I was trying to sell Diva to a friend of mine that is sort-of in need of a horse, and after being nothing but sound for the last year, she chose to be sore that day 0_o   Nothing too serious, but visibly lame on her front feet.  I picked them out and they were rock hard and overly dry from the 100+ degree heat we have had so I oiled them heavily for two days and then yesterday when my farrier came to do Mojito I had him look at them.  I thought the frogs needed cleaned up as they seemed a mess and he agreed.  So he cleaned them up and showed me the bruising she had underneath.  She already looks better, thank goodness for nothing more serious.  If my friend does not end up wanting her she is going on dreamhorse, I just don't have time...and some hay money would be nice.

Love this horse.

Did you check out the new header for the blog...fun!  Also, welcome new readers...so fun to get more followers!

A bit of progress

It has cooled off a bit!  It makes me feel warped when 94 degrees feels comfortable, I mean seriously I have red hair my max should be 80.  We escaped to the river yesterday, we signifying me, Eugene, and my dad who is up for a quick visit.  It was bliss.  We fished, but I mostly took in the breathe taking scenery.  Observation here, when I was a little kid I could fish up a storm, now that I am older I swear the fish bolt when I arrive, boo.

Middle fork of the Payette river

Also, hope you all had a great 4th of July.  We ran 2nd in the Stars and Stripes Handicap! I took some pictures of the fireworks, but they were lame, so I pixlred it!

The hot weather brought some spectacular sunrises and sunsets.

Trying out the panoramic setting on my phone camera

Bridger is less sore, but still needs his feet done.  We had a very productive session with the side reins, that said, he has got to learn to use his butt a bit more.  So as I was thinking over my options for this Lucy's person posted about making her own Pessoa lunging system...so doing this!

No worries, I know that I little goes a long way with that.  Traditional side reins just don't seem to be Bridger's cup of tea, he has figured out how to drop his lower neck and impersonate a giraffe with his head, bleck.  Ok I'm off to do some weekend projects!

Comments!

Wow, I will have to read Aero all of your sweet comments on my last post, kidding, sort of.  Thanks for all the support! He is still doing super duper:)  So it has been hot here.

I didn't cheat here, this is after driving around and then stopping in the shade.  Ick!

I don't think I mentioned, we won the big Boise Derby last Wednesday, it was awesome.  The crowd was going absolutely wild!  I need to scan our win pictures and then I can put them up here.  We have one in tomorrow and three on the fourth.  I love racing on the 4th of July, there is always a great crowd and the atmosphere is super pumped up.

So I was going through some old photos on an old SD card that had never been edited and found a couple of Rio Listo, my first OTTB.  He was neurotic, but wonderfully bold.

A late evening jump school back in 2009.

 I love a reminder now and then that yes I can in fact jump, the babies are fun, the dressage is fun, but I have really been craving a good gallop over fences recently.

He was gorgeous. 

So I'm just here trying not to melt, hope you all are have stupendous weeks!