I was going to take some more pictures of Tonka today, since it was sunny, but I got distracted by the cuteness of a boy and his horse.

We started out in the round pen because Soxy seemed a little forward. Let me point out she hadn't been ridden in... I think five months? This is the horse everyone wants, that you can let sit and then ride and you have the same horse each time. She was mellow as can be once there was a job to do, so we graduated out onto the driveway and the front field. But first I saddled my horse and mounted up.

We had so much fun! It was great to have riding buddy (of the child type) who doesn't complain. He whined once, right in the beginning, about having to help me get his tack together. After I talked to him about that he was a complete angel the whole time. My daughter never could get through a riding session without making me steaming mad. That's probably why she quit riding with me. :(



I think I have my horse-crazy kid. He's fun. I heard him talking to Soxy at one point. "I have to get you really well trained so you can be my sh- my cowboy horse." (He was about to say show horse but that wasn't cool enough.)

He talked to her a lot as they worked together. It was super sweet.

Here's a little video I took. Sorry about the wind...

Look at his little flappity feet when he asks her to walk. So cute! He's not a superb rider and I cringe somtimes at his steering (poor Soxy) but we all have to start somewhere and I don't want to play battleax like I did with Katia and make him hate riding. We'll take it one step at a time.

He needs some new stirrups too. He can't keep his feet in those tapaderos. Thinking of putting English peacock stirrups on there for safety.

I got to ride twice today in my new saddle and I love it. Okay, so I've said that about other saddles before, but I think I love this one even more than any of the others. It's so comfy. I finally got the stirrups right where I like them and I feel just as stable as if I was standing on the ground, no feeling that my feet are pulled forward or outward or that something just isn't right.

I think it fits Tonka. He was cranky at the arena this morning but this afternoon he was an angel when we toodled around the farm. So I think the crankiness may have been due to not being ridden for over a month, going to the arena for the first time in probably 9 months, and a little social misbehavior toward Cisco this morning. We'll see over time how he continues to do, I just hope the saddle wasn't the issue.

Oh, and John got to ride him today! I wanted him to try my saddle. He's sat on him once before but never ridden him. He loved it. Loved his backup and his light leg cues. He was fascinated by the difference when you're used to your own horse, and he thought Tonka felt very powerful. He also had a few choice words about his tallerness. He's only 15.2 1/2 but maybe he has long legs or something. It's a stretch to get up there. John's actually a lot more limber than I am, so I was happy to watch him struggle to get his foot in the stirrup. :)

Here's Tonka looking in the front door today. He thought that was fascinating.
"Pose for the camera!"
(He is so bored with this whole picture taking thing.)

"Hey Tonka! Tonka! Want a treat?"

Someone else heard the word "treat."

Those pictures don't do the saddle justice, especially on Tonka. It looks awesome. I love the way the colors of the saddle match Tonka's colors. One of these days I'll get pictures in better light.

I think my riding slump is over for the time being. I am excited to start riding again, and working with Scout. I've been soooo busy these last weeks - taking care of two farms and going to various towns every day for something or other - and I just had no drive to do anything with them. Now I can't wait to get out and ride again.

Hi, my name is Andrea, and I'm an addict. I'm addicted to saddles most especially, but also tack in general. Check out my Christmas present:

I've loved wade saddles for a while now, but never been able to afford one. This one has been used pretty hard and definitely has that lived-in look. The roughout is worn smooth. But I saw the ad and I had to go take a look. It didn't come with the tapaderos that were pictured in the ad, which really hurt my heart, but I still love it. Just have to find a pair of stirrups for it. Well, and try it out on my horse, which I'll be doing first thing in the morning. The WSU Polo team has the local arena booked starting at 10, so I want to make sure and get there bright and early to hopefully avoid having to share the arena. It's too muddy to do much at home other than maybe ride up and down the road, which doesn't sound like much fun.


I love the above picture. If you click to enlarge it looks all misty and magical, like some place I'd like to visit. But really it's the view from my own front yard, made pretty in the misty morning light.

Okay, so back to saddles. I know I just recently sang the praises of my expensive custom saddle that I bought last summer. Although it wasn't custom made for me, the quality can't be beat. And I thought the fit was perfect. However, while I was feeding the other day I found the telltale white hairs that had come in with Tonka's winter coat. (Insert expletive here.) So the search goes on. Hopefully this saddle will be the perfect one. I'm not holding my breath, and I can take it back tomorrow if it doesn't work, but I really hope it works.

An "awwwww" moment:

I'm off to look for stirrups. What kind of stirrups would you put on a saddle like this? I'm thinking either wood bell stirrups or maybe rawhide covered. Oooh, the darker brownish rawhide might look nice.

Mikey posted a video challenge - post what we're doing at 9, noon, and 3:00. Here's my shot at it. Not extremely exciting, I must say.

Headed to the doctor:


My ear's been hurting for at least a couple months now. It got a lot worse yesterday. Turns out I have an ear infection in both ears. I'm an adult, I shouldn't get ear infections. Explains why I've been dizzy and nauseous on and off.

Noon and 3:00 were actually taken at the wrong times, but close enough...

Heading east:

Visiting the lambs. They're getting big.

My sidekick, whose eyes totally remind me of the squirrel who lost his nut in the Ice Age movies.

Do you see it? (Click to enlarge.) I think John thinks I'm crazy. Or maybe he's just not as interested in every little detail about this dog as I am.

You can also see the tiny bit of snow that's left and the hopeful toboggan waiting next to it. Not much room for sledding there.

My handsome Huck, on the alert:

So, that was my day. I had hoped to dig some post holes and spend some time with Scout, but now it's just about dark, I don't feel too good (although the doc did say I should feel better in about 12 hours), and it's really icky out. I might just curl up in bed for a while and read a good book. Until it's time to make dinner, anyway.

I need me one of these real bad.The sweetness! The serenity. She's like a big hairy therapy session. I love Peaches the donkey.

And I love her soft nose.

And I love her ears too.

I love her ears a lot.

She's just special.

After I tore myself away from Peaches, I came home and got ready for Kinderpuppy. It went really well. Puppy Playtime was a blast! The pug was very, very obnoxious outgoing. Seriously though, he was soooo cute and funny and proud of himself. The rest of the dogs were a mix of playful and cautious. Huckleberry headed over to the people next to us and seemed more interested in meeting people overall, but eventually got over it and went around sniffing butts. Puppy butts, that is.

This week's homework is again Watch and Sit, but also Down and Come. Huck made awesome progress on his Down earlier today. I didn't have to lure him into position, he was getting it on a hand gesture and verbal cue. He's also starting to Stay, but we need to work on it more with distraction and distance. For Huck specifically, but not the whole class, he needs to learn not to nibble on people he's greeting. He doesn't do it to me so I'll have to set up sessions with other people to get it through to him.

Since this is, after all, supposed to be about mustangs, I'll tell you the only thing I really have today. They get bored easily. Then they start breaking out occasionally. So you really ought not to keep them locked up. Or so they tell me. I've got my pasture fence all charged again and I've been gradually re-introducing them to grass. I'm not sure what to do with Cisco. He's so fat. I think I'll put him out in a separate pasture, because he needs the exercise, but I'm not sure if what little grass is there will negate the goodness of the exercise.

Speaking of escaping. They've gotten out twice by pushing on two different gates until the hardware shifts and the gate magically opens. I'm not sure if they knew what they had done the first time, but the second time they had a good inkling, because they did it again. Only this time the gate was chained so HA! Anyway, I think I found a job for Huck. Cisco was rattling the gate as I mixed vitamins, and I got after him. The next two times Huck got after him for me! I told him good boy. All he did was bark. That would be a good job for him, keeping the stock off the gates.

Oh, and my saddle is beautiful! I got it mostly done, and no white residue in the tooling. The Obenauf's is way better than the Saddle Butter I've used in the past. Or maybe I just followed directions better... But it buffed to the prettiest shine, and my saddle is a richer color now. I'll post before and after pics when I get a good after pic.

Too many irons in the fire!

Friday I stripped my horse trailer so that John could use it to haul some furniture. The mats are out waiting to be scrubbed. The boards are bare and ready to be scrubbed as well. I think I will also paint them, or at least the part that is under the horses' hineys. I wish I could scrub and paint the whole trailer, but that will have to wait for another year.

As you can see in the picture below, I also need to paint the walls in my bedroom. I painted test patches and never got around to actually painting the room. That color is too dark so I still need to come up with a good color. Blech. I hate painting.

When I emptied the trailer I brought my saddle in to get ready to clean and treat it. This is the one I bought this summer, the one that I searched for years to find, the one that fits my horse. Unfortunately it has some tooling on it, some of it is rather deep. (I admit it's kinda pretty and you don't see work like this often, but tooling is a pain.)

So my question for you is this: how do you put a waterproofing treatment, such as Obenauf's LP on the tooling without leaving white residue? Or can it not be done?

I was thinking I'd heat it up first, use a hair dryer to keep it liquid, work it into the cracks with a toothbrush and then remove the excess first with a bit of towel and then with Qtips. I don't know if that will work?

Here's my saddle all clean and ready for the next step. I'll have to get it done soon because I don't want to ride again and get it dirty and have to clean it again.

Looking at the saddle reminds me, I have another question for you. Have any of you ever tried a sheepskin seat cover? This saddle is very uncomfortable for me. I don't want an ugly tush cushion. But I don't know if I want to invest in expensive sheepskin if it isn't going to help. I also wonder if the underside will rub my saddle in bad ways.

Tomorrow and possibly Tuesday I'll be helping John move store furniture and I'll be helping out on my friend's farm all week. I have a fencing project I have to get done, but happily I got most of that done today. Just have to reconnect some things and plug the charger in. Need to set up water and trough heaters and rearrange horses. Scoop poop and all that everyday stuff. Then there will be the barn to deal with. That's going to take months to clean up. Life sure isn't dull around here. Don't have to look far to find something to do. One of these days I'll actually ride my horse.