I just realized that I never told the story of the suicidal frogs. At the end of last summer I had finally convinced my husband that we needed a new trailer. I tracked down a lovely 2003 Exiss 3 Horse slant with a huge dressing room that I thought would be as close to perfect as I could afford. I really wanted a Kieffer or Exiss 2+1 with a massive dressing room but couldn't afford even a used one.
So super hubs and drove down to Smithfield, NC to pick up the new trailer. This is about a 3 to 4 hour drive. Just as we were pulling to a stop light just before the trailer dealer's lot a little green tree frog crawled out of that space where the windshield wipers rest. It must have been in there since we left the house in VA, and it clung to the glass as the light turned green and we moved down the road. We watched it amused and then it crawled across the glass and I winced as it made a huge leap, hit the air stream going over the truck and disappeared. That was suicidal frog number 1.
The second suicidal frog appeared while the husband and I were in Lexington for the horse trial this spring. We were actually hauling Cowboy out to his trainer's ranch and the second frog appeared on the driver's side window. It too clung to the window, crawled along and I yelled at the thing not to jump, not to be a fool! But it leaped, hit the air stream, struck the trailer and was gone.
Now on to the High Queen for which this blog was created. She's fattened up a bit, which makes me happy. She's such a hard keeper that some days I am almost embarrassed to take her out to trials and shows because I'm afraid people will think I'm not feeding her enough. That pig gets a ton of food. One 5lb scoop of grain, half a scoop of soaked beet pulp, four cups of rice bran, alfalfa cubes, and her supplements. All this twice a day plus 24/7 turn-out on grass, and several flakes of hay.
She's all shiny sassy looking now, which is great, I love when she's all summer sleek. I showed her off in a lesson with Chris a couple of weeks ago. Much improvement was made in the being more aggressive and being more forward. We even CANTERED lines! Woo Hoo!
We've also been doing more trail riding because Cowboy has come back from the trainer and is now completely ridable , not just semi-broke. So super hubs has been riding him out with me most afternoons. By herself the High Queen is a paranoid freak, but with Cowboy leading she's calm and didn't even startle too much when she scared up a quail on our afternoon ride yesterday. And we have an overnight camp out trail ride on Mother's Day weekend which should be really fun.
The weekend after that I am taking the High Queen to a jumper show for some experience. Our next outing after that will be the starter trials in June. Soo looking forward to that. I want to actually complete every phase this time so hopefully the weather will cooperate.
I did a little jump school yesterday after the evening trail ride using the exercises that Chris taught me in the last lesson. The mare-beast was not in evidence, instead I got the Duchess of Lethargy and Laziness. Mommy needs to get out the giant jumping bat next time to encourge her ladyship to MOVE her butt.
We did however canter a couple of lines, and I am trying to move towards only trotting the first warm-up jump and cantering everything else. We need to do this, we need to move our riding to the next level, and since I have that fancy new and pain-free saddle it shouldn't be an issue.
I'm hoping to take Seneca down to my friend E's for a jump school on her course, or around the corner to the arena that has *GASP* actual footing and jumps next week, or the week after to practice for the jumper show. But we'll see weather willing.
Until next time keep it between the flags everybody.
So super hubs and drove down to Smithfield, NC to pick up the new trailer. This is about a 3 to 4 hour drive. Just as we were pulling to a stop light just before the trailer dealer's lot a little green tree frog crawled out of that space where the windshield wipers rest. It must have been in there since we left the house in VA, and it clung to the glass as the light turned green and we moved down the road. We watched it amused and then it crawled across the glass and I winced as it made a huge leap, hit the air stream going over the truck and disappeared. That was suicidal frog number 1.
The second suicidal frog appeared while the husband and I were in Lexington for the horse trial this spring. We were actually hauling Cowboy out to his trainer's ranch and the second frog appeared on the driver's side window. It too clung to the window, crawled along and I yelled at the thing not to jump, not to be a fool! But it leaped, hit the air stream, struck the trailer and was gone.
Now on to the High Queen for which this blog was created. She's fattened up a bit, which makes me happy. She's such a hard keeper that some days I am almost embarrassed to take her out to trials and shows because I'm afraid people will think I'm not feeding her enough. That pig gets a ton of food. One 5lb scoop of grain, half a scoop of soaked beet pulp, four cups of rice bran, alfalfa cubes, and her supplements. All this twice a day plus 24/7 turn-out on grass, and several flakes of hay.
She's all shiny sassy looking now, which is great, I love when she's all summer sleek. I showed her off in a lesson with Chris a couple of weeks ago. Much improvement was made in the being more aggressive and being more forward. We even CANTERED lines! Woo Hoo!
We've also been doing more trail riding because Cowboy has come back from the trainer and is now completely ridable , not just semi-broke. So super hubs has been riding him out with me most afternoons. By herself the High Queen is a paranoid freak, but with Cowboy leading she's calm and didn't even startle too much when she scared up a quail on our afternoon ride yesterday. And we have an overnight camp out trail ride on Mother's Day weekend which should be really fun.
The weekend after that I am taking the High Queen to a jumper show for some experience. Our next outing after that will be the starter trials in June. Soo looking forward to that. I want to actually complete every phase this time so hopefully the weather will cooperate.
I did a little jump school yesterday after the evening trail ride using the exercises that Chris taught me in the last lesson. The mare-beast was not in evidence, instead I got the Duchess of Lethargy and Laziness. Mommy needs to get out the giant jumping bat next time to encourge her ladyship to MOVE her butt.
We did however canter a couple of lines, and I am trying to move towards only trotting the first warm-up jump and cantering everything else. We need to do this, we need to move our riding to the next level, and since I have that fancy new and pain-free saddle it shouldn't be an issue.
I'm hoping to take Seneca down to my friend E's for a jump school on her course, or around the corner to the arena that has *GASP* actual footing and jumps next week, or the week after to practice for the jumper show. But we'll see weather willing.
Until next time keep it between the flags everybody.
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