Clip Art

Brrrr, It is starting to get cold. My ponies moved up to their 100gram blankets tonight. At least we did not get the snow some areas in central VA got.
Since the wind was gusting, I figured it was a day to catch up on my work. Number one on the list, trimming Rosemary's hooves. She was suppose to be done a couple weeks ago, but I trimmed Comrade and Roscoe instead before the show. I trimmed back her platter toes with her cooperation for once. It is always so nice to see how good they look after a trim.
Next up was going to be her trace clip. Both girls need one, but I did not want to make her stand after her trim. So I decided to play with the clippers and a quarter mark stencil. When I mentioned that Rosemary needed a clip, Lisa (Roscoe's breeder) sent me a picture of the perfect clip for her, a Dragon. Unfortunately my skills do not stretch even close to what this needed, but Rosemary could totally rock it.

A Welsh and a Dragon, perfect. If only I could

My initial idea was to use the diamond stencil to create a geometric flower. Then the clipper blade was too big to fit in the stencil and I had to adjust. It was tough to work with how the hair was lying. I just kept going, even though I was not sure if anyone would want to see it afterwards. Her blanket could cover any horrible errors I make. It seemed the horrible was going to be the outcome, until slowly I saw some potential. I added a line here, smoothed an area there before finally thinking I could actually call it a flower. I added a smooth center to cap it off.

Then I thought is resembled a pinwheel and needed something more. Using the edge of the stencil, I added a stem. At the bottom I put a leaf.

Still, I thought it was not right. The leaf was too low. I fixed that by adding more stem below.

Finally her clip art was done and I did not feel like it should be hidden.

My sister says I made her a My Little Pony, but my Dad said she did not have sparkles like them. Ah well, I was impressed with how it looked in the natural light later when I changed her blanket.
Now I have to do her trace clip... at some point :)

Show Prep Begins

As the rains falls we have started getting Roscoe and Rosemary ready for the show on Saturday. I took advantage of the holiday and used my day off to trim both their hooves. This way any file marks will have a chance to smooth. Of course it was just my luck, Roscoe had a lovely clover drool happening. My back was a nice towel for him to rub drool on. At least he did not drool down my neck.
Next we clipped them both. Neither even need a halter on during the clipping of face and whiskers. We still need to work on clipping around the ears, but it is easy enough to use scissors. It is amazing how a trim cleans the head up so much. I will probably have to touch up whiskers tomorrow.
All my horses have started shedding, so we are making sure to curry them daily especially the two cobs. Even dirty, they have an awesome shine to their coats. Gotta love flax seed. Roscoe is getting a great copper color to him that I hope he keeps. I almost hate to give them a bath an lose those oils.
As long as it does not rain, they will get bathed tomorrow. They at least need all their white cleaned. Darn chrome! Then they need a good curry and brush with a spray of show dust to keep them cleaner. I still have not decided whether to leave them in stalls or turn them out. I think Mother Nature will help decide.
Then it is on to loading the trailer and filling hay bags. I really need to make my list.

Rosemary's white show halter is cleaned. Plus her leather halter is clean and polished in case she is too much for the white. Not much stopping power with the white halter, it just looks good. I polished the brass and cleaned Roscoe's show halter for the last time. He just barely fits in it, which works out great because next year he will have to be shown in a bit. Considering it is a weanling size, we have gotten a lot of mileage out of it.

And best of all, I found someone to handle Roscoe. She owns a section C colt a little older than him, so she is familiar with Cobbie attitude. Roscoe will be all alone in his classes and Rosemary will compete against two other  mares. Then Roscoe will go against the two or three mares in the Grand champion cob class. Then depending on if either of my two place and the weather will decide whether we stick around the hours until the Supreme class where they will compete against the other sections' grand champions.
Keep you fingers crossed for a mostly dry day on Saturday. Rain could make our 4am wake up call much more depressing.

Welcome Home

Well we got home about 230am on Friday, so we were too tired to ride. We did get a lot of hair off the horses though. They all came running when we called. Always a great feeling. They all got good report cards from Peggy, even Roscoe.
Today I was suppose to do the Appies feet, but Rebel was really lame. Left front with heat in the fetlock and hoof. He has ring bone in both fronts so he nearly always has some level of lameness. He was not letting us pick up the left at all. We decided to give him a week and reassess. Fingers crossed.
Next we scraped more hair off the horses. Gotta love shed season. Mom also told me to clip Roscoe to start getting ready for the Welsh show. I did not even need a halter to trim his beard and whiskers. His reaction made me a believer in early(as in first week of life) exposure. He first met clippers on about day three. Hopefully showing young will serve the same lesson.
Then we picked the girls to work and turned out the boys. We took Rosemary for her first ride around the big fields. She is such a silly girl. There was a pile of stone or cement dust on the ground and she snorted and bowed away. I walked her up to it so she could check it out. Next thing we knew she took a BITE. Of course it did not taste very good. Many funny faces followed and she was left with a gray muzzle. Then she decided the slight dip in the ground was a pony eating black hole. Brave Dottie came and led the way finding safe ground for Rosemary. On we went into the wild.
Toward the back side of one of the fields, there was a dirt patch. I looked at it and thought "baby up jump." A little raised area was on one side of the dirt. Now Rosemary looked and decided that it was "pony sucking quicksand." She immediately put on the brakes and reversed. Again Dottie came to show her it was safe. She followed and then as Dottie left the spot, she realized she was standing in the "quicksand." OH NO jump to the side. Overall she did well...for a drama queen. We walked by another "quicksand" spot, but I did not push her. Then we went for the long walk around the biggest field. Just past the pond we had to navigate a small but steep hill. Rosemary trusted me to bring her down picking her way through the long grass. She started cruising then at the walk stretching down into the reins. Really great walk. She only got distracted by the people on the other side of the fence and the chickens. I thinks she looked twice at them. I put her behind Dottie for this area so that Dottie would show her the way. Both of them were good girls and we had a great ride. We ended with a trot around the main field. Rosemary opened up and pushed. This time Dottie followed her. The boys came to greet us as we rounded the corner. After a rub down, cookies and sunflower seeds, we turned the girls out and headed to Peggy's.
First up for Comrade was his clip to get ready for the show. Then we tacked up and went to the arena. I was set for a warm up walk then trot. Comrade decided that he would rather canter. I went with it and pushed him on. For the first time ever, he kicked it in when I asked. That push from behind was wonderful. The trot work that followed was better too. He was so willing and good, I let him finish on trail jumping the log jumps. We had some great jumps and one "air" jump because we differed on which way we would go after the jump. I resettled and off we went. We had fun and Comrade has come along.
I should mention that Comrade turned 7 yesterday. Happy Birthday!!!
Tomorrow Peggy and I have to fill out show forms. Hopefully the breeder will show Roscoe in hand for us. Maybe Comrade too.

Hairy Day

I have been hoping that Rosemary would not need a trace clip this winter, but no such luck. She goes on these crazy cob runs out in the field and comes in so sweaty. Since we keep getting these 50+ degree days, I finally bit the bullet and clipped her.

During her hair cut Dottie stayed by her side





I added a bit more hair after this picture




Clipped away winter fuzzies on her face




Dottie too

 For a trace clip, I only do a narrow path along the neck, go between the legs and clip part of the belly. She was a really good girl considering this was the first time she heard the big clippers.  Dottie stayed with her the whole time I was clipping. Dottie got her trace clip early December so she knows the process. Once I finished the trace, I decided to clean up her head. It is amazing how trimming a little hair makes such a difference. Then Dottie got cleaned up. The girls went back out and I decided that I would trim the boys too. Might as well get hairy only once.
No pictures because it was too dark, but they all look really good. Though I had to convince Roscoe not to eat the clippers. So now I have five less hairy but muddy ponies. It's off to the shower for me to de-hair :)