October Check In

 I just had a week's vacation and it was absolutely the best thing. I'd suit being retired (or independently wealthy), I think. As always, a day off my real job has me a lot more active and busy than sitting at my desk, and I love that.

Happy field horses

New front gate. This is number three, the bears keep climbing and wrecking them every fall. 

I was lucky enough to catch the last of the nice weather before our version of fall/winter (rain, and more rain) arrived. The horses had a good bit of field time. I got the barn and trailer organized and winter ready. I've got a fun project on the go building a cob shaped saddle stand. I renewed or signed up for a ridiculous amount of online content so I'm prepped for winter learning. I think the current list is Ridely, Burghley TV (They have multiple years available on demand and the dressage commentary is normally very valuable, Carl Hester or the like), Jody Hartstone, H&C TV, and all the YouTube channels.

dump truck of sand delivered for a few drainage and paddock surfacing projects. Buck volunteers to help spread it.

My old coach EC (the eventing/dressage one closer to Vancouver where I lived and boarded a few years) has been doing very well at Working Equitation these days and it's been fun watching the competition live streams and cheering her and Audrey on. Do we remember Audrey? She's the same age as Bridget and was my sometimes ride in those years. I was so lucky to be able to hop on super talented Audrey to get a feel for things when B or I were struggling. I kind of fell in love with her so Audrey inspired the whole search for a warmblood pony, resulting in Sophie. We all know how much I love my cobs, but everything was SO easy on a purpose bred horse. Turns out Audrey (with EC) is one of a kind though, so back to cobs I go! (don't worry we still love Sophie). EC and Audrey have qualified for the Canadian team and the championships in Spain next year. I'm of course very proud and excited for the both of them and spent multiple hours cheering them on via live stream last week.

Meanwhile, Sophie doing Sophie things

Playing chicken. She's such an idiot (said affectionately)

All that has given me some serious FOMO though. I know we can't compare ourselves, and these are not the lives that I would thrive in or be capable of, but there's a real reality check looking around at what everyone is doing while I take a (much needed) break ;) 

These two going to be worth it for sure

I do have some fall/winter groundwork clinics happening, and a plan for next summer boot camp with EC sketched out. That means I need to be accountable over winter for groundwork and prep, but mostly I'd just like to prioritize getting the boys out to see the world a little more. 

Buck in particular hasn't gone anywhere past our local neighbourhood fields and hiking trails because trailering him solo would be a lot for him. The fun part of having three horses is that no one is happy home alone but equally it feels unfair to expect an anxious baby to have a great experience and be set up for success trailering alone to things. Anyone have any tips? I feel like he needs a steady friend the first few times, but the three horse math doesn't work if no one can be home alone.

wild stallion pose

Pretends he's tough but is a big marshmallow

Luckily Reggie is Mr Independent and happily trailers alone and Sophie is of course worldly enough to hate but survive a solo trailer ride ;) It's just Mr Bakari we need to find a quiet trailering friend for temporarily. He's absolutely fine to load and trailer, but he's very concerned about being in there alone. I'm off and on tempted to just Do The Thing and stop overthinking it, and maybe I will - just around the block or something. I want to set it up for guaranteed success, but equally this is real life where things aren't always perfect. 

This happened out of nowhere. She's HATED him for 2 years. Now she's obsessed with him. I like my mares, but wow geldings are so much easier.

Who Even Am I

Two posts in one week after months of barely having any updates? Often when the weeks disappear it's because I'm stressed and overcommitted. That has not been the case recently. As always, I have way too much on my plate. Unlike always, I've just been saying no to doing a lot of it (and even delegating some things to others!) 

Beneficial 'me' time is currently taking priority and the list of quantitative accomplishments is at an all time low. Would you believe I even took up golf this summer? Talk about a waste of an afternoon (but yeah ok no time is wasted if you're having fun). It's enjoyable being terrible at entirely new thing that I have a very minimal emotional stake in. The time out has been refreshing but I'm getting a bit itchy to get back in the saddle. I mean, lets be real, an intervention would be required if I hadn't been secretly eyeing up that golf course as a potential cross country course all summer.

Good news is I have two baby horses almost at riding age so things should return to quasi normal soon-ish. Also, it's been a while since I tried to get nice blog pictures - here are some quick ones from the weekend.

It's maybe too soon to know if this revised outlook is a lasting change but I think it will stick in some way. 2024/2025 has been a time. I'm a bit stuck where in my world it all feels very Big Deal and it would feel a bit like a lie of omission not saying anything at all, but equally I don't think this is the place for it. There would need to be so many trigger warnings and it's really freaking dark and sad. For the purposes of the blog, while I feel different and the horses have maybe been a little back burnered temporarily, nothing I normally write about has changed - the horses are all well, G is still here being his usual wonderful self, our little backyard horse place is coming along, golf as a hobby is probably not sticking around. Riding and regular posting should recommence sooner rather than later.

How lucky am I to have ponies playing in my backyard

I want to say the ponies have been a little neglected the last few months, but anyone with horses at home knows that's really not possible. I didn't do quite a much this summer as I might have originally planned, but they are not lacking in attention. Just the logistics of putting them over in their summer fields means they are getting haltered and led through the neighbourhood twice daily. They have a big local fan club so obviously they need to be groomed and looking their best too :)

Not enough words for how nice this guy is, I think he came installed with all the manners at birth. When I open this gate to their bigger paddock he stands and waits and makes triple sure I actually say it's ok to go out. Then 90% of the time he comes back in right away and checks in, like he needs to make extra sure I'm ok with him being outside his designated area <3

The cob boys are doing really well. I have them separated in adjacent paddocks at night while the weather is still nice. Buck has a tendency towards being a little clingy and insecure. I'm all about them having friends, but it's a little tricky with such a small group. Having only three horses on site means that the fair thing to do is let them remember to be ok in their own skin before there's some bigger reason they can't all be joined at the hip 24/7. Everyone gets turned out together in the day regardless and they spend all night talking over the fence, so I don't think they're lacking too badly in the socialization department.

You might even argue they'd prefer not to be turned out together. Yellow pony very pleased with herself, but is a nuisance as always :)

"Help!"

The boys got re-measured this past weekend. They're pretty much exactly 2.5 years old, and we're close to the two year anniversary of their arrival here on the coast. Both felt like valid reasons for a height and weight check in.

Admittedly looking a bit porky after a summer at pasture, but he's also gradually losing the gangly baby look

Is appropriate weight and still the biggest boy

They're both just a tiny bit over 14.2hh. The weight tape says 950 for Buck, 880 for Reggie. I hear cobs can be late developers, so I'm interested to see where they end up. Hopefully not too much bigger! Ginger, the cob that started the blog, was 15.3 and felt like WAY too much horse for my short legs. 14.3-15hh, 1000ish pounds is kind of where I'm hoping they end up.  For context Sophie is 14.1 1/2, and ideally 800-850 ish and I feel like she's a bit on the small side. I have hopes the boys will both be that happy medium. 

Is round but fierce. Measuring 912lbs at the moment and the vet had to have "that" conversation with me.

Luckily needs no incentive to burn those calories

When the boys arrived they were about 12hh and 450lbs. It's hard to believe that was 2 years ago already or that they were ever so tiny. I'm very excited to watch them continue maturing, it's been the best journey so far. After this I'd definitely be tempted to buy or breed more baby horses, but then my entire existence would be consumed by ponies :D Luckily for everyone the real estate situation forces responsibility.

Buck is so wide already. So far he's been kind of hilarious in that he just magically stays proportionate and grows in all directions equally, so lets hope that holds true and he doesn't fill out to the point where I end up with a giant tank.

His 2024 yearling photo for reference. I need to recreate this, because I think there would be no visible change between then and now, despite him being a few inches taller

Reggie is still in the awkward growing cob phase, but he's starting to look more mature and it's suiting him - his legs and head are a lot more proportionate now ;).

Still looks better in motion than standing still, poor guy. Fingers crossed, maybe we start under saddle next summer, but if he needs to wait until he's 4 that's fine too. 

Awkward photos all day long, I have no shame

Buck is already bigger than everyone. I had wondered if that might mean he might test the waters with Sophie, but she still pushes him around all day. Reggie and him go back and forth on who's the boss daily, it's still more a game than anything serious they actually care about.

Please stop posing and start watching where you are going, we don't need more broken heads! I had said she was going to have this winter off, but the vet thinks she will be good to go back to work. I agree a job might be a good thing. I'll share more on that when I've finished pondering options.

I swear they all pose for the camera though

Looking very golden. I switched back to the less trendy (and cheaper) bulk vitamin/mineral supplement about a year ago and I think it's suiting them. As with all things horse, it could be any number of variables, but Buck and Reggie also kept nice shiny coats that didn't fade this summer. So we're 3/3 for them looking good. They all get pretty much unlimited local and timothy hay, with a bit of alfalfa at dinner. Plus the vit/min mix. And that's it. I used to really go down the rabbit hole on supplements and weighing everything but keeping it very simple seems to be working.

Pony vs Tree Update

 Apologies for leaving the blog hanging for almost a month. 2025 has been a year, that's for sure.

When I last checked in, Sophie had run into a tree a few weeks prior and her head was starting to look a lot worse for wear. Luckily, no other 'call the vet!' effects were ever apparent.

Actual pony, actual tree

Yellow pony being the banana she is, simply ran head first into the tree, fell down, then immediately got back up and kept on galloping. She had a scratch on her forehead and an off and on very minor nosebleed for a few days but otherwise was very much herself. (If I had a do over, knowing what I know now, I should have tried to keep her quiet for a few days, but being realistic - quiet is not something this pony would have done well.)

I have so many pictures like this, Sophie is surprisingly unlikely to be actually looking in her direction of travel at any given time

By the time her head was starting to look interestingly shaped and I was starting to worry she'd actually done damage to herself, I unfortunately had just missed the monthly mobile vet visit day. So we were working with pictures and texts until they could get back here in person to do a check up.  

Xrays finally happened this week. Bad news is, she did fracture her skull in two separate places. Good news is that neither one is intruding on anything and both are growing new bone and healing themselves (which is what we figured due to the lack of any other symptoms).

Rough outline of the 'interesting' areas

 It's absolutely wild to me how much of their heads are taken up by sinus cavities and nasal passageways and how well protected everything really important actually is. We got lucky nothing broke through into those (or her orbital bone) because that could have added a lot of complication. 

The long term is that she should be fine, continued non intervention is the way forward, and she could actually come back to work over winter if I was so inclined. 

I've included the xrays, so you can see what a horse with a broken head and two types of fractures looks like.

Right side. This is just me highlighting, and I am obviously not a vet. You can see the fracture that goes straight across her face is already laying bone over top. The 'dent" was harder to get an image of because the nature of it is that it's sitting below the rest of her skull and on most of the images it's in behind other things, but I think I have it outlined here.

From the left side

This is maybe showing the 'dent' a little better, but she moved last minute ;)

Horses Doing Horse Things

 I wasn't going to update until I had an actual update. But, we're still about 3 weeks out from an in person vet visit so do you want to go down the how-my-horse-hurt-themselves-in-new-and-interesting-ways rabbit hole panic spiral with me?

Come on, we've got baby horses down here

The baby horses are fine (*knocks hard on wood*). It's Sophie (again). You'll recall Sophie ran headfirst into a tree earlier this summer. I saw it happen, obviously didn't feel great about it, and cancelled her summer lease/sale plans (for the second year in a row, if we're keeping track). 

Day of 

Fast forward and everything looked fine-ish for a few weeks, the cuts healed, everything felt normal to the touch.  Until it just wasn't anymore.  

So upsetting, status as of last week. That dent is real, not a shadow

And a big ridge across her face

Pictures were of course sent to the vet and the verdict is she's likely fractured her skull in a couple of places and the weird stuff I'm seeing is bone healing and remodeling. The apparent good news is it's cold and hard and there's been no swelling. In the vast majority of cases, it's not like if you or I fractured our skulls. If no serious complications have appeared by now, it's likely going to heal up all on it's own. It's going to look ugly, possibly forever, but she should be fine otherwise. The guilt is still real, though. 

Is still entirely herself. Not pictured is her shouting at me because she wants to go home for dinner now, thank you very much.

As things stand, we're going to xray her head and her poll the next time the vet is here and see what exactly happened. There's a few other general neck and body soreness things popping up that make sense from a chain reaction "horse hit their head hard enough to fracture bone" perspective, and we'll obviously treat that if needed. I'm of course worried about catastrophic findings and the gap between the thing happening and now, but the vet seems less so and thinks continued field time and conservative treatment is going to be the answer.

 For now, she's enjoying days out in the various fields with the boys and coming back to her paddock at night. Feel free to judge me, but I'm reluctant to sink more time or finances into riding pony goals with her and as long as she's content in the field, she's just going to stay on hiatus for the foreseeable. It's been a bit of a journey of bad luck and one thing after another for at least two years now, and I need to get off the train for a bit. I'm at a point in life where this needs to stay fun and if that means just holding steady and focusing on the cob boys then I think that's where we're at.

They are the friendliest

wildfire smoke making it easy to make excuses to not do much this week

She's not a supporting cast kind of girl, but don't worry, behind the scenes she still goes everywhere first, gets fed first, groomed when she wants to be, and we accommodate her (many) demands.

(Fingers crossed) The boys continue to be happy and healthy. They both are maturing well, and both seem to have pretty solid temperaments. I'm seeing a little spicy and a lot forward thinking, but mostly just sensible, uncomplicated, low maintenance and good natured. They also both came installed with the standard Welsh Cob sense of self preservation that I'm growing to appreciate more and more :)

Three horses long term means contemplating an extra stall. I don't think this is the way, but it was an idea.