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.

August Photo Dump

 I've been bad about blogging. I have a lot of things I want to write about, but then I get busy outside enjoying the summer weather, then the days pass, and suddenly it seems like yesterday's news and the inspiration is lost.

So, here are a bunch of non fancy photos, of the type where if I was a more active social media person I'd post them all as little daily updates there. But, it turns out I'm not, so here we are :)

The boys have their own measuring stick and they're getting ever bigger. At last check, Reggie was pushing 14.2 and slightly taller than Sophie. Buck's 14.1. They're both expected to be 14.3-15hh full grown.

Two peas in a pod

They've been getting fed a lot of treats by passers by, so they're very quick to come running to the fence. The responsible horse owner in me is super annoyed that people do that (they have to walk a little up a private driveway too) but I'm trying to let it go so the local horsey fan club outweighs the  annoyance of having sometimes noisy or smelly horses as neighbors.

We're figuring out the long lining thing. It's better than this, I promise ;) but also I'm not adept enough to ground drive AND take photos.

G had this on his phone for two years and WHY DID HE NOT SHARE? Baby Reggie and his dog friend.

I hate to be that person when the weather is perfect, but the days are getting a lot shorter here.

rare day at home

Because they spend every day at different neighbours fields at the moment. We take them over before work and bring them home when it starts getting dark.

G and I go hiking most afternoons when I'm done work. The lakes are still far too cold for me to want to swim in this year. 

Buck stayed pretty black this summer, I wonder what the difference is with last year when he faded to almost a buckskin color

Sophie has finally chosen peace and lets them graze ever closer

rare pic of him eating grass. The tree eating has actually become a problem - he was making himself sick. One of the 'bad' trees overhangs his paddock at home so I'm currently trying to figure out a plan there. I might have to switch him and Sophie around this winter, although I'd feel mean because she LOVES her house.

It's still slightly mind boggling she managed to run into the tree  on the right of this pic. Her head is even uglier right now, very lumpy. It's not hot or swollen, it feels cold and hard, but it's ever changing and honestly a bit scary looking to me. We're pending a vet visit so the vet can check it in person and that feels like reason 5262629090.2 that I'm not riding Sophie regularly.

Another day, another hike. Not pictured is the grumpy bear that cornered us on a boardwalk. I'm opting out of returning until winter.

Civilized exercise, the sunset ocean views help the boredom of going in circles. I'm seeing a bit of progress. I'm trying to get as fit/lean as possible in hopes of doing future justice to the baby welsh cobs...ideally we'll be seeing some first rides next summer.

Summer Clinic Campout

Volume 2 of our clinic campouts. I'm really liking the format for this point in my life. It's fun being 2025 me who just rolls in with a baby pony who's literally been out in a field for three months and is going to bring who knows what to the party. We just see where the week with the clinican takes us.

2026 equine happenings will probably look a whole lot more structured, but if I can I'd like to take a little of this current self forward with me - especially with horses there's a lot of opportunity in not being attached to a plan or a schedule.

Anyway, in keeping with 2025 me, the last clinic I went to was 3 months ago and that was also the last time I trailered horses anywhere.

So, Reggie was a little surprised when I loaded him into the trailer. Then, very surprised when it wasn't even a fire drill and the door closed we drove off to a farm about 45 minutes away. In keeping with our last clinic's fun, a few of us decided to camp on site. Reggie's neighbours this time were my good friend's two geldings and they all decided to be besties at first sight. Her two are older but the goofy gelding energy is strong in all of them and they instantly adopted Reggie into their bitey face stallion games mayhem.

He liked this a lot better than a stall

Making himself right at home

For our first lesson we just recapped what we learned 3 months ago. Reggie exceeded any and all expectations. I would have been totally fine with anything, my main goal with any of these outings is just for him to get out and about and have fun. Any learning or gains beyond that is a bonus. 

is suddenly looking like a grownup tho

Apparently though, time is not a real concept in Reggieville, because remembered 3 months ago like it was the day before, and even learned a few extra things since then.  I'm guessing rather than magic, that happened just by being handled fairly regularly this summer.  Our 45 minutes went by in a flash, but to recap, he's at some point learned how to longe walk/trot/halt/reverse very solidly. He does shoulder in along the rail, he does haunches in. I can send him away, I can ask him to come back. Turns on the forehand, turns on the haunches. The answer to anything you ask is "Yes!" and it happens immediately. He tricked a whole lot of people into thinking I'd been doing a ton of work, but I think the giveaways of how very green he is are there if you know where to look - it's a very fine line for me to keep the energy levels from spiraling over the top and the pony on task. I don't think he truly knows as much as it looks like (yet). He's very much just mirroring his handler and being an uber smart and sensitive little overachiever.  

His first night sleepover went well. My friend's geldings had a bigger pen to share and enough room to really run. Reggie's was a smaller space, but with room to move, so happy thundering hooves were heard playing well into the night :) That felt like a relief because at our last stay away we had outdoor stalls and by the third day he was getting stir crazy despite my best efforts at getting him out a lot.

my accommodations. 

For our second lesson, the antics of the previous night must have taken the edge off because he was pretty much exactly like the horse he is at home (spicy and a huge personality, but in a fun way). We did some modified walk trot patterns and WE type questions on the end of his lead and he was absolutely great. He's about the most bold and confident guy you'll ever meet, so he literally just wants to eat obstacles for lunch (or smash them, depending on how satisfying the noise is). So, with that conquered, it seemed an opportune time to think about next steps, ground driving in particular. He got to wear a saddle pad and a surcingle. I want to say it was the first time he'd had a girth on of any type. He's a sensitive guy who doesn't overly love things touching him unexpectedly, so again I had minimal expectations for anything. But again, he tried so hard for us. While he certainly needed some time to think on things, he happily walked and trotted around in his new wardrobe.

He feels very standard Welsh Cob - like the drama and reactions and feelings are high, but there is not a mean bone in his body. His brain always remains installed and available for direction, to the point you might wonder if he's really just having a bit fun with you. The saddle pad was for sure going to eat him, then .5 sec later he wanted to eat it instead, lol.

We've been in the middle of a drought and have some serious forest fires around, so rain was welcome, but oh my gosh did it ever start raining the second night. In retrospect, had I known how bad it was going to be I would have taken him home for the night. As it was, everyone else was planning on staying and G had the truck on a fishing trip, so poor Reggie just got a rainsheet and multiple apologies from me. His dislike of things touching him includes rain (and blankets) so he wasn't an overly happy camper. Luckily his new friends were much less spoiled and far more worldly and set a good example of horses functioning like horses. So, he resigned himself to life in the great outdoors. That didn't stop him from asking everyone he met to 1) take him home with them and 2) take off his blanket. It's amusing to me how many people got the memo and were like "OK so I know this sounds weird but I swear Reggie asked me to take his rainsheet off" :D

He fits Bridget's blankets already! I was a bit worried I didn't have anything for him, but I had one in the trailer from some long ago Bridget adventure. Can we also appreciate that he was OK with me putting a blanket on him? And despite some thoughts of removing/eating it, he left it alone all night? In my defense, our climate is mild and blanketing seemed like a problem for future, more mature Reggie, rather than the current situation with two destructive babies sharing a paddock and their own pony cottage ;)

Our third lesson was immediately the next morning and it was still monsooning. Reggie got his wish and I finally took the rainsheet off for our lesson but now the rain was touching him and he short circuited a little. He was really struggling with the blowing rain (honestly I wasn't a fan either), but hello, experience we needed to have. We again put the surcingle on, this time adding a second line clipped to the top ring. The clinician looked after that line while I looked after the other, playing around with letting it fall over his back or behind his back legs. Eventually I took on both, longeing on the circle with one line off the near side of his halter and one coming off the top off the surcingle. I liked that as a gentle way to introduce us both. I'm still just longeing as I normally would, but we both can get a feel for having an extra line around and no big deal if either of us loses the plot, I can drop the one connected to the surcingle with no risk. That line IS currently problematic for him but he's sensible enough about it that I'm feeling confident to keep going without a coach or helper present. Eventually when we're both comfortable I'll have a line on each side of a cavesson and do things 'correctly', but this felt like big steps towards ground driving and eventually riding.

sorry for the non exciting images - I had big plans and the nice camera with me but the weather was awful for our lessons and I didn't want to ask anyone to stand out in the rain to play photographer.

An added bonus to the absolutely miserable weather was that Reggie couldn't wait to hop on the trailer and go home. No loose horse PTSD or shares in Folgers coffee or a carrot farm required this time LOL. The downside to the miserable weather was that the highway had a tree fall on it and we were stuck in traffic at a standstill for 30 minutes or so while the crews came to clear it and restore the power. I won't pretend he was quiet to trailer or happy to wait - impatience is basically his middle name right now, so there was some pawing and carrying on back there. But, nothing overly silly and again the expectations for a 2 year old travelling without a friend to his second clinic ever are not high :)  Anyway, the delay just made getting home to a hot shower (and dry barn for Reggie) even sweeter. His buddy Buck was over the top excited to see him again. It's nice how they are still the absolute best of friends but not unmanageably herd bound. I love my mares but I do feel like geldings get the win for generally being more amenable to changing social situations.

reunited at home and some sunshine coming back

We've got another clinic tentatively scheduled in 2 months, making it mid October. I'm thinking if ground driving with Reggie is going well, we'll let Buck have a turn. 

let it be known I have now harrowed my arena because I have plans of actually doing some ground driving homework