I Love the 60's!

This weekend FINALLY warmed up from the 30's and was in the 60's! It's crazy for this time of year, and I swear the weather keeps getting more and more strange. They are calling for a lot of snow this winter, and I'll take that over rain any day. It was drying up in the field this weekend, and then, the rain came for Sunday night into Monday! I don't even want to go out this week because 1) it'll be cold 2) it'll be disgusting. The weekend should warm up to 40's - 50's, and I hope the forecast stays that way.

I did get to ride Saturday and Sunday before the rain! Saturday I got to the farm to find Spyder like this...

Oh hey, come get me.

Poop face

He LOVES to come for treats, but there was no getting him up in the sun. He looked at me and knew what I wanted, but he didn't want to get up (and he decided he should roll when I got to him). Between him and the puppy, I have pets with the most personality I have ever had before (and I've had my fair share). I got him out of the pen to find poop all over his halter and ears, too! Thanks, Spyder. Our ride was so great that working through his disgusting hair was worth it. We did a lot of w/t since he was breathing heavy from the strange weather and being out of shape, and I did a lot of two-point and sitting trot before cooling down around the barn. I could see the white on his feet again, and then I put him back in his paddock to get it covered in mud. :(

Sunday, I rode w/t/c and worked on jumps, but I felt bad working him too hard because it was so hot. I left the house around 11:30 - 12 and the barn is about a half hour away (and I was having people for Christmas dinner at 2). I know, I know, it's irresponsible and crazy to try to squeeze it in, but I did! I didn't get to shower prior to everyone getting there, but hey, it's just family! When I grabbed him to tack up, he called to me which was adorable. I tried him by the gate with the treats, but he had hay so he didn't want to come. I walked near him to bribe him to the gate which worked nicely because I did not want to repeat what I did the day before! He was rushing the jumps a bit so we worked on rhythm and working through a good pace over them, and we added the canter after jumps to make it a little more interesting. I'm hoping the spring will bring more "straight line" cantering as we're still just moving in circles. I gave him a super loose rein and let him go. It was amazing!

I gave the stable hand a card with cash in it since he works hard, and I feel like he deserved something extra this Christmas. He was SO happy to have gotten a gift, and I felt like he really appreciated it which was nice! I was so happy to find a card from April in the mail yesterday, too! Thank you! SOOOO very excited for Christmas!

 

Cutest card!

Bloodlines

April's horse Shadow and Spyder are related on the No Nuke's side. I've been doing some research just because I was interested in finding out more about the background, and it's seriously insane that they can be traced back to before I even thought possible (1600's). I wanted to see what breeds I could find, and there are actually a lot that make up Spyder (and Shadow).

I've gone through the No Nukes side where I've found breeding from a lot of thoroughbred, morgan, barb, arabian, trotter, hackney, saddlebred, tennessee walker, and angloarabian thoroughbred (whatever that is) horses. I figured I'd keep this separate so April could read that,too.

Exploring the Abercrombie, Most Happy Fella, Laag, and Tyler B lines, I found that most all stb's tie back to one another (I read this, but never looked for myself). Volomite, Messenger, and Abercrombie were those that I kept seeing the most on every side. From this is more hackney, morgan, trotter, arabian, morab?, thoroughbred, barb, etc.

This is Laag which is how Spyder's mom came about with the gray color. Reading into this more, melanoma is a terrifying thing which is big on this side, AHH! :(

Spyder's great grandfather