snowplow

I am thinking I can make some extra money with Shyloh as a snowplow. 

Back up. . .I haven't been to the barn in a week. A week! Christmas and family things then sickness have kept me away. Shy must have thought she was wild and free pony. I let her finish eating with her herd, then tried to wrangle her in.

See the difference in these Haflingers!

nom nom nom

Sharing!

She sure gave me a hard time catching her today. That was the first in a long time. And she was doing her head toss. I haven't seen that since we moved to this barn.

But I did finally catch her, with the help of a candy cane. Once I brought Shy over to the grooming area, she kept trying to leave. And when she saw her harness, she tried to walk away again. Then she saw the tire I brought out. . . .If you remember the rules of the tire, I was not supposed to use it without a header. But I got permission earlier in the week to hook it up to Shy and I would head her. No line driving. And because she has been a line driving super star, I wanted to take the next step. But Shy's initial reaction was not promising. Great, I thought. . .my plans with the tire are going to fail. Shy was a little jumpy and acted like she had never seen a tire in her life!

Say what?

Just great, I thought again. The tire, which Shy has seen a million times gets wide eyes and thinking noises, but parades are no big deal. I considered scratching my plans. I had a pony out of any kind of work for a week who thought she was wild. And she was jumpy. But I figured, I'll take the safe route and ask someone to hold her while I attach the tire. I really wanted to take this next step!

What is this monstrosity?

I don't think I like it. . .

Brenda agreed to hold her head and Shy stood still like a champ. Did I ever mention standing still is one of her strong suits? Except that one time. . .and I didn't need another bad experience with the tire! I admit, I was nervous when I took hold of the lead line. I took a few deep breaths and off we went.

Shock! Shy stepped off with that tire like she always walked with a tire. No scoots. No trying to run off. Nothing. Naturally, I stopped her then asked her to walk on again. Perfect. What is this pony? Shy pulled that tire all through the snow. Hence. . .my snowplow! 

In motion photo. . .

What a good pony!

There was one moment where Shy did her unusual scoot thing. I have noticed this and mentioned it a few times and I would like to see it on video or from a different point of view. Her legs move fast and it is like she is taking off, but she doesn't go anywhere. There is no tightening of the lines or lead rope. Strange. Shy did this once when we were walking over some hay. I am not sure if the tire got caught and bounced maybe, but she recovered quickly. I made her walk back around it and it was not a problem. 

I am so proud of my little snowplow! She is always doing the most unexpected things. We are one step closer to cart time!!

missing shyloh

I've been sick this week, so I have not been out to the barn. Basically, this is what I have been doing all week. . .

Sleep sleep and more sleep

Stretchy sleep

The sickness required a full day off of work and I missed yoga. I had been looking forward to yoga most of all. Oh well. I am back on the mend and should be going to see Shyloh tomorrow. I am positive she missed me just as much as I missed her goofy self.

The one good thing about being stuck on the couch is the hours on end of Law and Order. Just what the doctor ordered to make me feel better! And I got this book in the mail!

Click on photo to take you to the site

I am excited to teach Shy some of these tricks. But I am slightly confused by the book. In the introduction, the author, Carole Fletcher, talks about not teaching a horse to rear (which I would never do anyway!) but there is the picture, right there on the front of the book, of a horse rearing. The book does not teach you how to stand on your horse, either, as it shows on the front, thank goodness! Misleading. So far, that and the lack of color pictures are my only complaints. I do like how she states that the tricks should be taught in a certain order based on how the horse learn and to build off of one another. So the tricks starts out simple, using the head, the mouth, the legs, then the body. Look for videos of Shy being super cute to be making an appearance! I also like how Fletcher discusses using trust and love, not force, to get results. She also points out that the relationship between horse and human is important and that the horse must have basic ground manners before beginning to learn tricks.

On a final note (and a shameless plug). . .voting for the Equestrian Social Media Awards ends this Friday. Me and Shy somehow made it into the final 10 for Best Blog (Category 17). I am not even sure how we got into this, but since we are here, we will do our best!

We need some help from you guys. We need to make 2 one minute videos. One is an acceptance speech in case we win the category and one is a general message of support in case we do not win. 

Here is what I am asking. . .

Any ideas on what I should do or say? I am at a loss when it comes to this kind of stuff. Oh, and I only have until Friday February 17th to submit it. Thanks!!