May 31, 2017

Big Meets Little

For the last week, Gentry and Daiquiri have been ogling Pixel from a distance. I wanted to quarantine Pixel for a week to make sure that he didn't come down with something, so I've been keeping him in our front paddock. Tuesday was the one week mark since his arrival, so it was time to start introducing the boys.

After having turned Gentry out for a half hour in the main pasture, I grabbed him and let him sniff noses with Pixel over the fence. This went well. Oddly, Gentry squealed a bit, which I have never heard him do with another horse before. Otherwise, there were no fireworks, so I put him in with Pixel. This went very well. They walked around, grazed, groomed, drank together, and licked the salt lick together.




Mini-Me! I'm sure most of the neighbors will think Gentry had a baby.
Not even remotely joking here.




I was feeling smug. Gentry is a perfect unicorn that can do no wrong. Clearly evidenced by him being completely adorable with his Mini-Me in the paddock.

After they had been together for a half hour, I thought I'd put them in the dry lot together to keep getting acquainted. The main reason for this was that I didn't want Pixel eating any more grass for the day.

Holy $hit, Batman!

That was a bad idea, as can be evidenced by the lack of photos. The very moment they were both in the dry lot, Gentry went ballistic on poor Pixel, running him down and trying to attack him in every possible way. Luckily Hubs was on hand at this point, and with the aid of a very long longewhip, we were able to get Gentry off of Pixel, and put him back in his paddock.

Luckily there seemed to be no injuries, just a particularly bewildered pony, and horse owner. It seems the herd introduction needs to be a bit more gradual and a new approach devised...

May 25, 2017

Meet Pixel!

This week brought a new little fella into our lives. Meet Pixel, JR's pony. He is a sweet little lamb of a thing and I look forward to having him in our lives. JR is absolutely in love with him, and has thanked me nearly 100 times for getting him a pony. It's nice, as a Mom, to finally be thanked for doing something.

Meet Pixel!

He's a pony of some sort (don't have a clue on the breeding), but for a small pony he is rather decently put together. His feet are too long and need to be addressed/managed of course, as does his diet, but otherwise he's a healthy sound little guy. He is 12 years old, 11.1hh, and 460lbs.

Pixel, conformation 5/25/17

He wanted to eat my camera lens cap
I'm sure there will be more to come about Pixel, so stay tuned!

P.S. I knew I had to get him when I realized he more or less matched Gentry.

May 6, 2017

Summer Dayz

In true Montana style, after snowing last week, it has been in the 80's for the last three days. The grass has grown like crazy and today the trees are finally starting to put out leaves. I seriously have weather whiplash, but I will NEVER complain about the hot weather. I love it so! 
Post Bath, shiny clean boy!

The warm weather has dried up our grass arena, allowing me to ride regularly this week. It has also finally allowed me to give Gentry a few much needed baths. I can finally run a comb through his ginormous thick tail. That is a glorious thing!

Unfortunately, riding regularly alone in the arena has caused an old issue to raise it's head again. Gentry gets bad anxiety about being alone in our arena. I've never had him alone anywhere else, so I don't know if it is just our arena or not. Everywhere I haul him to has horses, so he is content and is easy to work with when we haul places, as he's not concerned with a particular horse. He just doesn't like being alone. I know eventually he will get over it, as he did last year, but it is frustrating to ride a tense anxious horse day after day. At this point, all I can think to do is to put in some tie posts at the arena and pony Daq down to the arena with us when I ride. We have a schooling show in two weeks, and I really don't think we will be ready at this rate. Unless they ask us to ride our test like a giraffe while cross cantering on the wrong lead. Then we will kick some arse!

At the very least, I got some fairly nice photos of G-Love playing in the pasture today. Enjoy the photo bomb.
Hello suspension. Note that the pasture grass is 4" tall and he's clearing that by quite a bit!

Kind of a derpy photo, as he's changing direction, but check out the muscle tone on his haunches! 
Zooming
Such a cute face



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