Baby Pictures

TC's owner emailed me some baby pictures! They're freakishly cute, even if he kind of looks like he's going to grow up to be a Nazgûl horse. I think it's his creepy eyes. But other than that he's SO cute. Enjoy his baby pictures while I go on about this weekend.

3 days old. He is still just as narrow, has just as big knees,
and his ears are still way too big for his face. But hot damn,
look how straight that canter is!

D'awww I want to squish his face, I wish I had known him as a
bitty baby

TC had his teeth done for the first time on Friday. I guess I didn't put two and two together, because I was surprised when Ali texted me that he had his wolf teeth pulled. So I'm REALLY hoping that those teeth were the reason why he would get rigid at times. We will find out next Friday because he can't be ridden in a bit for a week.

Poor guy seems a little traumatized from his week of medical attention. He's only seen the vet once in his life and that was for brain surgery (gelding), so he's probably quickly realizing, with the addition of the vet check and his teeth, that vets = bad. He was reluctant to come to me in the pasture on Sunday morning. Poor pony. I hope that continues to be the case though, Rico seemed to like his vet way too much.

I went out on Sunday to ride him. I didn't want to give up my last week of free time with my pony just because he can't have a bit in his mouth, so I'm experimenting with bitless bridles this week. I don't think he's ever been ridden in one. I've ridden him in the halter once on the way back to his pasture, and that was pretty questionable in terms of steering.

Yeah he doesn't scream dressage horse... more gangly weirdo

Yearling, look at that big belly! His expression hasn't changed one
bit in three years

Sunday I rode him in the hackamore and he was not amused. He felt the leverage and basically decided that going forward was too risky, even on a loose rein. To fix this, I put the reins up on the sides of the hackamore to make it into a side pull. I definitely had enough breaks in that, so am going to dig around for my side pull. BUT I felt like I didn't have enough breaks to stop him if he bolted, which he does sometimes do. So fine for this week but I started thinking...

I love trail riding in a bitless bridle, I just feel like it's nice to let them relax out there. Also, snackamore. But due to TC's propensity to bolt on occasion (it's not bad but I like to be able to prevent it from being bad), I want more leverage than the side pull, but obviously less than the hackamore. Soooo I did some research, which is always a bad idea when you're buying a horse AND moving and have no money. I decided that I really want an LG bitless bridle. I love the idea of being able to clip reins on different places to change the leverage, since I like having more for trails but less for just goofing off (or when he stops bolting)

But I can't justify the price tag knowing that I can always just ride him in his fat snaffle, it's not like it would ship from Germany in time to try it out this week. So I'll use the side pull for this week and then eventually break down and convince myself to get an LG bridle!

TC as a two-year-old, starting to get a little lightness on his face

Two! That tail is coming in thick

As far as my moving to do list, it's going well.

Horse
place to board- CHECK
trainer- CHECK (didn't even realize I would get one)
vet check- CHECK
purchase- September 6th
move to new barn- September 6th
finally regain sanity in the baby horse- hopefully by October

Car
old car sold- CHECK
new car obtained- CHECK
sciatica gone- CHECK, what a frickin' relief

Housing
found a place- CHECK
place won't involve the possibility of my murder in the next year- CHECK
put a hold/deposit down- CHECK
sign the lease- September 5th
move in- September 5th

Thesis
uhhhhhh

Three years old! The spring before I started with him

Three years old, look at that big bouncy trot that I will eventually
have to sit :( :( 

I found my housing situation this weekend, it's AWESOME. The location is amazing, though a bit of a drive from work (30 minutes) so I'm hoping my boss was right about there being no traffic on his similar-length commute from just one town over. Early hours ftw. The barn is a 15 minute drive (and 30 minutes from work). There are a ton of shops/shopping centers/food within walking distance, including what seems to be three Korean BBQ places, which is one of my favorite things to eat. I loved living in San Jose for all the ridiculously amazing ethnic food and it seems like I won't be missing out! Public transportation is two blocks away, it doesn't go everywhere but it goes to the city and that's awesome. The only downside is that I can't move in until the 5th so that means that I have four days of my hellish 1.5 hour commute next week. I'm probably going to stay overnight up there a few nights.

So now that everything is all squared away and I finally get some time to relax and spend time with my horses, see my friends, go to the beach, work on my thesis, and generally try to enjoy the last week of my last summer vacation ever... I'm sick. Of course.

TC at four years old

Looks much more horse-like now!