WW: Twelve Years Old

TC turned twelve earlier this month, I think this was the best birthday photo shoot ever!

Look at this guy, so happy with his
birthday balloon

Twelve, the best age (so far)

Gotta eat the balloon

And smiles of course

This horse is just hilarious

So unimpressed with my effort

Five Years with the Pony

I was looking through my blog a bit ago and ran across some old posts about Sunny! I posted when we first saw him, when we bought him, and when he was diagnosed with silicosis. 

If you don't want to read, here's a quick summary of how we got him: 

My mom really wanted to get herself a really sweet, safe pony that she could share with her (future, at the time) grandchildren. She saw an ad for a little Morgan just an hour or so south of the ranch and we went to go try him. He was a literal unicorn, perfect on the trail, over fences, and giving longe lessons to children regularly. We loved him, he passed the vet check, and he came home with us. 

Just a week or two later though, he exhibited some odd symptoms. He wouldn't put his head down to graze, wouldn't go on the bit, and wouldn't do a carrot stretch. We had the vet out and he was diagnosed with silicosis. 

I definitely saw that lots of people were asking what silicosis is and what it's caused by, whoops. Five years later, here is some info: 

- it usually only affects horses along the central California coast

- it's caused by silica, which is in the soil and small enough to get deep into the lungs/body

- most of the cases attack the lungs, causing breathing problems

- Sunny has the rarer kind of silicosis that attacks the bones of the neck

- they have a treatment for the kind of silicosis that Sunny has, so he received that and was able to come off the previcox he went on when he started showing symptoms 

He's really adorable

For many years, he still struggled to go on the bit and seemed protective over his neck. My mom was always a bit nervous because his balance seemed off (I never felt this). But he was a happy, healthy enough pony who could absolutely do his job of going on the trails and being a very cute pasture puff. 

During the pandemic, my mom stopped riding. I haven't really processed it yet, but she is not interested in riding anymore. I'm still hoping that she might change her mind, but I'm not pressuring her. She does still love him and she loves seeing me work with him, which I started doing in August last year. It was part of my plan to see how having a second horse would feel to me. 

He's been such a fun horse to bring along and has actually taught me a lot! TC and I have been partners for so long and he has such a fun, confident personality. Being with TC gives me the feeling of having a conversation full of inside jokes with a really good friend. Riding him is like being in complete harmony with a horse, he gives me his entire self, both body and mind. I can literally imagine what I want him to do and he just does it (I know how insane that sounds, trust me). 

Sweet pony

The pony though, he's a more complicated, quirky type mentally and that has him really blocked off from me. He feels like talking to a brick wall a lot of the time and riding him, there's no connection to his mind. His primary emotions seemed to be grumpiness, disassociation, and perking up in the most adorable way if there are cookies around. 

I've slowly broken open his crusty shell though. Between training him using only positive reinforcement, implementing changes based on Dr Susan Fay's work, and riding him in a way that makes his body feel good, he has really changed. 

A few weeks ago, he was... silly. It really caught me off guard because he's always been SO serious with his work. But he bit a cavalletti block, which doesn't sound like much in writing, but he had this mischievous look on his face like he knew I didn't want him to eat my blocks. A few days later, I was talking to my mom about him while I was petting his forelock and he started yawning over and over again. My mom said "I don't think I've ever seen him yawn before" and ever since, he's yawned a ton. Then later that day, he was playing with the dog like TC does, sniffing her legs and wiggling his nose on her butt. 

Another silly moment, he has never
really bitten my whip before

Over the weekend for the first time, he very clearly gave me the feeling that he needed a turnout, so I turned him out. TC is really good at asking for turnouts in a kind and safe manor (he squeals and shakes his head at me), but the pony has been completely silent until he explodes. This was the first time he gave me the feeling that he needed a turnout and so I gave it to him and he ran and ran. 

I sat down in the middle of the arena to change the subject and he immediately drew into me, at first trotting around me snorting and then coming up and standing with me. We then actually played at liberty, the first time he's offered that with no clicker (I forgot it, oops)! Then he came in and stood under my arm getting pets while he licked, chewed, and yawned. 

He's never let me stand like this with
him, also lol my photo taking skills,
why Megan

I don't really know what my plan is with him, I think it's okay not to have one. I'm really enjoying solving this puzzle and improving his body and mind. He turned 17 years old yesterday and he seems really happy and confident. 

My timeline for my new horse is unknown due to a number of reasons, but I guess I'm hoping that I can get him going really well so that I can confidently hand him off to my niece in a few years and have him be happy and healthy so he can give her a lot of fun firsts. 

Mostly I'm just having fun with him! 

Eleven Years Old

How is my horse eleven years old?!?! He's grown up so much. I still see him as being so young (someone recently described him as "not an old soul, he's brand new" which I thought was hilarious and accurate) but he's really coming into his own, not only in his work but in his self confidence. He's so good these days and I'm really enjoying quiet time with him spent out on the trails or even just during our grooming routine. 

Of COURSE we did birthday photos, so here they are in all their glory: 

Hahahahaha

He's like "it's that one day a year that she puts stuff
on me and takes pictures, what a weird human"

One of my favorites

His neck is turning right side up again,
yay!

Such a good egg

Happy Birthday Rico!

Tomorrow, Rico is twenty-six years old! Every year I get to spend with him is so wonderful. He's still loving his retirement, as usual, even more now that he has TC, I think. He and TC spend a lot of time together walking in and out from the stalls to the pasture. TC watches over Rico when he lays down for his morning nap (have yet to figure out TC's nap schedule) and they both play together a ton. It's really adorable and I love seeing the two of them together. 

As per usual, some of my favorite Rico pictures from the past, this time I'm trying to find ones I might not use very often:

When we took Rico and Riot to the beach!

I just adore this horse

Taking a nap at Webb in 2010

Baby Rico and baby Megan back in 2005!

Mugging me for cookies I'm sure

So young and spry

This was so fun, I used to rope cones
off of him for fun

Shaking his head lol

Here's to many more years with this wonderful guy!

Double Digits

TC's birthday was on Saturday!! This year he turned TEN years old and I'm kind of overwhelmed by that. 

Look at him, look at those ears

In some ways, he's so young at heart that I forget he's actually aging. He's goofy, still a bit on the emotional side at times, and would I say he's 100% steerable at all times? No, I would absolutely not. But he shows his maturity by being completely non reactive to all sorts of crazy shit. Like loose dogs running by at full speed, and the UPS man honking at us to say hi, and the neighbor's new bison (yes seriously, they are so cute), and my niece mooing like actual cows moo rather than cute cartoon cows do while riding him, and birthday decorations each year. 

Here's to my perfect horse, he's helped me in more ways than he'll ever know, he's my rock and such a light in my life. Obviously there are pictures. 

Skeptical of my antics as always

Reluctant birthday smiles

Wore his hat for our ride, I took the
garland off because it was windy

Such a cute hat! Might leave it on
for more rides lol

Went down the road to show the cows

Had to get off to get a picture of his
birthday crown

Please give me cookies, you've done
enough to me, I deserve it

Nine Years Old

Last Friday was TC's birthday! He's NINE now, that's so crazy to me.

I was initially not going to do my normal routine of dressing him up for his birthday because it didn't seem worth the risk to go to Target or the dollar store just for the sake of dressing him up. But then Friday morning, I woke up and didn't feel good... not virus related, but I needed to go to the store, I'll just leave it like that, I feel better now.

I sat being all bad feeling and complained to the boyfriend, who said I could switch barn days and take Friday off. I then said "but it's TC's BIRTHDAY..." and then realized "... not that he knows that it's his birthday though" and he reminded me that if I had to go to the store anyway, I could get TC some birthday decorations. So that's how I ended up dressing TC up for his birthday!

I rode him in a sash that says "it's my birthday"
and I think he liked it

Target doesn't have as good of a selection as I was hoping, there were no birthday hats! I think what I picked out was fabulous though, even if TC wasn't a fan...

I think it's the best picture I've ever taken of him

I can't go on enough about this horse, he's just amazing. He's got such a great work ethic, he makes me laugh every day, he's turning into a super fun horse to ride, and he's showing me how much talent he really has in there. We're still plugging away during quarantine, with me hoping to figure out some way of beginning lessons again with my trainer, who is probably not going to be out for a clinic for a long time. We'll see if I can figure that out!

Twenty Four

Today is Rico's twenty-fourth birthday and I'm the worst owner because I nearly forgot. This is also a huge year because it's now been fifteen years and one month since he came into my life.

I don't get to hang out with him much anymore because I'm so busy and am not down in that area as much, but he still means the world to me, of course.

Best horse in the world

Rico is enjoying his retirement so much, he frequently sasses my parents and the other horses, runs around in his pasture, and has been enjoying all the fresh grass recently. He isn't ridden much anymore because he only wants to be ridden on brand new trails and gets cranky if he's taken out to do anything that doesn't involve a trailer ride.

I really hope he's got another howevermany years left enjoying his big beautiful green pasture and bothering everyone who mildly annoys him. What a freaking horse.

Bel-Eighted

TC turned eight last week! I was not on top of my game with his birthday celebration so I ended up doing it on Friday and then forgetting that I had the pictures until this week. Oops.

I've been able to celebrate the majority of his birthdays with him so far (four, five, six, seven, and now eight), though the tradition of dressing him up started with his sixth birthday.

He got an 8 made of carrots

When he was six, he was kind of horrified about it. When he was seven, he was still mildly horrified. This time it seemed like he was like "oh this, when she puts weird shit on me" and just let me do it! He's always been really skeptical of wearing things on his head (hates them touching his ears) but another year's worth of tormenting him with wearing everything as a hat has paid off.

I had to scour my pictures to get an unpleasant facial expression for instagram, but look how happy he is!

I ended up moving him out of the sun to get better lighting,
but look at his cute face! 

It's my birthday??

TC's seven year old year was great! We worked hard on the dressage to finish the year as champions at First level for his breed. We also earned reserve champion for First level for our chapter of our enormous GMO.

I'm so looking forward to branching out a bit for his eight year old year. On the docket this year we have lots of trail riding, doing another working equitation clinic, maybe competing in cowboy dressage (they have a ground work test!), riding at the beach, maybe horse camping, and of course, hopefully debuting in the rated ring at Second level.

Happy pony

Twenty Three

Today my very muddy heart horse turns twenty three!! I managed to hop on him between storms on Sunday and wander around a bit, and I've been making sure to go see him at least twice a week to pick his feet (since he was very foot sore this fall/winter due to his feet being packed with mud). He's just the best and although the move back down to this area has been a little on the stressful side, he's been a shining light. So glad to see him way more often.

It's been 14 years since I bought him (January 8th, 2005), we're closing in on spending half my life together. He gave and continues to give me so much. This morning before work I'm going to give him a birthday cookie, and ride if it's not raining.

He looks SO feral these days, I'm going to at least trim his goat
beard soon... 

He's not the prettiest thing right now in the winter (uh see above), so here are some pictures looking back at all we've done together: 

Reluctant modeling 

Circus horse

Grand Prix

Being a spooky asshole

Bridleless jumping

So many trail rides

Seven Years Old

Today I am leaving for a conference! But today is also TC's birthday. For his birthday, he got ditched in favor of data, sorry buddy. But yesterday we did actually celebrate like we did last year, by dressing him up in dollar store birthday garb and making fun of him. He actually handled it SO MUCH BETTER than last year, with only a few tiny spooks and a lot of him just looking at me like what poor life choices led me to being owned by you?

This horse usually isn't a side-eye kinda guy
but Peony caught this and it was hilarious!

Mom please you're embarrassing me

We went and grazed for a bit, he wasn't happy
because the hat kept touching his ears but he was
willing to put up with it for grass

TC's six year old year has been pretty amazing, it was around this time last year that I started really gaining confidence with him and as the fear washed away from both of us, our relationship strengthened. Since then we debuted in the rated show ring, won All Breeds for Training level, hit the trail for the first time since before his injury, rode bareback a few times, and generally had a lot of fun together.

I'm really looking forward to the seven year old year. He's a great horse and is maturing every day. His personality is my favorite and I just plain love being around him these days. It's fun to live so close to him (look at that, I thought I'd hate it in a way) and bring him carrots every day.

Here's to another year with this great horse! If we could just replicate the last year and do it over again, I totally would (well, in some ways).

Peony got this cute picture of us hugging

I hate dis

Before I left I put it all over his stall... Yay TC!