Birthdays (belated, botched, etc)

So many birthday fails.  First of all, Prairie turned 8 on the 14th.  If you recall I missed her birthday last year too.  Whoops.  Terrible horse mom.  But, we did have a nice hack on the 14th, so maybe she was giving me a present for her bday celebrations.  Although, she then promptly ripped her shoe off and went lame, so maybe she was a little pissed about the whole "oops I forgot" thing.  Not so subtle tantrums are sort of her style...

I didn't even fake a new birthday picture....

Secondly, I petitioned the USEF for an ownership transfer for Gus (since his USEF paperwork is M.I.A. but then again, so are his old owners..) and I finally got his Lifetime Horse recording back in the mail.

Turns out Gus gets a birthday bonus because according to the USEF, his birthday wasn't on March 29th, like I was told, but rather it will be on May 9th.  Of course Gus made no mention of this when he got extra birthday treats on the 29th... 

Extra birthday bonus? Gus wasn't born in 1997, looks like it was 1996.  Mind you when I started considering taking him on he was "12."  Then when I was mostly committed to him we found out he wasn't 12, he was 15, almost 16.  But really he's 16 almost 17.

Frankly, aside from the whole DDFT thing, he looks pretty darn good for (almost) 17. 

The Cutest.

Not much else to update on Gussie Bear.  He's doing great.  We removed the acrylic from his feet, so he's now in traditional shoes.  I'll take pics and do a more in depth post on his feet (they still have a long way to go) but we're getting there (slowly).

He continues to have a few students who love and adore him, and M2 just had her first official "lesson" this week so Gus is definitely staying busy and having fun.

A few more Gus shots from Supermom because Gus is cute and Supermom's pictures are fun..

Highly Kissable Beak

But careful, cause he kisses back...

The rain has returned, but P2 is slated for a jump school today in the outdoor regardless.  I need to work on my course management and she needs to get used to the rain.  Hopefully it will be productive for both of us.

We have a schooling show in a week (on the 28th) and then a quick C show the 3rd-5th to get our butts in gear a bit before Prairie's big debut at an A in mid June....

Too many fun things.