Bad things happen when The Boy encourages my addictions (aka horses and anything related to horsies).

Like, for example, actually entertaining the legitimate possibility of pursuing a giant effing trailer with nicely built out living quarters.

For what?

We aren't totally sure, but we are totally sure that we should be regularly perusing the dealers and looking for good used options. (like responsible adults we quickly realized that ordering a new custom built trailer for $70k was maybe taking this concept a little too far... at least we're reasonable).

So, what are the specs?

3 Horse.  2 horse seems too small (why I say this when I only own 1 horse, I don't know) but a 4 horse seems too big (the boy has visions of camping sans horses sometimes.. and a 4 horse trailer behind his "camper" seems just unnecessary.  Plus... we only have the one (1, uno) horse).

7'3" wide at a minimum.  His truck is hefty, the replacement will be heft-ier, and P only squashes into a 7' wide trailer if she gets two spots.  (though I try to avoid making her feel bad about it)

8' LQ MINIMUM, though 10, 12 and even 13' would be ideal.  We quickly decided if the LQ is too cramped or too crappy, we'll never use it and it'll be even more of a waste of money than this notion already is. It should sleep 4 comfortably and there has to be room to sit down.

STORAGE.  I don't really understand where people put all of their crap in these trailers that only have the teeny, tiny rear tack compartment.  Even when I'm only hauling P I pack our tack room FULL of water buckets, extra wraps, first id kits, grain, etc... Those weenie rear tacks have no room for that.  So we're looking for something that either has a larger rear tack (they exist), a mid tack (Ideal) or some serious manger storage (though this requires a trailer to be at least 8' wide cause it cuts into the standing room pretty significantly.


It has to be pretty.  this might sound like my requirement, but it's the boy.  I keep finding well priced older trailers, and he keeps nixing them on account of the fact that "they look like crap." Not the most compelling argument, but as long as he's indulging me in this endeavor, I'm not going to complain.

So, what have we found?  Not too surprisingly, there's a lot of really nice used trailers out there that fit pretty much the entire bill.  I even have a couple friends who have "outgrown" some gorgeous sundowners (one with 16' of LQ! that thing is a beast...) which are enticing.

BUT, there's one that's calling to me particularly strong... it's pretty close, and seems to fit the bill.  The only worry I have is that it has manger storage, but it only 7'3" wide... that might be a little skinny, but worth a look?

well, hello

That front door isn't an escape door (which every 3 horse GN seems to have, but I never use?) it's actually a second door to the Mid-Tack, which for some reason has doors on both sides of the trailer.  Necessary? no. But I guess kinda nice if you end up tacking up away from the awning (and lawn chairs and whatever else you set up).

Weird, right? but maybe super clever..

 
It's a 2006 Logan, looks like it's in great shape, and the price is pretty right... now we just have to decide if we're really going to become that car-camping, horse showing couple or if we just can't give up our hotel hopping ways...

It's amazing how quickly I can rationalize a big purchase like this... let's see, sell the current trailed for $5k... one kidney, stop eating for a few weeks and BAM! we net to zero.....

Here's the full ad if you want to ooh and ahh with me....

See what happens to me when I'm not busy actually at the barn doing things with my horse???

Mountain Trail Clinic: Drive Home

Wow, so this feels like it's in the ancient past, but the last couple of weeks have let me marinate on the whole trip with P and sort of marinate in what it means for us.

Sunday we skipped the little schooling show in an attempt to hit the road early.  The Boy had figured that since we needed to haul P home, then haul ourselves home, we have about a 10 hour day ahead of us on the road.  (that wasn't considering the inevitable "2 hour horse delay" that The Boy has decided should be factored on to any horse related event).

P was just as happy Sunday morning as she had been the entire time.  Eating, drinking, peeing and pooping all as she should while happily watching the world stroll by her stall.

The Boy and I went about watering and feeding then packing up the trailer as best we could. I know one is never as organized packing up to go home as when you pack up to leave, but my god.  Our "tack stall" had become a tangle of split reins, bailing twine and saddle pads.  Not for the OCD at heart.

I grabbed P and took her for one more big walk out through the fields and relished in her continued calm.  It seems so basic, but her presence of mind and confidence never ceased to be stunning to me.  I guess this means that when I have kids I'll probably be constantly amazed at their most basic accomplishments, but for P it felt big.

I guess for me it felt big.

Back in May it seemed like feeling totally comfortable and confident with her (even on the ground) in a new and scary situation was unobtainable.... But there we were. Calm as can be and happy.

headed home

We loaded P and May back up into my trailer and hit the road.  May was a little bit less thrilled with her back seat spot than she was on the way down and insisted on screaming and scrambling about every time the truck pulled to a stop  (which was frequent since we needed gas, McDonald's, a rest stop and then gas again on our way back).

But aside from May's protestations, the trip was quick, easy and uneventful (as they should be).  P arrived without breaking a sweat and walked off the trailer on her own without any unnecessary attempts to race back to her herd...

Watching P reintroduce into the herd was actually a pretty cool thing.  Her new BFF, May is much (much, much) higher on the totem pole than P is... Which begged the question, whether P's new alliance with May would improve her standing in the herd, or if upon returning home to the "cool kids" if May would ditch her again.  As soon as P hit the pasture, she calmly (though assertively!) walked back into the middle of the group and greeted her two closest buddies (the fat tiny pony, and a chubby QH named Charlotte).  A few moments later the Lead Mare made herself known and chased both P and May out of the group.  There was a brief "don't forget who runs this show" display that involved P and May taking a few laps around the property, before Mrs. Lead Mare let them settle again.

P resumed her place toward the outside of the group, but was meandering around without the sort of nervous jumpiness that she previously had.  Cowboy Man said that it's typical for the newer/nerdier horses to gain confidence from outings like this and that often it will predict them moving up the pecking order a few notches... interesting stuff.

The Boy and I just sat watching the group for a few more minutes.  P wandered over for one last treat and some water before trotting off with her friends and we finally loaded ourselves back in the truck for the last leg of our own drive.

All in all, I loved every second of the weekend.  I loved how great P was, I loved watching other Mountain Trail horses.  I loved having The Boy along for a horse infused weekend, I loved watching P work, I loved planning for an overnight pony adventure and I loved petting all the donkeys.  I just loved the whole thing.  It made me hungry for more and it made me patient regarding P and her progress.

Oh yeah, and I loved riding my horse again.

Also, the fact that The Boy is convinced that we now "need" to find ourselves a nice trailer with some living quarters? yeah.  I love that too.  The more our "shopping lists" can overlap, the better...

A girl can dream right?

Lover-Mare

Only In Dreams

Oops! Still have one more day to blog about from our adventure.. uhhhh two weeks ago.. (bad blogger, very bad), but I'm not quite getting there yet.

Instead life has been CRAZY, and by life I mean "work" as that's where I typically carve out my bloggy-bloggy time.

But that's neither here nor there.  This is just a quick post (during a conference call, WHOOPS) to share my oh so amazing dream last night.

Apparently I was playing around on P in the woods.  And she was feeling amazing, so naturally I pointed her at a few logs and branches that were laying around and she hopped over them like a good little bunny.

Then, as we meandered down this perfectly shaded trail of my dreams, the small branches turned into small x-country fences (bounce, bounce) and then those turned into larger x-country fences (bounce, bounce, bounce).

Until finally (as dreams do) we were magically on course going prelim at some unknown to event and I was actively (well.. "dream actively") thinking, "You moron, who takes a horse that's never schooled cross country before PRELIM."

But then I was also thinking, "god my horse is badass, she's never even schooled cross country before and she's GOING PRELIM." (aren't dreams wonderful?)

Anyway, all of this mental discourse is clearly happening as we are galloping our way through the woods and eating up obstacle after obstacle, when after a particularly LARGE log oxer I started to loose my balance and slowly but surely fell off my horse by way of sliding off her butt.  This of course meant that I landed perfectly on my feet and hoisted myself back on before a jump judge noticed and we continued our flawless ride....

I think I woke up about that point since I had to pee, but it was a pretty cool dream.  I mean, I'd prefer it if P would stop sliding me off her back (dream or not), but the whole jumpy-jumpy adventure felt nice.

oooohhh sparkly dream jump....

Back to the conference call..

Mountain Trail Clinic: Day 3

Day 3 started with the usual rousing to get to the barn and feed/water the beasts at a decent hour.  Of course, without a 8:30am dressage time to panic over my idea of a "decent hour" is something around 8 or 9am...after at least two cups of coffee.

Yet again, the ponies were happy and calm when we arrived.  P ate, pooped, and drank consistently the entire time.  I did shove a tube of probiotics in her since the switch from pasture + hay to full hay seemed to.. uhh "disrupt" things a tad, but that was all it took.

Saturday added "cow sorting" to the option of classes available to take, which meant that the usually empty warm up ring was full of cows and women learning to sort and rope as well as a few extremely wild eyed horses.

Cowboy Man grabbed May and I grabbed P in order to take them for a morning walk through all the mayhem.  P was concerned and about as amped up as I'd seen her thus far.  she was snorting and her ears could not decide if they needed to focus on the donkeys braying, the cows mooing or the extremely disturbing hay-bales-with-a-head being manhandled in the roping practice...

Once we settled on the far side of the cow pen, she started to calm down and even went so far as to start sniffing and nibbling on the cows pressed up on the other side of the fence.  Apparently P needs a chew toy in nearly every situation.  in her stall, in the field... on the trail (this usually comes in the form of chewing on the horse in front of her) and apparently while watching cows.  One cow finally got sick of her "explorations" and shot a little kick at her.  P was horrified  that it could kick, but after a few swift snorts, she settled back down again.

After that, The Boy joined us and we headed out to the field to let the horses graze a bit and relax.  Apparently the wide open space was just as enticing to humans, because The Boy asked if he could take P for a "jog."

uhhhh sure... I thought as I eyeballed P's chain-less nose and The Boy's converse footwear... go for it.

Well go for it he did and P just jogged (and loped!) along side of him.  I think I must have been PMSing, or just totally emotional cause I swear to god I started to get choked up.  I mean, here was my (non-horsey) guy meandering around all easy-breezy with my supposedly difficult mare like it was the most natural thing in the world.

you can't really tell, but she's continuing to move better and better...

It was honestly really fun to watch him enjoying her so much...

After a while, the cavaletti that were strewn about were apparently just as irresistible to The Boy as they would have been to me.  (glad to know I'm not the only one) So he started scampering around with the mare and seeing what she would do.  I'm not going to claim that she looks like some athletic superstar here (it's a cavaletti..), but it was so damn cute to watch them!  Plus P's shoulder really is starting to loosen up a bit.  It's way less restricted than it was back in May.



and just cause I couldn't stop taking crappy iphone videos... P caved in with her shoulder a bit and he even corrected her! Superstars... the both of them.



After I was done GUSHING over the two of them, I rewarded myself with another delicious grilled cheese (the amount of american cheese & butter & bread that I can consume is staggering) before saddling up the horses for another afternoon giddy up.

While Cowboy Man was working with a few of the other horses The Boy asked if he could "sit on P."  Mind you, I have NEVER seen this boy on a horse and realistically the most discussion we've ever had regarding the issue has centered on the point that he loves horses but "thinks riding is weird and isn't interested in ever ever doing it."

But, nevertheless, up he went.  P was a good girl.  She scooted around a couple times, but I think that might have been due to the apparent death clamp that The Boy had going on with his legs.  I should have handed P off to someone else so as to capture this rare moment on film (err.. phone), but I didn't think of it, so the moment has just to live on through lore and legend...  When it was Cowboy Man's turn to leg up, P was a good girl.  Even less squirrely than the day before and just as forward and pleasant. 

Then... as he brought P back around Cowboy asked if I was ready to go for a ride.  I probably looked like a kid on Christmas morning because I'm pretty sure I bounced up onto my mare as fast as possible and grinned like an idiot the entire time.  That's not to say that I wasn't nervous as hell (where did that come from), but the nerves were easily outweighed by the happiness of being back on P.

Cowboy Man legged up on May (who hasn't been ridden since she was "rescued" and brought to the farm) which was curious.  May has a tendency to go up before anything else, so there were a few interesting hops/rears/leaps, before she decided that everything was ok and she could handle it... I took note that May was apparently not in a bridle.  let me repeat.  NOT IN A BRIDLE.  rope halter and a lead line.  uhhh yeah.

I seriously enjoy watching Cowboy Man work, but I am learning to appreciate more and more that there are just some steps in his training pyramid that I don't ever feel a need to master.  Riding a still traumatized horse with a penchant for rearing with a rope halter out in an open field might be pretty high on that list...

Once May was calm and ready, we took off to ride the perimeter of the field.  P was calm (mostly), forward (yay!) and happy (even better).  It took me about 10 minutes to actually start breathing and relax, but once I did enjoy every minute of it.  We explored a few fields, a gorgeous hazelnut tree grove and some irrigation ditches.  P amped up a couple of times (usually when May got excited about something), but each time she came back quickly and quietly much to my satisfaction.

45 minutes later we were back to the barn and I felt like a million dollars.  The morning fog was deciding to turn into a cold wet mist that had us all pretty chilled, so we called the ride and let the ponies go back to their stalls while we ate (more) and watched the classes go.

Finally, around 6pm we tacked P up again with the intent of having Cowboy Man work some of the obstacles under saddle.  Classes were using the main arenas until 7, but we had access to the warm up ring (cows and all) which seemed like a good place to start.

P decided that her string of exceptional behavior was tediously boring, so she came out of the stall snorting, anxious and fiery.  Cowboy Man responded by working her along the wall, asking her to tune in and pay attention.  Anytime her ears and eyeballs locked on something other than him, or if she bulged in with her shoulder, she got sent around in a mini lunge circle a few times, then put back up against the wall.  P started to focus (albeit slooooowly) so we went to bridle her up and start things under saddle.

P, ever loving brat that she is, noticed that there was a brief moment between halter off and bridle on, which she took as a perfect opportunity to attempt to bolt and go find her friends in the main ring.  Cowboy Man managed to hang on (via lead rope around her neck) and wrangle the mare back, but not without a few slightly mortifying chants of "looooose horse! looooose horse!"

I found myself actually responded with "she's only mostly loose! not actually a loose horse! we're ok! it's fine!"  sigh...

Anyway, back to the wall she went with plenty of more circles.  The "tuneup" ended up taking up the rest of the hour, which meant that the main ring was available so we wandered over and started working in that space.  P settled eventually and I started working some of the bigger obstacles we hadn't tackled yet.

Most of note was P's attempt at the super deep "L" ditch that presented May with so many problems the night before.  P stopped, sniffed, snorted... then walked right on into the damn thing with a little bit of trepidation, but then rounded the corner and marched out like a champ.  The second time through I asked her to pause in the deepest part and she calmly obliged.  Champion!

After that we made our way over to the advanced ring which was SWARMING with horses.  The atmosphere got to P a little bit but she held it together and seemed to relax more when I was asking her to work than when I was simple wandering around.  The Boy took May again and had fun leading her all over the place.  P had a few moments of trying to tune me out, which made for a bit of a struggle, but we worked through it.

The hardest thing for me is not to back pedal and rely on the "tension" of my lead rope, but instead stay with the body language and enforce my requests without yanking on her nose.  I caved a few times, especially when P was trying to rush through obstacles, but we improved, and eventually finished the evening on a good note on a nice loose lead.

We managed to put the horses to bed by 9:30, which was early by our previous standards and left plenty of time for a few martinis back at the hotel while we discussed the continued victories of the weekend...