Nils

Just like people are all unique, so are horses. This morning's New York Times has an interesting Op Ed piece by Sean Clancy, a horse racing journalist, about racing. Today is the Belmont Stakes, the final leg of the Triple Crown. Mr. Clancy says:

"Horses are just like people; there are smart ones, dumb ones, miserable ones, honest ones, simple ones, cheats, freaks, leaders and laggards. They have good days, bad days and plenty of average days. They can be brilliant one minute, horrible the next. They can remember something that happened a year ago and forget what they learned yesterday. They’ll walk placidly into a metal starting gate that clangs and rings when the doors open, and then be scared of a bucket that wasn’t there yesterday."

I just think this is really interesting, and true! It describes us as all the contradictions you can think of - strong but fragile, brave but flighty. We are all unique! Today I start a series of posts profiling the horses of Fish Bowl Farm.

Nils
Nils is my half brother; we have the same sire (dad). Nils was foaled in 1989 in Stehekin, Washington. He is a brown dun Norwegian Fjord, so he looks like me. Nils is fun. He is one of those horses who adjusts well to his rider, but if the rider doesn't ask for things just right he ignores them. Some riders think he's stubborn, but really, would you know what someone wanted to do if they pushed you and pulled you? He is just waiting for the aids to be clear, and then he is light and forward and happy. Nils lived with his previous family for fifteen years! He came to Fish Bowl in 2007 when he was 18 years young. Nils is about 14.1 and weighs about 1000 lbs or more. He is really sturdy, but his body shape is more like a regular horse than a Fjord. His legs are short and very stout - he is a wonderfully heavy boned fellow. When Emily went to Wenatchee to meet him, she rode Nils for only about 10 minutes in a round pen and said "ok, I think I've seen enough." The nice owner who was sadly selling him was worried that she didn't like him, but Emily quickly explained that he was just perfect! The owner asked if she wanted to take him on a trail ride to see what he was like outside an arena, and they went for a short walk off the property and Nils was very happy and fun. He loves trail rides. He is a great longe horse - he goes steadily around and around for riders to learn balance and feel in the saddle. His canter is fun and his lateral (sideways) movement is really good. In the paddocks and the fields Nils is the boss of his group. I try to boss him a little, but he's older than I am and takes great pride in managing other horses. He knows he's not the biggest horse, but he is still the boss of the smaller horses. He is a fiend for carrots! Nils doesn't get treats very much because he gets so excited to have food that he is not very polite. Can you imagine? I don't know any other horses that are like that ...except maybe for me! Nils loves to go places - to shows, parades, other places to ride, and he gets really happy and energetic, but always keeps his wits about him. The only time he spooks is when he is concentrating hard for a student and something startles him, but he always calms right down. Nothing really bothers him too much. He is my neighbor and my "brother of another mother" and I love Nils.

Meet our new friend, Springstar!

She is a connemara mare, and she moved in on Monday. She has two horse neighbors who already like her a lot: Annie and Rio. Welcome Springstar!

Look at Me!

Emily snapped this photo of me and Ava this afternoon in our lesson. I think I blinked, but I don't take pictures of myself very often, and I thought I should show you how well my youngest rider is doing! We walked and trotted, and practiced steering all around the arena and between the dressage letters. Then we played a game where she collected fir cones and we walked them over to a barrel and put them on top. Fun! What did you do today? I had a great ride!

Don't forget to watch the Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event on NBC at 12:30 PDT tomorrow - Saturday!

Walkin' Down the Trail

I like to go on trail rides, do you? I sometimes get skitterish when there are deer hiding in the woods, and sometimes the crunching of sticks and dry leaves scares me (I'm kind of silly), but I do love to get out of the arena. Before I moved to Fish Bowl Farm I lived in Ellensburg, and there aren't so many dense woods there, it's more sage brushy, so when I moved to Western Washington the Doug Fir and Madrona woods were something to get used to! Here is a really cool website where you can download and read a document about sharing the trails with others on foot, on horseback, bicycle or atv (where they're allowed). (Look on the bottom right of that website for ELCR News Flashes and the Trail Guide. The photo above is of one of the trails at Fish Bowl with the flowering apple tree.

Feed Bag to Tote Bag

Feed bags used to be made of cotton fabric. Then they morphed into paper or woven synthetic stuff. Then two paper layers sandwiched around clear plastic. Now they are also made out of tightly woven plastic a'la plastic tarp material. They are indestructible and amazing for many uses. They are also recyclable -- there is a smart human who has figured out how to recycle plastic feed bags and synthetic baling twine into plastic. I think that's smart. I don't know if we should have all this plastic around - I see tiny pieces of baling twine on the ground sometimes and it doesn't look like it will ever go away! Anyway... this feed sack stuff cuts and sews very nicely as you can see by the photo above! Emily tinkered with the sack and voila - a new tote bag for hay, farmers market produce, groceries, taking recycling to the center, donations to the thrift store, items to and from the library, and maybe even your boots and helmet to the farm for your weekly lesson or daily ride! If you need a sack to do some creative sewing on, let us know, we have lots of these beet pulp sacks just waiting for a new purpose.

Rainbows and Horsemanship

We had a wild weekend of rain and sun and clouds and wind, but not very many of those things at the same time. It was constantly changing, that's for sure! Sunday when Emily was driving her little electric golf car/truck around feeding us there was a complete rainbow in the sky and it was lovely! There was even a little vertical piece of rainbow right by our riding arena!

Horsemanship for kids ages 5-15 is starting up on Wednesday, May 6th, from 3:30-5:00. $10/participant, please wear your boots and helmet, and we'll have some fun! Learning, playing, handling me and the other horses, and talking about caring for us. It's a drop in program for any kids interested in horses and ponies - Fish Bowl students are encouraged to come, and also to bring a friend. Open to all, parents can drop their kids off at 3:30 and pick them up at 5:00. Rain or shine, see you Wednesday!

Rolex TV Coverage Postponed....

...to Saturday May 16th on NBC. It's right before the Preakness (those horses are FAST!), so check your local listings.

It was sadly pre-empted by Hockey Playoffs. But hockey does look fun!

A Student's New Pony, Show Saturday and Rolex!

We are so happy for our young friend, Presley, who has a new pony! His name is Bobby, and as you can see, he is a very cute fellow! He lives at his owner's grandpa's stable, where Emily visits each week for their lesson. They're coming along well together, and Bobby has settled in nicely at his new home!

The Annual Shaggy Horse Show is tomorrow, Saturday at Paradise Ridge Park, here on Vashon Island. Just as she did at the show last weekend, Emily will collect non-perishable food items for the Vashon-Maury Food Bank. Come out to watch the horses and riders, and bring something canned or boxed for our neighbors.

Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event was last weekend, and it will be televised this Sunday on NBC at 5:00 pm EDT (2:00 on the West coast). Be sure to watch the great excitement of Lucinda Fredericks and her 15.2 mare, Headley Brittanica, Bettina Hoy and Ringwood Cockatoo, and Buck Davidson and My Boy Bobby!

Jynx

Isn't she pretty? She's my paddock/pasture mate, and we are such friends! It is great fun to watch her grow up. Jynx will be two years old at the end of May, and I think today she's looking like quite a grown up. There is a saying that when we look at very young horses they really only look good at 3 days, 3 months and 3 years, and everything in between is quite possibly unbalanced and looking like unmatched parts all put together! Jynx has been rump-high for months, but is evening out. She's certainly pretty in the foggy morning we had yesterday.

After this photo was taken, nine of the ten horses currently living at Fish Bowl had their feet "done" by our farrier, Jim. He pulled shoes, trimmed hooves, and re-shod those who wear shoes, and simply trimmed those of us who are barefoot. He trimmed Jynx and me in the field, and I stood very still for him. Jynx mostly did, but was a bit grabby with her hind feet. She's learning...

If you come to the OPC Dressage/CT Show today please bring nonperishable food donations for the Vashon-Maury Food Bank. Find Emily's enormous white and red truck in the parking area (it'll have a sign on it) and please put your donations in the bed of the truck. Our community thanks you!!

Horse Show Saturday 4/25/09

Olympus Pony Club is hosting a dressage, jumping and combined test (dressage+show jumping) show at Paradise Ridge Park on Saturday, 4/25/09. Go watch! It'll be fun! Dressage tests will be ridden from 9:30-2:30, then jumping from 3:00-4:30 or finished. Emily is the course designer for the jumping, which is great fun! She's having a very nice crew of pony club members and families help set up the course, enjoy pizza and pop, and have a course walk late Friday afternoon. It's all about the learning and the fun, with the jumping thrown in for good measure!

Speaking of jumping, one of our students did her first jumping ever in her lesson this week! Fun! She rode Rio, and she did really well - never out of balance, learning about where to put her hands, how to get the horse to the fence in balance and straight, etc. Yea!!

How much grass can a horse eat?

A lot!

The first photo is where I did not graze today. The second photo is where I ate all the grass I possibly could!

The grass is really growing at Fish Bowl Farm because it is Springy warm weather and the sun is up for over 15 hours each day. I love to eat the grass! Today Emily set up a pen for me along a fence line so I could "mow" the grass. Did I do a good job? My tummy was full, and the grass is noticeably shorter as you can see in the photos!

A horse needs 2% of her body weight in roughage each day. What is roughage? Hay and grass. Hay is dried grass. I weigh about 1,200 pounds, so I need about 24 pounds of hay and grass each day. Fresh grass has a lot of water content, so maybe I need even more grass than I need hay.... do you think Emily will fall for that and let me graze even longer tomorrow? I'll let you know!

Have fun, Blossom!

My friend Blossom left this morning at 7:30 a.m. for her new home in Pullman, Washington. Blossom is being leased, and possibly purchased, by a nice family. Blossom whinnied as she went up the driveway in the horse trailer, and Jynx, Coco and Annie all whinnied back. Jynx will miss her very much, and I will too, although I really will enjoy having one less pony to live with and keep track of! Did you know I'm the boss of my little group? I am! The pecking order was: me, then Blossom, then Molly when she's with us, and then young Jynx. It's funny because I'm just over 14.2 hands tall, and Jynx is 15.2, but I'm still in charge because Jynx is so young. She'll be two years at the end of May. I wish Blossom all the best at her new home! I know Blossom will enjoy all the open space and grass in the Palouse, the beautiful countryside around Pullman, Washington and Moscow, Idaho.

Equine Dental Work

Yesterday Rio had a day in the dentist's chair. Not really, he didn't sit down, but he did have a session with Dr. Kent Tooman, DVM, getting his (Rio's) teeth floated. What is teeth floating? It's the process a veterinarian performs on a horse's mouth to file, shape and smooth the teeth so the horse's mouth is once again comfortable and as functional as possible. When horses chew, our teeth get worn (we grind hay and grass hard between our top and bottom molars!), and eventually the uneven wear on our teeth makes "points" and sharp edges that poke our cheeks. Dr. Tooman gave Rio a sedative so he would hold still, put a speculum in his mouth so his mouth stayed open, and tied his head (gently) up to an overhead timber in our grooming shed. Rio looks funny and a little weird with his tongue sticking out, as you can see in the photo! Dr. Tooman uses an electric drill with a file attachment to file down the sharp points and edges, and a hand tool to finish. Rio didn't like it very much, and his tongue looked like a geoduck, but he feels much better now. Dr. Tooman and his assistant were very good at this whole process, and considering that Rio didn't want to hold still despite additional doses of sedative, they held him still enough and worked fast to get it all done. They showed us and explained that Rio has a slight "wave mouth" which means that his teeth go up and down like a roller coaster track in his mouth. Before Emily purchased Rio she had another veterinarian do a thorough exam on him, and that vet told her that Rio has a wave mouth and that he would need his teeth floated. I'll have my mouth checked next month when I have my spring vaccinations and check up with our vet. I'll let you know what shots I get and how my mouth looks!

Open House Today!

Emily is having an Open House (Open Farm?) today, Tuesday 3/17/09, from 10:00 to 12:30 for homeschooling families. We hope they'll come visit, meet me and the other horses and talk about Emily's lessons and horsemanship program. Visit our website for the address and directions. Follow the green balloons down the driveway to the tackroom for some cookies. Don't the little helmet, boots and horse cookies look delicious? But I hope there are carrots too.
Happy St. Patrick's Day!

When Did Humans Domesticate the Horse?

New information shows that humans domesticated the horse around 3500 BC, which is 1000 years earlier than previously thought. Where were these horses and people? Kazakhstan! Read all about it in this New York Times article.

Back to School

Riding school, that is. The other school horses and I went back to work this week with the riding students coming for their weekly lessons. Nils was ridden yesterday and today. Here he is with Presley in the saddle. She is a good rider, and she was practicing her posting diagonals on the longe line during her lesson. Diagonals are tough to get correctly - posting up and down at the trot in the same rhythm and timing as the horse's outside fore- and inside hind-legs. They didn't get rained or hailed on - phew, but it's cold. Here they are taking a little break - isn't Nils the furriest horse you've seen in a while? If he is, then you haven't seen me! I'm glad to see you, riders - it must almost be Spring!

Cupcake Watches Mr. Ed

My little cat friend, Cupcake, likes to watch television on gloomy, rainy days like today. We had a little hail, a little rain and a good bit of wild wind over night and today on Vashon. Cupcake lives at Kristine's house, and she's smart - look at her sitting indoors, smug and warm. She probably even had popcorn and cocoa!

B-A-L-A-N-C-E

And the Winners Are....

Alison and Kristine! Thank you very much to all of you who emailed Emily or commented here on the blog about why you ride. The answers were interesting and varied. Alison will get a surprise package in the mail (send me your mailing address please), and Kristine gets hers in person here on Vashon Island.

Having the "contest" was a kick - we tracked statistics about where our blog readers live and how they found my blog. Of course we don't know who you are - that would be too weird, but we can see where you are on a world map. We've had readers from all over the United States, one in Germany, and one in South Korea. The visitor from South Korea Googled "camel biscuits" and that's how she found us - poor dear, I hope she wasn't too disappointed. But what are camel biscuits?!? I'll have to Google it and find out! If our German visitor comes back, and you feel like commenting below, let us know where you are in Germany, a little about yourself, and do you know our friend Kate, an American in Germany for a year of school?! Emily thinks maybe you are a fan of Fjord horses (who isn't?!) and that's how you found my blog.

Winter Continues

Wednesday we got a little more snow, which was pretty, but startling. We have had a dry February, and rain for just a couple of days before the temperatures dropped enough for our usual rain to turn to the white stuff. I stood in the shed for a while on Wednesday while it was raining, but Jynx and Blossom just wandered and grazed. By 10:00 am on Thursday the sun was out and the snow was gone except in the shadows. Jynx and Blossom lay down for sun naps in the lower part of the big field, far enough from each other that they both seemed to have their own area, and they were very sleepy. I stood watch while they slept, as the lead horse in a herd usually does.