summer

I had a busy summer. This post is mostly random picture overload of what I did over the summer. 

 Spent a bunch of it tagging along with my boyfriend while he worked as a farrier. I learned how to pull shoes and some about finishing but never got good at that. I also learned a bunch about shoeing and trimming in general. I have been trimming Banico for awhile so I knew the basics but it was interesting to see all types of feet. 

Pulling back shoes on an old TB gelding

Attempting to finish 

Cutting clenches on a huge warmblood

Same on back feet

Boyfriend hot shoeing

Went sailing a few times and had a bunch of fun. I have been sort of learning how to skipper the boat and have enjoyed it. I almost dumped us over a few times but never did. No tsunami this time around. 

My boyfriend sold this pony/mini cart and the lady that bought it convinced me to help her train the mini to drive. The mini was very smart and basically picked it up in two sessions of about 2 hrs total. It was just the basics of ground driving and getting hooked. She never spooked at the cart and was basically ground driving by the end of two hours.

Isn't that the cutest little face ever?

Took Sophie to a hunter schooling show that the ETI group I use to show at put on. Sophie is an old hunter ring veteran that got sour on the show thing but she seemed to have a good time. She really is a pro at jumping and is really fun once you get her going properly. We went in 4 classes and got first in 2'9 hunters and  working hunter under saddle, forth in 2'6 hunters and fifth in hunter obedience (she is a great horse but obedience is just not her thing). We ended up getting day end high point for the 2'9 division. 

Short video of part of the 2'9 class

Also rode her quite a bit during the summer and had a bunch of fun jumping her. 

My boyfriend found a baby king snake in the hay stall at the ranch that was partiality paralyzed. She has a very obvious lump about a third of the way down her body and only has partial control over the last 2/3 of her body. She got named Ripley. My boyfriends chiropractor also works on animals but is terrified of snakes. But she still did some work on Ripley and even brought out laser therapy to work on her. Apparently she has become my snake as my boyfriend already has a ball python so he is trying to get me to bring Ripley out here to have as a pet. 

snake laser treatment 

a mostly recovered snake. Her front end is normal and really strong so she can get her self up on things but gets her back end tangled on thing sometimes. 

Also went on a few hikes over the summer. My boyfriend is a big outdoors person and likes to go backpacking in Yosemite so we were trying to get ready to do that. We ended up not being able to go for other reasons but still had some great hikes locally.  

Stubbornly sideways picture of Punch bowls 

Some caves we found on one hike

Back to school

     I had a really great summer break and wasn't on the computer much so this blog got really neglected. I am living in an apartment this semester instead of the dorms and really like my new roommates.

     Banico is doing good. I am really happy with how my barn manager took care of him over the summer. He was really good weight and seemed happy to see me or the carrots in my hand. Of course he had to get a big swollen leg from who knows what the second day I was back but my barn manger wrapped it for me for a few days and it got much better. I had a great ride yesterday which was the first one in about 4 months. He was really good and we only had a few little things I had to remind him about. I even took him over a few cross rails. He did manage to rub a good portion of his tail out which is disappointing but I know it will grow out.