My Next Partner? Thomas the Tank

Tank, as he is called right now, is a Mustang. He was born in the wilds of Nevada and was captured as a yearling. What happened to him after that is anyone's guess.

In August a recuse pulled him out of a kill pen. They have nursed him back to health and tried to figure out what he knows. He has been saddled, but has not been educated much to the bridle.

I found him on a FB page for the rescue. I fell in love with that big jug head!

I honestly can not tell you what it is about him, but I just love him. Although I have not met him yet. I have watched a few videos, talked to the rescue and just stare at these pictures. Everything seems to be working out. I have a place for him at the stable where I lease Indy. They have one spot open.

Now I am just waiting for a few more pieces to slip into place. Hopefully, he will be mine by the end of the month.

Indy- Second Visit

This is another photo I lifted off of facebook of Indy because yet again, my phone died when I went to take pictures. I am going to have to work on that!

My second visit with Indy included more people. Eek!
I have some social anxiety, which means that I get uncomfortable around people I don't know. Although I will try to go to the barn with nobody is there, I have not found out when that is. Sometimes I will leave places when I feel uncomfortable, and rarely will I go somewhere where I don't have an escape plan.

I make an exception for the barn because horses are so calming for me. I need them and I think I have found the perfect opportunity to play with a horse without having to deal with other people too much.

I am pretty sure that I am the only one messing around with Indy right now. I might work with Doc next week also. I am trying to not fall in love with her. I do want to buy a horse eventually, and I don't know if that will be Indy or not. As far as I know, the owner doesn't have any interest in selling. Anyway, that is getting a bit ahead of myself.

So I go into the barn with lots of people milling around. They were headed out some where. I head out to the paddocks and grab Indy. She is no problem to catch, just waits for the halter to be put on. We walk into the barn, walk though the door and plop ... plop ... plop. Just like clock work.

Now, I am starting to think ... looser manure like that is not just "I have to poop," poop. She is nervous walking into the barn. Why though?

Well I decide this time that I am going to again, move her back into position if she starts moving around too much, but gently. She is telling me that she is nervous about something. Maybe she has been corrected too harshly on the cross ties and she knows what is coming? Maybe she is nervous about being worked?

She acts something like this girl. The further I move away the more she dances around. Indy is relative okay when standing next to her, but does become more agitated when taking a long time to groom. Poor girl, I hope I can get to enjoy being pampered.

I did get a bit agitated when this older gentleman, who is the father of one of the girls boarding, was watching me in the indoor and then after I was grooming again, he yelled at Indy, which I admit- really annoyed me.

I whispered to Indy that this was not my first rodeo. After that he would only whisper to his wife.

In the arena, he also stopped and watched me as I was making sure that Indy desensitized to the lead rope. I hate being watched. I mean seriously ... who likes it when someone just stops and watches them.

Anyway, Indy was a little more full of herself. To the left, easy peasy. To the right, holy hell, when demon possessed you Indy! I finally got out a lunge line, just so I could get a little more distance between us. She was popping up, but I was not sure if she was wanting to buck also. It was cooler and so I think she was just feeling her oats. She calmed down, well as much as I have seen Indy calm down. Still definitely looking all around. A horse was tied to a trailer outside the arena door and that was fascinating.

All in all, I think it was a good session. A lot less pooping in the aisle this week, depending on the weather I might start grooming her outside.

Things to ponder. . .

Salads are fun and delicious!

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I am trying to lose weight, but more importantly, get healthy. It really sucks getting home at night and having no energy for anything. It makes my entire week all about working. I do very little cleaning or anything else because I was so tired.

Well after a we concerning events when it came to hubby and my health, we have made some changes. One is salads for lunch and dinner. Lots and lots of salad. My jerk loving hubby lost a lot of weight just doing this. I am so pissed happy for him! All joking aside, I am glad that he is making progress, but wish it was as easy for me. It is not.

I don't like to diet, meaning I don't want to go on strange diets with the idea that this is only temporary. I make changes to what I eat, so this is not a temporary fit. Luckily I really do like to eat veggies, it is just easier to pick up a quick lunch at 7-11 or bring left overs. So slicing, dicing, and chopping gets to be a drag, but if I doing it for hubby anyway, it is easier. Making less carbs is actually easy for me too. I like squash and veggies instead of pasta and rice.

One thing that makes it easier is the

Seriously! This thing is fun to use and makes chopping onions, cucumbers, mushrooms, tomatoes, just about anything to want to chop, a lot easier.

I also have lots of add in. My personal favorites are baby corn, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, and artichoke hearts. YUM! Oh Oh and BACON!!!! Okay okay, not bacon.

All in all I have lost 10 lbs. just drop in the bucket, but I am moving in the right direction.

Dollar Store Finds for the Tack Trunk

We all know that we can spend as much as we want on horse. Seriously there is no upper limit you can spend on horses. Keeping the number down to a reasonable number is much more difficult. So anyway I can save a few pennies is a few more pennies I can put toward the purchase of my eventual horse.

Although I am only leasing Indy, the owner's grooming supplies are locked up. So it is just easiest for me to have my own. Plus I just like having my own. In a little barn in Wisconsin are all the groom brushes I need, unfortunately they are about 2 hours away and I have not had time to go and get them.

Additionally, shortly after moving down here I let my hubby use my grooming tote for tools. Then he broke it. Men!

SO - now I get to get a new grooming tote and stuff. Oh darn! 😏

Anyway back to stuff to get at Dollar Tree.

 First are cleasing wipes. I swear these have 101 uses:
* wiping off a horse nose,
* cleaning your own hands
* wiping down a leg
* off a small wound
* cleaning mud from boots
* wiping buckets
* cleaning faces .. yours and your horses
Seriously barns are dirty.

Another handy thing to wipe things off with is a towel. And this is a mircofiber towel so it will pick all that dust left over from a good grooming. Even if you are not going in to the show ring, it is nice to do a through wiping down from time to time.

Plus, again, you can wipe off your hands, boots, tack, etc.


And you no doubt notice is both pictures I have a hair brush. I like this one because is it a little stiffer then most brushes, but not as stiff as typical mane brushes. I am really looking forward to using this to get out mud from Indy's tail.


Anyone need a bath? This microfiber washmit for horses will be perfect for bath time.  I found a microfiber wash sponge on a tack site for $5! Five Dollars! This is a steal for only $1.

And don't get me started on brushes! I plan on going back for a few more brushes after I get my new grooming kit.

Cross fingers it will be here on Friday! Probably won't, but hopefully!

Indy - The first visit

Fairly good about being groomed, but just so nervous. I kept quietly moving her back to the center of the aisle. She was so muddy and I honestly groomed her for as long as I could before I started having troubles breathing. Oh yeah, I'm allergic to horses. So we moved to the indoor to do a little ground work. Just to see what she knows and doesn't.

Basking in the glow of some good horse time, I have found a little time to sit down and blog about the experience.



This is Indy.  It is not my photo, and I was waiting to post until I was actually able to take my own photos, but this is proving to be more difficult that one might assume. So I searched through their facebook back until I found a photo Indy, I have cut out the person and the photo is not the best, but really a photo is a photo.

Indy is kept at a stable about 30 minutes away, and of course, out in the the country. I use my phone's gps, to find my way down there, but unfortunately once I got down there, my phone died. No pictures, and well, the 30 min down there took an hour and a half to get back.


Back to getting down there. This was my first time working with Indy, and since I didn't know for sure who she was I had to wait for the barn manager. Walking around, I met the barn cat. The pasture horses are kept in dry lots with a round bale of hay, while the stalled horses are kept in a larger dry lot.

Indy is kept with Doc, the other horse I am allowed to work with, but my heart was reaching out to the little red head. So when the barn manger got out I asked who I wanted, I said Indy.

Halter in hand I brought the girl in. Instant we walk though the doors into the aisle, cow pies. During the time I was grooming her I think we has 8 piles, 8 lightly liquid, poops. She dances on the cross ties and as soon as I walked away she swings her hips from one side of the aisle to the other. Of course, smearing the liquid poops.


Lookie Lou! OMG! She just looks and looks and looks! Indy would give me her attention some, she would listen, but constantly looking out the arena door. We just did some ground work, disengaging hip, flexion, moving left and right.

As I said, I am trying to get to know her and let her get to know me. I think it is going to be a slow process with her. I don't know much about what has been done with her, but slowly we will get trust in each other.

Horses of my life: Buttercup, a High Style Stable Schoolie

That first ride. The real one. Not when you just sit on a pony at a carnival or you are lead around on a family friend's horse, not a trail ride at one of those farms when one horse follows the other, but that first real ride, when you get the reins, and you steer (sort of). That horse. That is the one that starts it all.


Mine was Buttercup. Plump little stout pinto pony mare with a dirty white coat and big splotches of burn orange. I can even still remember what some of those splatters of color looked like. She had a sideways ice cream cone across her butt, with her fluffy dirty tail dividing it. And on the left side of her neck a chestnut ghost rose up. In the winter she was so fluffy!

Buttercup was the beginner's horse. Almost everyone started out on Buttercup and then moved on to more challenging horses as they learned about balance, and legs and rein aides. But it was that little pony that started us all out. She was a good packer and did what she was told.

Except speed up. Each of Buttercup's gaits had one speed, and it wasn't all that fast. As we got better and better at riding, we wanted to trot and canter faster, but she wasn't having any of it.
     "Use more leg," our trainer would shout out and we would kick with all our might.
     "Use the crop," our trainer would say and we would smack her little shoulder.
     Finally our trainer would roller her eyes at us, "Hit her behind the saddle! Make her move out!" We would oblige and smack that poor little pony's butt. She would respond with a little buck.

Buttercup knew who was in charge, and it wasn't the little kids she was packing around. She never bucked hard, and never more than once per tap, but she would make her point. As I gained in confidence, but maybe not to much knowledge, it because fun to make her buck.

                                                         Tap, buck, tap, buck, tap, buck.

Poor little Buttercup, would take it all. Of course, like everyone I quickly out grew Buttercup and moved on to more challenging horses. I was still always drawn to that little mare. I never failed to stop by her tie stall and give her a peppermint and a scratch or two. Even after I left High Style Stables and got a sorrel mare of my own, I never stopped thinking or loving that pony.

In college, I ran into one of my old stable mates from High Style. She has gotten her own horse and kept him at High Style. One winter break, we stopped by the stable. It has been sold and renamed. All the old schoolies had been sold, but one woman bought several of them and still used them for lessons. She had Buttercup. Now she was in a box stall, so that was a step up. I was so happy to see her, just had to sit on her one last time. The old mare was just as sweet and gentle as I remember, but much older. We just walked around the arena one last time.

Thinking back on Buttercup, I'm filled with mixed emotions. She has a hard life living in a tie stall, no turn out, and hauling around little kids everyday. Kids that bounced on her back, pulled on her face, and smacked her with a crop when her weary little body was too slow. There must be a special place for those ponies that taught us to ride. Although she is long past now, I like to think that she spent her last days earning a reward of turnout and peppermints.

Weighty Issues

This is an actual picture of me trying to ride a horse.

 Okay, maybe not.

By the way, these lovely props are from my classroom. What you see in the background in my library. 

This is how I feel on a horse though. Probably what the horses feel also.

I feel I need to make a disclaimer here that these are my opinions about myself only. I do think that everyone should make their own decisions and choices as to riding.

So, how did I come to this conclusion for myself?

So glad you asked!

The typical standard answer for how much weight a horse can carry is 20% of their weigh. This article from Horse Science News has a short article confirming this and also notes that this is the same guideline that the U.S. Calvary used in 1920. That is a pretty good general guideline, except I think a lot depends on what is being done with the horse and how experienced you are.

Obviously if you are riding a jump course your weight is going to affect the horse more than if you are just hacking out on a flat well groomed trail. Thinking about what the horse is being expected to do is just as important as how much work you are expecting them to do. Walking around an arena so you can socialize with your friends is a lot easier on a horse than trotting down the trail for several hours. Not to mention how well you know to ride. A beginner can hurt a horses back by bouncing all over the place, where as a heavier person who know how to balance can make the ride easier for her horse. So I don't believe that weight is the only reason to not ride, fitness, goals, and ability also need to be taken into account.

In my other blog, Fearless Riding, I  was overweight and rode. I was also a lot more fit. Back then I was taking care of chickens, goats, horses, exercising every day, and just being a whole lot more physical. I had a better diet and was making progress to losing weight. I was overweight, but I was also very strong.

Today, I have lived in the city for several years. I have to be honest with you that city life is not the life for me. I have dealt with depression and everything that goes with that, including lack of energy and stress eating. I do teach (and 3rd and 4th graders can keep you on your feet!) but at the end of the day, I am exhausted and don't have much energy left over. Hubby also was a factor. He loves his carbs, and I am no stranger to crackers, bread, potato, and rice. It did not take much to convince me to up the carb intake. I changed my diet down here. Oh and entering my 40's didn't help either. All that has lead to an increase in my weight. So much so that I don't personally feel like it would be fair to ask a horse to carry my weight.

Another reason that I am not riding is my butt and thighs. They are HUGE! It changes how I sit in a saddle and how I FIT in a saddle. It is harder to keep position with all that fat in the way. Not to mention that it is difficult to keep everything still. I have good balance and all but fat jiggles and moves. Fact of life people. My butt cheeks and stay in the same position, but my butt bones move.

My extra weight also makes me nervous to sit on a horse. I know that my muscles are not strong, my core is weak, and if I fall there will be issues. Being overweight is more than just the extra pounds I carry around. It is how it affects my breathing, makes my joints weaker. My knees are sore all the time and I have hip pain from time to time.

So for me there is no riding until I slim down and get stronger.

I will talk more about this on and off. I don't want to boring you with my struggles, but I also know that I am not the only one that struggles. I hope others can learn from what I share.