Seventh Heaven

It's rare that I can grab a shot of all seven of them!

We are all still enjoying the cooler weather.  Savannah likes to come and hang out with me when I am on the golf cart.

Chevy will wait until she is gone, then he likes to come and hang out for a bit.

Gypsy and Hanovi like to hang out with me any time they can.

And the ponies are getting to the point where they want to be near me too!

They are all so awesome!

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Day by Day~Step by Step

Being around the horses reminds me of raising children, the days are long and the years are so fast.  Or at least the months are.  I can't believe we have had the horses here for eight months now.  It seems like they just got here in some ways, and it seems we have always had horses in some ways.  Each of the horses has their own issues, and each is moving forward at their own pace.  I see progress in all of them.  Some of it can seem very minor to me, because it is moving along pretty slowly, but it is still there.

Bella has been working on her halter training and being more respectful so I have been spending as much friendly time with her, moving her feet around by using the carrot stick and then playing with her in fun ways.  Sophie decided that looked like fun a few days in, so she usually joins us.

We spend lots of time having fun with these tubs that Robin gave us, and as long as I switch it up quite often and throw in treats randomly, Bella loves it.  I stack them all different ways and move her around them and then let her knock the towers over and move the tubs around by rolling them or scooting them.

Sophie sometimes gets nervous about all of the movement but she will come back if she gets spooked.  Mia would move far, far away at first and then she stuck around a bit closer and watched.  On Saturday she made a big leap for her.  While I was waiting for Bella to finish drinking water, I was setting up the tubs and heard someone behind me and realized it was Mia.  As soon as she looked at me, I retreated and she went to the tubs to play with them until Bella came over.  For the past few days, she joins right in and plays alongside of Bella.

She even tells Bella what to do at times, which Bella is not used to.

It is really neat to watch them work together to solve the puzzles, and it is incredible to have Mia stay near me for so long, while there is lots of movement and interaction.

I have been taking steps with Sophie, moving towards haltering her also.  She is people friendly as a whole, so lots of approach and retreat and friendly game with her right now.

 And last but not least, Savannah is working so hard to not be bracy and dominant around humans.  She is seeking me out more and more, like today when I was putting out hay.  I sat and just hung out with her trying to be as soft and quiet as possible and she little by little moved closer and closer to me and went softer and softer the longer she stayed.

I am so proud of all of them!

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Aric Visits Us for the Week

Aric and I share the same birthday, so we usually try our hardest to spend the day together.  Last year he took his week's vacation and spent it with us up at The Villages.  This year he did the same to spend the week with us at our new place.  On our birthday, we went out to eat and then went to the movies.

Beyond that, we have just been hanging out at home.  He has been spending time with Atlas.

He has also spent some time with me and the horses.  Today we groomed them, and they looked so nice afterwards.

I missed a picture of Gypsy after her grooming, but here is one of her and Chevy.  She has a bit of a crush on Chevy and follows him around all day long now.

The ponies are doing great.  Bella is still growing like a weed. She and Sophie are becoming more and more comfortable with me.  Mia is moving more slowly, but I see progress in her also.

The guys started on my birthday present tonight: a round pen! I am so excited about seeing this going up.  It will give me space to work with the horses one on one. 

Poor Ava and Aubi did not make it into the pictures this week, but they are both doing great too! We are really enjoying our life here out on our little piece of land in the middle of nowhere!

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Chevy Update and Savannah's Ears

My Mom asked if I was losing my interest/love for Chevy because she didn't hear me talk about him and working with him so much since he arrived.  I assured her my love and interest and working with him is as strong as ever.  

I don't talk about him quite as much because he is the one I know the best, and right now I'm working hard to get to know the other three as well as I know him.  So I'm fascinated by all I am learning there and sharing that.

A quick update on the rock star: he is doing great!  Since I have three other horses out in the pasture and don't have space set up yet to work one on one with him, much of our interaction is out in the pasture or our yard with the three other (sassy) horses.  

Which means he has been exposed to lots of carrot stick waving, strings in the air, driving, tagging, big energy and horses reacting to it in sometimes stubborn and dramarific ways.  

All of which has been wonderful for him.  So much so that he has decided to start acting like the other (sassy) horses!  Which is fabulous!!!!  Whatever they do, he is right there wanting to do it too now.  Even when Nathan is out there, which is huge!

When I went to let them out of their feeding stalls today, he decided to see if he gets special privileges because he is after all my Chevy Chev, and I took the carrot stick and drove him back.  His response was to nonchalantly move one foot at a time as slowly as possible until I stopped.  I'm so proud of his progress and love seeing him transition in some big ways for him. 

I still adore him as much as ever and daily tell Nathan that I get choked up when I see him "right here".  It is one of the neatest things ever to me and I don't see me ever tiring of it, or him.

Savannah, his buddy, is doing great too.  She still has this thing with wanting to pin her ears as her default mode sometimes.

The good news is, as soon as I address it, she is quick to remember that we like nice and friendly ears here, just like at the sanctuary!
She is also a great one to ask me questions...what?  Is it the ears????

Yes, the ears Miss Vannah!  Ok...no problem!  I can do that!

Much better!  She is a gorgeous girl when she is soft and friendly!  You can see why Chevy is smitten with her, right?

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Sunrise With the Fab Four

Little by little we are settling in and finding our groove.  My groove mostly centers around the horses, of course.  Much of that is the work that goes along with the horses and clearing the yard so the grass is able to be used fully by them.  Some of this feels like having toddlers again because there is the daily care of feeding them and then cleaning up after them.  Meaning I spend hours and hours scooping poop.  Because it is hot here already, I have been trying to get up and outside earlier and earlier so I don't get as dehydrated and over heated.  This morning, Nathan woke me up before 6 am so I went ahead and got up and was outside by 6:10.  It was nice and cool and I got to watch the sunrise with the fab four.

 Chevy and Savannah played it cool and barely glanced at me.  Gypsy and Hanovi don't know how to play it cool and came to see me right away.

Good morning Gypsy girl!  How are you this morning?

I would be flattered, but she is mostly looking for treats.  She's a bit pushy!

Hanovi tries to get equal attention.  He is not so pushy, so he tries the subtle approach.

I know what he wants: friendly game with the carrot stick.  The nasty bite mark is compliments of Chevy.

Gypsy girl decides if no treats are around, then she doesn't need to be either.  Which is just fine with Hanovi, who loves one on one attention.

What a lovely way to start the day.  

Now if only I could get out here every day before 7 am!  

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It's a Bird, It's a Plane....

or maybe it's just the neighbor, riding his horse Peanut.  This was the Fab Four last night, forming a captive audience for the show they were providing for us.

It made for nice entertainment for me also, since I was out there scooping and raking the yard.  I know I'm biased, but aren't they a great looking bunch?

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Mother's Day

We had a different kind of a Mother's Day than I've had for the past few years.  But it was very typical of the time period when I had five kids still living at home with us.  So it felt "normal" to me.  It started with me making breakfast with a nice view.

After breakfast, it was outside to do clearing the back pasture and fencing the front pasture.  It was hot outside, so we took lots of water breaks.  I stopped to make lasagna and a cake.  I saw then that the girls and Daniel had sent me the nicest texts wishing me a nice Mother's Day.  It made my day to see that after working so hard all morning.  

Then Austin joined us and gave me the Mother's Day gift I asked Nathan for.  He helped put up the fence posts.

He also brought me a card and flowers.  How sweet is he?

The guys finished up all the posts.  So the only thing left at that point was the wiring and electric box.  We will go back later and put up the permanent fencing.  Auburn came home and surprised me.  She brought me a sweet card and a beautiful flowering bush to plant outside.  It was even purple!  I was really beaming at this point.

The horses just hung out front, relaxing and eating the grass.

It is a wonderful thing to see Chevy hanging out near the guys while they are working and making all kinds of noise.  When he first arrived, he ran away from Nathan when he saw him.  He has decided he is ok at this point and barely glances at him.  Don't get me wrong: he still keeps one (or two) eye/s on me to make sure I am still around.  

It is still huge progress though!  And of course our town mayor is supervising things from her perch:

Surrounded by love, what more could I want for Mother's Day? It was a good day!

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Horses in My Yard!

We are settling in more and more, and so are the horses.  It is getting very hot here, so I head out to do pasture work around 7 am now.  I have plenty of help while I am out there.  Usually from Gypsy and Savannah.  Actually, I think Gypsy is looking for treats or back scratching.  Still, she keeps me company so I'm not complaining.

Even though I really didn't want to let the horses out in the front until we finished the fencing, due to a lack of rain and big appetites that became impossible this week.  We opened the gate and they just stood there until I drove them out.

They didn't know quite what to think when they first came out and saw there was a lot more space and a lot more grass.  They ran and ran across the pasture, kicking up their heels as they went.  Then they saw there was grass-lots of grass-and got busy on it right away.  Here they are hanging out near Peanut, our neighbor's horse.

I said from the get go, that I didn't want the horses in our "yard".  Other people who shall remain nameless laughed at me.  But really, I just didn't want them in the little bit of space we have claimed as our yard.  That lasted all of two and a half weeks.  They are in our yard.  While I am not enjoying the packages they are depositing in my yard, it is really neat having them so close to us.

Of course, some modifications had to be made.

But I was outside with them all week long and think it's rather nice now that I've adjusted.  Chevy thinks it's pretty cool that he can really hang out with me now.  I was reading a book during my lunch break and he decided we should still eat lunch together.

They are all being exposed to new things and doing well with them.

And now that Ava has figured out that the horses really do belong here, they are a constant source of entertainment for her.  She barks when she can't see them now.  

I think I will we will all miss them when they move to their pasture!

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