It’s That Time of Year (Again)

/ Ashley Wingert / 2 Comments

After flirting with temperatures that more closely resembled spring and seriously called into question that so-called Groundhog’s Day proclaimation of “six more weeks of winter,” today Arizona remembered that it’s still technically winter.

We went from sunny and 70s to chilly, windy, cloudy, 50s, off-and-on rain today.

I feel sort of bad, because Mimi has all but shed out the majority of her winter coat.  She’s a pony…she can grow it in again overnight, right?  (If I feel too guilty, there’s always one of her ancient blankets that lives down at the barn that can be pushed back into service if absolutely necessary.)

But I don’t think it’s so much a delayed reaction to the groundhog as it is the weather obeying tradition.

This coming Thursday is the start of the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show.

Every year, it rains around the Scottsdale Show.  Typically not the entire time…but the weather patterns seem to take great delight in dumping at least a couple days of cold, unpleasant weather on determined show-goers.

Not that it really seems to stop people…especially anyone that’s there for the shopping, since the majority of the vendors are under covered tents.  Besides, it’s a good excuse to buy (another) raincoat.

It’s always a fun time…a great place for impulse buying, eating some truly yummy food (and you’re walking the whole show grounds…a perfect excuse to munch all day long), and watching some spectacular Arabians (the people-watching can be kind of interesting, too…).

It always makes me a bit nostalgic for my show days, despite the fact I didn’t show Arabs.  Part of me misses the glitter and sparkle, fuss and frenzy.  And then I remember wearing suede chaps or velvet hard hats in 90*+ weather and I don’t miss it so much.

But I always thought it would have been fun to show an Arab at Scottsdale.

The show technically doesn’t start until Thursday, so I think today is just the weather warming up (cooling down?) for the big event.  Tomorrow is supposed to be bright and sunny again, but Thursday?

Yeah, that’s right.

Rain.

Old Habits

/ Ashley Wingert / 2 Comments

Funny how some habits end up deeply ingrained.  Mimi and I have one of those, a carry-over from our show days.

When I was showing, I always wore spurs, for both English and Western.  Not because she was lazy, or because she needed “punishment,” but because it was one of those little things that differentiated “work time” from “play time.”  When the spurs were on, that meant “Buckle down and work.”  Rail work, schooling, things that required her to be “on” and performing.  No spurs meant we could both relax and enjoy: trail riding, gymkhana, casual play days.

Her responsiveness coupled with using spurs also meant I barely had to move my legs to ask for a gait change…always a plus when it came to equitation classes.

To this day, she still does her best arena work when I slip on a pair of spurs.  We can both work without them, but why make things that much more difficult?  Especially when it comes to arena work, something neither of us particularly love anymore.

Do-It-Yourself Photo Shoot

/ Ashley Wingert / 4 Comments

Can a girl ever have too many pairs of shoes boots?

Nope.

Especially when they’re the right pair.

This is just from the last few years, and doesn’t include the couple pairs currently in use down at the barn.   Some of my earlier pairs have since been salvaged for parts and pieces.  The above pairs range from “barely worn with less than 100 miles on them” to “use only as a last resport because the toes are looking well-ventilated.”

All boots are matched up (with a couple of random sparesies, like the errant green one) and they fit really neatly in one of these Rubbermaid boxes:

As the post title would suggest, I had a bit of fun with a Do-It-Yourself photo shoot.  I needed some shots of the boots, and didn’t really have any that hadn’t been taken for purposes of “this is how they should fit.”  You know, the kind of photo that involves hooves, horse legs, and barn floor.  Even if they are cute pony hooves. 

But I’ve got a great backyard for photo-taking, even if I can’t exactly fit a horse in it. 

Somehow, that didn’t slow me down much.

As seen on Facebook.
Where are your boots taking you this weekend?

Procrastinators R Us

/ Ashley Wingert / 11 Comments

It’s February, and I just got around to taking down the Christmas lights.  I mean, just, as in, ten minutes ago.

I tend to procrastinate.  A bit.

It sometimes carries over to my hoof trimming duties.  In a perfect world, I trim Mimi every 2-3 weeks.  That way, I don’t have to ever take off too much at one time.

But sometimes, it gets pushed out to four weeks.

And then I have to deal with this:

Ack…toes.  And Pony Heels.  Front hoof.

On the surface, they’re not too bad.  Underneath?  Ew.  Winter Feet.

Hind hooves.  More heels.  Not seen is the side flare.

Ever seen the movie, “The Neverending Story”?  Great movie if you like fairy tales.  Which I do.  But I digress.  The point of that is that keeping up on Mimi’s heels is my own personal Neverending Story.  Just when I get it under control, it starts all over again…

And she still has a weird growth line on the right side, just in front of her heel area, where she blew out that abscess.  Y’know, a year and half ago.

Deep frog clefts, made all the worse because it’s really difficult to get in there and trim down her bars, even with my handy little bonsai trimmers.  Part of me has become compulsive about wanting to get all that crap outta there, since I don’t want a repeat of the abscess incident, which I suspect was caused by something getting up under those bars.

White line.  We have separation.  Part of that is coming from the fact that she lives in a stall for part of the day and enjoys walking through her pee spots.

Bit I think a lot of what I’m seeing is the post-vaccine detritus that comes out in their hooves.  Shots given in late October…about three months later…yup, that’s probably the worst of the post-vaccine natural reaction finally growing out.  But that’s worthy of an entirely separate blog post and why I reluctantly given only the very necessary vaccines these days.

But after I got off my procrastinating duff, we got this:

Fronts.  Toes seriously dubbed back.  Heels lowered.  A bit too
low, since she was a little ouchy.  Impatience + procrastination
don’t make good trimming buddies.

Right front.  White line tighter.  Little less stuff crammed in there.
Ignore the weird chunks out of her frog.  My bonsai nippers are
like mini half-rounds and nip out little half-moon chunks.

Hinds.  Not as dramatic, unless you look from the front, where
it is Flare-B-Gone.

Only negative was, as I said, she did get a bit ouchy in the following days.  Which makes me feel bad, even if I know she’s a bit of a pain-wimp.  It is my first time making her ouchy in the two and half years I’ve been trimming her, so I guess that’s something.  And with our concrete-hard winter pasture right now, it’s understandable why she might be feeling all the little rocks and pebbles.

“The Princess and the Pea”, anyone???