So lets talk beer...

I'm 22 weeks pregnant and all I want is a beer or a glass of wine. That is an odd thing to think about wanting but I do. The odd twist to this is I can't stand the smell of alcohol, so even if I wanted to drink a glass of wine or have a beer, I would probably vomit trying. I know, great picture in your head huh?

So bring forth nonalcoholic beers and wines. I have been trying them on and off since I got pregnant. So far, I have found two that I like. Lets go over something though.. NA red wine sucks. They all suck. Every brand sucks at making a red NA wine. I have not finished a bottle of it yet. White NA wine sucks. Also add this to the list of bottles I dumped out.

There is hope though, I found a wine called Fre. I picked up a bottle of sparkling "Brut" to try to enjoy this weekend with some friends while they were all drinking. Holy crap it is delicious. I would drink that stuff willingly even when I wasn't pregnant! It is 27% juice, which I found to be quite comical but it is crisp, fruity, and very bubbly. I actually finished that bottle in two days. It was like sparkling apple juice but crisp. Lovely.

NA beer? Buckler. That is it, hands down what it is to be. I just bought a new six pack and I should be finished with it by the time I give birth. (haha shows how much I'm going to town on these huh?)

SO there we are. These two will be my standbys for Xmas parties coming up this year. Keeping the little one from ingesting an actual drink full of alcohol and keeping momma happy. I can live with <.5% per serving of these. I'm not out to get drunk, buzzed, or giddy; I just want to enjoy the taste.

Horses and food oh my!

It's cold here. It's rainy here. That means I plum don't want to do anything. This includes working with Memphis. He has had about a week of no interaction at all from me other than the occasional scratch and groom. Sigh. I don't even know if I'll be out tonight because it's gonna be cold. That means I won't see him again till Sunday. (barn owner is having a 4-H Halloween party this weekend... yeah right for me going out there)

Oh well. I'll work him in the barn on Sunday if I have to. I can just get her to move the tractor for me and lunge him a bit. When it rains the horses stay up in the stalls, so I know he has a ton of energy right now. Poor bubba. I know he'll survive though.

Woah, and next month is one year of ownership! Memphis has also turned 6! I feel somewhat failure to him as I really haven't done much with him. Oh well, I will. I got this. I think.

I need to also start updating the food part of this. People keep asking me for some of my recipes of my new stuff. Sigh. So demanding. :)

Other than that, everything is peachy here.

More baby garbage

I wake up in the mornings and edge my way to my kitchen (after the bathroom of course). I usually let the dogs out the back door, talk to the chickens, and rummage for old leftovers that I can give to the chickens. I, being the new crazy mom that I am, have put the ultrasound pictures to little Lucy on my fridge. Somehow it fit on there next to all the garbage we already have on our fridge, but it works haha

Now, I realized this morning that I am turning into that parent. I'm terrified to be honest. I felt her last night kicking me from the outside and I couldn't help but just be amazed.

I'm going to go curl up with my iced tea now and be amazed that I am now "that guy"

Go me.

Well, it's confirmed, there is a baby in there

This is so not horse related although I'll give a tiny Memphis update when I'm done.

I saw my little baby on Monday!!!! And despite my own intuition about it being a boy, its a GIRL! I'm beyond excited about having a girl, more so I think than I would have been if it had been a boy. Funny, as my barn owner was the only one to suggest that it was a girl; everyone else was sure that it was a boy. Even better was she looks perfect on the scans! Little toes, little fingers, hehe tiny arms and legs, and of course a tiny nose! Who can resist such a thing?!

Oh lord, what have I become! I always said I'd never be "that" parent, but are you reading what I just posted?! I'm head over heels for this little person in me! I think somebody replaced my anti-kid genes and put some kid friendly ones in there. That is the only explanation. The only one.

I hope she likes horses hah

Memphis is doing well. I like his new food and I can tell a difference in handling him. He isn't constantly in a state of OMG anymore. (I have no idea how else to describe it) He is also patient to be stand tied. So I am pleased. :) I was out Tuesday to see him but didn't do anything with him. He walked up in the field and was content to just stand next to me the entire time I was out there, which is a first. Not sure what that was about, unless he likes to work.

I think my riding days are over till the baby comes. :( I'm starting to feel top heavy and so I think that I will take this time to perfect some gaits on the lunge line and maybe teach him a few stupid tricks or something. I also couldn't live with myself if something happened to the baby because I just HAD to ride. Memphis will be there when I get done cooking the baby. :)

Day 2 of saddling work

Yesterday went back out to work on the saddling thing again. We did everything all over again, starting with basic ground work, then some lunging, and then saddling again.

Now, I am not sure if he put blanket together with RUN because once I got it close to him he was ready to take off, so after a few goes I figured out it was just a game to my big idiot and I don't take kindly to these types of games.

That's find Memphis, you get to work harder in a smaller circle. This was short and to the point. It was also ugly. Thankfully, I had enough brains to remember to stay at his shoulder, correctly hold the lunge line, and keep a calm head. I never got mad or frustrated with him. I just happily walked around in a circle.

A few times he did rear up or jump back like it was a stick of fire or something just like Sunday, but nowhere near as dramatic. Took a total of 10 minutes. The saddle pad went on, all pressure was released, he took a breather and everything was right in the world.

Again, he saddled just find after this and I'm very positive that he would have let me mount up. I did not though, because some kids showed up to ride in the arena and they were using flags on their horses (getting them used to it) and the risk of him flipping out and me getting hurt. My balance isn't exactly 100% right now.

So Sunday is supposed to be nice and I'm gonna do it all over again then. I actually think I'm gonna work on woah on the lunge a little more since my cute little bugger thinks he has his own ideas about it.

Overall, I'm super happy about him and super impressed with him. I love my idiot :D

Day one of issues from the ground: saddling

So, I know I've mentioned this before but I just now got around to working this one out with Memphis. This one required time and patience. Lots of time and lots and lots of patience. Since it took so much time, I only worked on saddling. I'll be back out on Weds to work ont he mounting.

I showed up at the barn and gathered all my materials:

Memphis
Lunge line
Lunge whip
Saddle
Saddle pad
Bridle
Riding crop
Mounting block

I started with just basic groundwork just to make sure he knew it was time to work. Just a halter, lead rope, and the riding crop on my wrist for back up to commands. We worked on walking next to me, woah, back, and moving away from pressure on the sides. I then switched over to some basic lunging, making sure he followed me asking for him to go forward in each direction and backing up the forward command. Then I made sure he remembered Woah.

Now the fun part! I grabbed the pad and we started to REALLY work. I held the lunge line in my left hand and the pad in my right. I lifted the pad up and the second he moved away, I dropped the pad, and he was immediately sent out to work. He had to move his feet, no walking, I wanted a rack, runwalk, or canter.

We did this over and over. Pad tries to go on, he moves, he gets worked. Pad tries to go on, he moves, he gets worked. He started to REALLY sweat so I decided to work him a little closer than keep sending him out. This was his funny AH HA moment. I worked him in a tight circle with pretty much me at his shoulder, his head slightly turned towards me and the pad in my right hand. I would lift, he would move and I would lift, he would move and we would go around and a around.

This was NOT pretty. The first few times the pad touched him and he would rear back acting like it was a cattle prod or something. THen the pad was allowed to start touching him and then I could stick it on and I release all aids and relaxed. I moved off his shoulder some, dropped the lunge line to give his head freedom, and waited.

I removed and replaced the pad about 5 times, turned it around on his back, and slid it all over and he didn't move at all. So we moved towards the saddle going on his back.

HOT DOG! The big horse didn't flinch at all for the saddle going on. Let me cinch him up and let me walk him around. I took it off and redid it and he still stood like he'd done it ten billion times before.

Even better? I walked him over to the mounting block, stood up on it, and put some weight in the saddle: HE DIDN'T MOVE AT ALL!!!!

I stopped it here. He did what I asked him to do. When he allowed me to saddle him all the work for him stopped. He didn't have to do anything more. I'm going to redo this on Weds with the hopes of getting into the saddle and him not moving around. If so, I have no issues sending him out to work.

And that was working with my big dumb horse today :) I'll update on Thursday or Friday!