Cob Jockey

A few things have come together lately to make me feel like we are about to go through a blogging renaissance. And I have decided I'm going to say that out loud so that I can will it into existence.

I mean, first of all, Google finally fixed the "Insert Photos from Google Photos" UI, which, to be honest, I thought would never happen. I thought they'd let Blogger die on the vine like so many Google products before it, and they would leave it almost unusably broken forever until they killed off Blogger. But no! It's fixed! And it's not only fixed, but improved! Better than ever!

For those that don't use Google Photos, if you allow it to back up your photos from your phone, any photo taken on your phone shows up here within seconds. Extremely handy for blogging.

 

It loads in a second or two, and it now integrates Google Photo's incredibly powerful search right into it. So you can type "saddle" and it will pull up all your recent photos of saddles. "Brown dog" and it won't show you your photos of white dogs. "July 20, 2024" and it will pull up your photos from just that day.

On July 20, 2024 there were lots of Eva photos

I didn't realize how much it was affecting my desire to blog when it was so difficult to add photos these past couple of (seriously) years, but it turns out, it was. A lot. And now that it's not only fixed, but better than ever? Watch out!

Real glad it got fixed just in time for me to document every breathe Eva takes

Next up, I have at least one report that commenting is working again. For the record, this was a global problem that had more to do with browsers preventing sites from tracking you (good) which Google apparently didn't like because they want to track your every move and advertise to you (bad). 

If you're still having issues commenting, turn off your preferred browser's version of Enhanced Tracking Protection for each affected site. In Firefox, that's the little shield in the toolbar:

And finally, I am seeing more people blog again in general, including at least one new blog that I know of, and that's my right hand woman/barnmate's blog, Pinto Party. Please give her a warm welcome and a follow!

To those who have kept blogging and commenting, you guys are awesome and I commend you. For those who are waiting on a sign to start, or re-start, this is your sign!

Eva is getting a quiet first week at the barn. I've groomed her a little, taken her out into the indoor a little, but mainly I've been taking the time to get to know her, be curious about her, and to let her get to know me.

We read a book together on Monday night

I am constantly jaw-on-the-floor amazed at her brain. She is so smart and so people-oriented. For one example, she has continued to meet the morning feeder at her Dutch door and walk herself in.

 

(Do you know which of our other five horses that have lived here for months/years do that? Exactly none of them, lol.)

Who us? Side note: had a chuckle the other night when I realized we have six horses on the property right now and none are the same color and none are bay! We have a medicine hat paint that is basically all white, her overo son, a classic copper penny Chestnut, a flea-bitten grey, an orange chestnut with flaxen mane and tail, and now Eva, who is black.

 

She's cuddly, but polite enough that I could sit in a lawn chair in her paddock with her, because I know she won't nibble or get in my space. She's hyper-aware of her surroundings, but not reactive. Even when the idiot geldings came flying up from the far corner of their pasture at Mach 5 and she was standing over me in my chair, she just put her head up and watched them calmly.

This was about how close she wanted to be to me most of the time as I read.

She learns quick, too. Her stall was a disaster the first day as she tried to figure out being in a stall for one of the first times ever. She went from salt block to hay, salt block to hay, all afternoon, like '*poke poke* "Do something"' and churned it to hell. But the next day? Her stall was as neat as Connor's, and has continued to be ever since.

And finally, every time she sees me, she beelines over to me, and I'm sure it's not just me she does that with - she just loves people. It would be one thing if she was rude or pushy or not respectful of personal space, but she's not, not at all, so instead it's just cute and endearing.

Leaving Connor to come say hi to me

I'm beyond excited to start really working with her, even though I'm reminding myself that all this baby stuff IS working with her. She is going to be a really fun one to start.

"Jesus take the wheeeeeeeeeellllllllll," I yelled as Connor absolutely bombed down the grid Mary had set up the weekend before. You could practically hear him yell "Cannonballlllllllllll!" right back as he ignored me completely and just Did The Thing. His way.

Thank you for flying Air Connor, shut up and hold on

Connor had more impulsion than either of us knew what to do with that day, so even though I was in a Dressage saddle and had my leathers Dressage-length, I sent him down the grid anyway. Homie needed to burn some energy, and he's schooled enough that I knew I could let that grid and the consequences of his choices do that for me.

Part of the reason, I think, that he had so much impulsion was that damn Wow saddle. I told myself I was buying a cheap old whatever for Disco, and even though it's not yet professionally adjusted to fit him, Connor has been telling me loud and clear he likes it.

The mirrors are really helping too. Nothing like coming down the long side, seeing that his nose is crooked, and fixing the hand that's preventing it from being straight.

 

It's got flaps down to my ankles and blocks that I should hate and might actually be 20 years old and is the old style tree so it weighs more than an anvil and I paid basically $800 for it, so of course he likes it better than the Patrick I spent the better part of 3 years trying to get.

Giving me the world's tiniest collected canter over trot poles and then using that power to jump me out of the tack.

Like, he's going ridiculously well and is happy doing it. He's doing better collected canter than he ever did when we were showing Dressage. The kind that makes me think maybe I could still get my bronze on him.

Not super collected here, but this is a crazy well-balanced left lead canter for this horse. And no underneck.

But I'm not putting that kind of pressure on us. In fact, the only pressure I might be putting on us is a speedbump-level event in November with the rest of my barnmates. He's really enjoying jumping, so why not?

Things that are lost in this GIF: me yelling "That's not how that's supposed to work!" as he cantered all of the ground poles and hit every single one.

We are just having fun. Both of us. And that feels good.

Finally did it sanely. No cannonball. Good boy.

*chuckles* I'm in danger.

Meet Castleberrys Ebony Everlasting, or Eva (pronounced "Eh-vah"), Castleberrys Ffafr ap Culhwch x *Rhosyr Ebony by Gwenllan Brenin Mon. She's just turned 5, and, somewhat unbelievably, is a full (younger) sibling to Encore, because she's absolutely nothing like him in terms of color, build, height or personality.

CobJockey-for-scale photo: she's barely 14hh, so an inch shorter than Connor and almost a full hand shorter than Encore. She may still grow some, Connor grew over an inch between 5-6.

In all my fourteen years of knowing Lisa, I have never known her to be so desperate to see what one is capable of under saddle, and I fully understand why. This mare tied for the site-wide high score at the 2022 Bannockburn Farm Belgian Warmblood NAD Keuring, with absolutely glowing comments from the judge, who always likes her Cobs a lot, but he isn't a Welsh guy and doesn't normally lavish THAT kind of praise on them at the Keurings. But Eva is different.

Lisa had been asking me to take her on for a while, not to be sold, just to see what she was capable of, but things had been so crazy for me, I kept declining. Finally, my life finally settled down enough that I could handle two again, so on a warm, sunny July Saturday, Lisa dropped her off. And almost 24 hours later, I think I'm still picking my jaw off the ground as I write this.

Her build is amazing, her movement is amazing, but THAT BRAIN is the real headline here. She came off the trailer like a seasoned show horse settling into show stabling, not like a 5 year old that was just pulled out of a hundred acre pasture. She never screamed, drank straight from the auto-waterer without spooking when it started refilling (all the new ones spook at that at first) and spent about 10 seconds studying the first hay net she'd ever seen before diving in.

Homegirl needs to lose a few pounds, which is saying something because she's been living her best life  on 24/7 turnout on a hundred acre partially-wooded pasture with the rest of the yeld Castleberry mares. And we've been in a mild drought most of the summer, so nobody's pasture is particularly lush right now. No grain, no supplements, no hay. Cob metabolisms are something else.

 

Turnout, too, was equally a non-event. I turned her and Connor (our resident professional new guy greeter) out in the drylot and put the other four horses in the big field, separated from them by a fence with a hot top strand. She and Connor sniffed noses before turning away from each other to graze with nary a squeal. She even walked away from both him and the herd to graze by herself in the next paddock over within minutes of being turned out.

And even when she did finally walk over to introduce herself to the peanut gallery, again, not even a squeal, just a polite nose sniff before walking away.

Gelding gang getting excited to meet a new lady

Then as if I didn't already love her enough, the report from the morning feeder was "I was all ready to put her halter on and lead her into her stall, but she walked right over to me and walked into her stall all by herself. She's really smart!"

Smart, curious, brave, people-oriented, respectful. Lisa said she was sweet and easy, but I didn't realize just how easy she was going to be. And that's a good thing, because she's neon green, a total blank slate. She leads and that's about it, which is an exciting challenge for me. 

Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii...like this horse.

We are moved. My horse and I are (basically) sharing an address for the first time ever.

This was taken from my bathroom window.

It has been a heck of a month. Every bit of free time I had was spent getting my old (and, it's truly old) house ready to be sold. Since we are asking finished home prices for it, I couldn't have any frayed edges showing that might make a buyer think it needed work. 

Absolutely unbelievable amounts of mulch. I was so tired.

But it paid off. This is my baby. Every bit of it completely transformed over the last nine years since I paid $80,000 for a long empty 3300 sqft house that looked like a haunted house from the outside.

As soon as the last task was checked off the list hours before listing photos were taken, I felt myself start to come back to life. I started seeing my horse again. Really seeing him. Brushing him. Doing more than just a quick hoof pick and cleaning his stall. I haven't swung a leg over since the endurance ride, but I can feel myself wanting that again.

I also started seeing - omg where did these weeds come from?! lol

And doing other farm maintenance chores I'd ignored like dragging and watering for the first time in a month. My fellow co-op members totally understood when I said that some things would fall by the wayside for all of June, and even picked me up when I needed it - I only had 11 feeding shifts in June (should be 14-17), and they occasionally also did my stall. This is the power of the co-op: everyone pulls their weight as much as they can all the time, but when one of us needs picked up, we've got her back. I am eternally grateful for these wonderful people.

Tractor driving skills test: made it!

But as hard as selling the old house is, there's no doubt in my mind that moving out here is the right call. For one - my neurotic special needs child Meatloaf is the happiest and most relaxed I've ever seen her.

She hasn't slept this hard this often in the four years I've owned her. It's incredible.

I didn't realize how anxious she was living in the city until we moved out to the farm, and instead of asking to go out every half hour to investigate something she heard outside, she's now sleeping. A lot. And only asks to go out once or twice a day, if that.

Our new backyard. No fence needed, because Meatloaf thinks she's the only dog on earth out here.

They are, of course, also getting a lot of exercise. To get to the barn, I have to walk from the back end of the farm property to the middle of it, which is about a quarter mile walk. I could drive, and I probably will when the weather is bad, but how could I say no to this commute?

The dogs absolutely love this walk

For another, it just feels right. I grew up on a farm, and it feels like coming home. It is home.