Leaps and Bounds

Yesterday, I was thrilled with this sort of acomplishment--Hammer being quiet enough to get this done. Just letting me on him made me happy. Remember that? Just yesterday, it was.


Tonight, we trotted. This was our first time. I heard he had a nice trot, and he totally does. Forgive the pics-it was almost dark, and Mad is just learning my camera.
I felt pretty comfy on him. And since I had just taken Gyro for a trail ride with the neighbor, he had to be pretty good to measure up. Okay, to tell the truth--Gyro acted like a fruit bat on our trail ride. That irritated me but does not scare me in the least as I know her so well. To shift gears and then feel solid on Hammer is such a huge deal for me.
This is the hillbilly obstacle course Madison made for us last nite--poles on the ground--wadded up matting that moves and makes noise when he steps on it--buckets and pan, and diesel cans---and Hammer quite happily trotted over them. I was so excited.

After playing a while, I dismounted and we played our mount dismount mount dismount game and tonight, you never would have known it was ever an issue. He was perfect.

What do you make of me, riding two nites in a row? And God willing, I will be back up there again after work--maybe Madison and I will take a short ride, as her ankle is feeling better. I am having a great time.

Last note of the day-- I lost another 1.5 pounds. I am now within .5 pound of the lowest I have gotten on this round of weight loss--and while that sounds like I have screwed up and wasted all the summer (which I kind of have), I have been really working hard. And I am still moving the right direction---right on to me.

Scenes from an almost perfect day

Finally, I got back to doing what I love--riding horses. I am so busy that this quite often gets put off to some other day--and then does not happen. But TODAY-- I went trail riding with Randy, Linda and my mom, about an hour away from here. Sure some things went wrong (flat tire on trailer, potentially stolen tractor when I got home, etc)....but the rest of the day was awesome.
Mom rode Gyro, probably for the first time. Gy is always a treat in every way so mom had lots of fun. The weather was perfect--about 70 degrees. In August, for Pete's sake.
Radar and I had a great time--every time I get on him, I am reminded how much I love this horse. I mean really love him. I am not selling him. So there Barry (please don't be mad, I just cannot do it). I love him.
Due to all the hangups getting there, I arrived sans-beer. I know--almost unheard of right? But a safe move when one is going to meet Head. He always is stocked. He can hook a girl up. The only thing to make a day horseback better is a cold beer at the rest points, so it is good that he is reliable in this way. But when Head busted out these little bitty beers, I cracked up. He had a selection of regular size beers and beers for midgets or children, and you could not know which one you were getting when you stuck your arm in the saddle bags. It was like some bizarre game of spin the bottle, I swear.
And you know he is a real horseman, just by this scene back at the trailer. A real horseman never takes his spurs off--he just changes boots instead.

When we got home, I discovered some unfortunate things- my head almost spun plumb off my shoulders and I had the beginnings of a full-blown come apart. The details of that may or may not come later. I did not want to skimp on Hammer boot camp due to fury though, so we got him out and went through the motions of his refresher course of saddling and stirrup flopping. He was so good tonight that we decided to push our luck, and ended up having a great ride. Hammer was the same horse I brought home from the trainer three weeks ago and not that raving lunatic that I dealt with last week. We played around in the hay field for a while, until Madison got bored with me. She set up a bunch of obstacles for me--cavaletti, scary diesel cans and wadded up tarp stuff--anything she could think of that happened to be laying around (and that can be just about anything in my world). Nothing put Hammer off--even kittens jumping out at him at Mach 2--he was a rock star. We played til dark, then gave him the night off.

It is amazing how that turned my world around. I was so proud of us. It was the perfect way to end the day.

Two of a kind

We have some serious brotherly love going on here.

Radar was one of the victims for the farrier today-- he and three of his friends needed shoes for Labor Day camping. After each one got done, I put them in the front pasture which has been empty so it could be scalped to de-weed it. That is why it is so short right now--it looks like a low-rent golf course. Anyway, Radar and Hawk have been separated in different pastures, until today.
I do not know how much Hawk cares about Radar, but Radar thinks Hawk is the second coming of Jesus. I forgot about Hawk until several hours after I had turned everyone else out, and had to go back over there to turn him out. When I put Hawk out, Radar came running as fast as he possibly could to greet him like he had not seen him in years. Forget the fact that they had been stalled next to each other all day.

It is really interesting to see them interact.

I kind of suspected this whack was coming. Hawk seems to inspire this weird sort of worship in a lot of horses, so he is used to having to tell someone to get up off his ass. He is pretty nice about though, and almost never has to make actual contact. Radar is kind of relentless though. Notice Radar's ears--he is not saddened by being told to back off...I think it is part of their game with each other.

And they immediately return to palling up and hanging out together. I had been hoping for one of those wild horse scenes where they stand up and strike at each other--it makes great pictures. I did not get it though. Obviously.

Radar is going with me tomorrow to Sam Dale, so we will get to relive this great reunion scene again when we get back.

Horses are so funny.

Someone misses me

My doggies have been neglected lately. With Barry gone, and me picking up the slack, I am not getting many waking hours at home. This makes Slater sad. It makes Simba sadder because really she loves Barry more than anything and he is never here. But she does not make as many sad faces as Slater does.

I am planning to sleep and sleep and sleep this weekend. I am going to fix the lawnmower, get some horses shod for Labor Day, and some more trimmed, work on Hammer and Boogie and spend time with my pups. It is not even supposed to hit 80 this weekend, so it should be comfortable for the hours of bushhoging I need to do.

Barry has some interesting projects this weekend--working on the Sears Tower, the John Hancock Building etc. I hope he does not fall off.

I definitely need some re-charging time.

Day in the life of the Baconator

This is how I have been finding Bocephus when I leave for work in the mornings--asleep under a little tree in the front yard. He has ears like a bat though, so when he hears the door open, he gets up and comes running for his morning greeting from me. Not today. He was sleeping so hard, I could hear him snoring on the porch.

I got close enough to take pics that the clicking of the camera woke him up. This is him giving me the evil eye. I do not know what a peeg does all day that he needs to rest this much.

After I gave up taking pics and got in the truck, he woke up more and sat up on his hiney. I do not see this very often--I do not think it is normal pig positioning. He looked very content to me. Check out those wrinkles on his back legs--and thank God he is not a horse, or those jacked up legs would not serve him well. Poor knock-kneed pig
Sleepy peeg---his big ol yawns crack me up, especially now that he has those little tusks in there. He looks like he could do some damage to someone if he wanted to. He is a very peaceful peeg though, and has yet to use those tusks for evil. At least as far as I know.
About this time, Boce decided he needed to resume his resting.
That required going round and round in circles--three times--just like a dog. I have always thought that Boce thinks he is a dog, instead of a pig. This is just further evidence of it.
Check out that sweet tail. When we first got him as a teeny peegy, I was very disappointed that the screwy curly tail I expected was not reality. Instead, it is this ratty looking thing, with long hairs on the end. I am used to it though, especially because you can grab it sometimes and he will holler at you--which always cracks me up.
Down he went--exactly the way Simba lays down in the bed, face first. More dog like behavior.

This was the best picture ---never have I caught a picture of him rolling up on his back---. you should have heard him quietly squealing to himself as he got settled. He sounded like a baby. He was totally asleep by the time I was back in the truck to go to work.

I do not know what this peeg does all day, but it must wear him out. I know he has been raising that orange kitty--I saw him sharing his peeg food with her the other day. I assume she is a her kitty, but I do not know as I cannot get near it. Boce seems to be taking good care of her though. The rest of the day, he mostly rests, unless he is in the pasture playing with Sly, Twister and Fonz--which mostly means following them around to see if they have food. That rat terrier thing from next door comes over to play with him some too. He must be doing something that wears him out, as I have never seen such a tired piggy as I did this morning.

The Clampetts go to Chicago

Last weekend, Mike, Jenna and I hauled our hillbilly butts up the road to go see Barry in his new digs. Well, I was the only hillbilly, but it is my story, so I am making them hillbillies too.

We got to Barry's apartment a little after 9--it was nice, and what we could see of the neighborhood was nice too. We did not have much time to mess around though, since we had some people to meet at a local resort watering hole. It was on the water --Indian Lakes Resort. That was a lot of fun, to see Jen and other Mike, and meet their friends.

We had a late nite, and that is all that needs to be said about that.

The next day we turned into full-blown tourists. I mean, serious tourists. Mike had seen a place on the Travel Channel that is famous for its weirdo sausage, and he wanted to go there. Thank God for GPS, which took us directly to Hot Dougs Unfortunately, it also took a whole bunch of other people. We arrived at 2:30 and there was a line longer than the block. I do not need reindeer sausage that much, and evidently neither did Mike, as he consented to move along to our next Chicago tourist activity.

That was deep dish pizza at Gino's East. I am not a fan on the deep dish pizza, as it seems to be to just have its toppings on upside down and I do not get that, but I never turn down pizza at all. Barry's GPS, Trixie, took us to the wrong one, but that let us sit outside and enjoy the 70 degree weather. It was awesome.

For our next stage of acting like we have never been to the big city, we went downtown to shop and hang out. We covered a healthy section of State Street and Michigan Avenue, which was fun. It is odd how when you can do that, you just do not. Had we come from some other state, I am sure we would do it more often.

We had a break for a drink at Dick's Last Resort in its new location on the river. While there, I got a text from a friend from junior high, and she was with her friends at the Roof at The Wit. Our server told us it was quite the big deal place to go, but that we were dressed like hillbillies....

And we were of course. We are not the sort of people to let that phase us though, and we went anyway. It was fun to see Julie, and Roof is gorgeous. It is on the 27th Floor of this new hotel, overlooking the river and the downtown area. The only thing more stunning were the people....I don't know if I have ever seen so many stunning people in one place in my life. We spent a few hours there catching up and people-watching. It was a great way to end a nite--and the lines to get in when we left backed up the story that this is a very popular place. You can see some pics here--Roof


We were worn out after that, so we called it a night. It was a great day.

Whirlwind in the Windy City

I'm back from a weekend of debauchery and hedonism in Barry's new neck of the woods.

His apartment complex is really nice and I was surprised at how nice the area was.

Mike and Jenna went with me, and we were busy non-stop from the time we arrived Friday nite until we got home today. So much so that I am too tired to even download the pics. Maybe tomorrow

When I got home today, I saw that Eric and Madison had done lots of work at the farm--the fence in the bull shed area is just a hair from being done, and a new pasture divider was put up--it was easier to take it all down and mow, then put it back up, that it was to try to work around it, so that is what they did. It looks really nice.

All the horses are still well--my plan to keep Sly from putting Twister in the dark stall where he cannot get it seemed to work all weekend. At least, they were all out when I got home, and that has not happened at all lately. It is a shame when my animals are smarter and more determined than I am. I hear Boogie took a pop to the chest and made a nice hematoma that is already healing-- I have not seen it yet. Sounds like he won't die from it. My puppies were happy to see me, the cleaning lady had been here, and pig is content.

I am in decent shape to start the week--or at least I will be by tomorrow morning. My headache is just starting to set in, and I have a good book to work on, so I should be relaxed enough to get a good nite's sleep. I hope so at least, I have a few work hours to make up this week.

Happy Sunday nite!

Matters of some significance

Two of them happened today. In fact, two of them happened after work.

First, I cut off my hair. Well, I did not, Liza did. I have been thinking that it is way past time for a girl to have an actual style, instead of going around looking like bozo. The problem is that we all know by now that I am not about to put any work into my hair. It looks better without me interfering with it--just wash it and go. I don't even comb it when I get out, and it looks best then.

So I had to have something easy, and with a different shape than its natural state of long wild spiral curls that look like corkscrews scared half to death.

This was very exciting for Liza who immediately lopped off four inches off the length in the back and at least twice that in front-- I have freaking bangs now. BANGS. But I like them. She made very cute hair, and now there is so little hair there that I might be able to make it look right. I might could even use a round brush, which is all she used on it--I have never been able to do that before because it always got stuck and had to be cut out. It will also be fine if I do nothing to it, I think. We shall see.


Cutting off my hair is a big deal. My hair has its own fan club--made up of people who do not have to live with it, of course, but it gets lots of compliments. It was time for a change though, and it grows so fast that it will be back soon enough if I hate this. Still, it is a big deal.


I had already sweated it up by the time this pic was taken, so it had rebelled against the work Liza did on it, but you can at least see that I am missing well over a pound or two of hair.

The other thing took almost as much nerve. I had made up my mind that this was the day I was riding Hammer. I have not had a chance to get on him since he got home. He has been running wild since his return. I had mentioned it to Madison last nite, so when I pulled up with my new do, she was leading him in. We fly-sprayed him, and he was far more bothered by that then he had been only two weeks ago. This concerned me a little, but I was not having it.

We took him to the big trailer where most of the tack is and even the saddle pad freaked him out. He simmered though, and we went through the same thing with the saddle. Very strange I thought. We went for a little lunging, some banging of and hopping in the stirrups, etc, and kept getting overreactions to the first try at everything. I found it very odd and frustrating. We kept sacking him out until there was no more flinching. The only thing I can figure is that he is a little beat up from his return home--many nicks, bite marks, etc, that might be a little ouchy--but I am making excuses. He just went backwards without daily work.

I KNOW how quiet he is once you are on him though--watching his trainer ride him convinced me that perhaps Hammer has us snowed. I was not about to let him revert to his old ways with me, I was going to man up and do this.

Eventually, I got my mounting block. Yeah, I am a pansy, but it was a good idea since that barrel saddle we used does not snug up great on him. Madison and I both fiddled with him from there for a while, then sucked it up and got on. The first mount he was a little wonky, a little tense. As she rode--with me leading just in case--you could see Hammer deflate. He was FINE. He visibly relaxed once someone was in the saddle.

Then it was my turn. I cannot tell you how anxious I was. I have no idea why, other than I have known this child since the minute he was born, and he has always been reactionary. Seeing him not act like that in training was incredible, and I had to keep reminding myself of that to psyche myself up for it.

By God, I did it though. And Madison took pics to prove it to Barry.

There was no reactionary behavior at all once I was on him--despite two little kittens stalking us through the whole process, which tensed me up. He is quite nice. All I did was walk tonight, but we will be at this again right away, so I can try out that trot that Bobby bragged on. I was a little anxious with the peanut gallery watching us over the fence line--there were probably 20 horses watching us and he wanted to see them. Before we called it a nite, I mounted and dismounted a bunch of times, and he stood stock still--I guess he just had to be reminded that he knows all this stuff after all, and so do we.

I was so proud of us. We did it, just the two of us, and did a good job. It was fun, and I feel quite content with him. I could not have done it without Madison there to help me and give me the nerve to suck it up and get through it--and before I knew it, we were all having fun. I am lucky to have that kid around here.

All in all, a big day--but a good one.

For a similar story, you can follow the progress of Hammer's older brother, Mojo, who now lives in Pennsylvania. He has had his first two rides this week and they are being detailed at www.themares.blogspot.com His progress is even more noteworthy than Hammer's as he had further to go, and he is being started by non-professionals. It is the ideal situation for him. Go check him out and cheer them on

New lens!

Yay, my new lens came! I flat wore out my 70-300mm lens--it lost its reliability when it came to focusing at the long end of the zoom. I finally sucked up the justification to order a new one, and I busted it out today.

I guess I did not realize just how bad my old one had gotten until I saw the shots I took tonight--especially in aperture priority. I have some practicing to do!

But I did have two photo sessions with two of my young ladies
Little Miss Riot had a request, so she was one of the chosen ones. This week she has had some first--first bath (as a grown up), first, fly spray--after an initial bout of concern, she took both in stride. She is very quietly pretty, I think. Radar is her full brother, and sometimes when you look at her, they look just alike--her mane is not as blond this year as it was last year, but I suspect it will come back. They have similar faces too. She will make someone a great horse.

Tango was the other model tonight. The most significant thing about this is that Madison and Tango have never gotten along. Some time this week though, the whole world turned upside down, and now they are best buds. It is very strange. I don't know if it is because I got on to Madison about how horses can tell if you are scared of them, and she should try to man up around Tango, or what. She sure seems comfortable now though.
I think Tango is darling. I cannot wait to see her grow up. She sure has the genetics to be one hell of an athlete, and two of the best temperaments you could ever want are combined in her. Not much phases her either. Squeak is her mother, and those are some big shoes to fill, but I think Tango might be able to do it.

In other news, re-construction at the farm has picked up the pace again. It is amazing what it does for my attitude to get there after work and see that progress has been made. So I am in a great mood tonite. Eric, my new handyman, fixed the tractor whose PTO was getting fussy, and re-did some fence that needed changed. He has started mapping out the next projects, and man, are they long overdue. It feels good to be able to have these things done now, without Barry and I fighting about it. Since he is gone, he cannot do it, and the last thing he wants to do when he gets home is construction. And I want to spend time with him, not spend the whole time bitching at him. yeah yeah, I know, that is what I do, but still--I am trying!

Also, someone convinced me what I need to do more than anything in the world is roast me some vegetables like squash and zucchini--two things I have never eaten in my life. The zucchini, carrots and baby portobellos were good--pass on the squash, for sure. How bout me, eating some veges. Tomorrow I have to show the Beast my list of everything I have eaten since Sunday. If he complains, I will be shocked, as I have done really well. He will complain about blueberries, but that is too bad. I am still eating tonight though, as I have yet to break 1000 cals, and I know I have to get over that hurdle or I won't lose anyway.

What a weird life this has become.

Mer-mares

I thought I had two of these Mer-mares but turns out I have three. I recently learned that Squeaklet is into it--and she is worse than Cash and Haida Girl, an dI did not think that was possible. Squeaklet LOVES water. She loves splashing it, being sprayed with it, wallering in it, being caught in the rain--you name it, she loves it..
At least she has the decency to look embarrassed that she is doing this RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME.
But see this photo I took tonight--I guess she has made peace with her compulsion--she looked right at me and splashed me. I swear she did.


As crazy as it makes me, since it dirties up the water and makes it take longer to fill troughs every nite, it is kind of funny.

What is not funny is that I am starting to think that this mermaidism is hereditary. This is baby China--Cash's daughter--who clearly has the affliction as well. Great--more years of splashing to look forward to.

In other news---the teeny tiny little spot in my couch that wanted to become a rip--has become a rip. Crap. I need leather repair stuff in a hurry. Any recommendations?

Also tonight, is the season premier of Flipping Out. This ol boy, Jeff, is one crazy SOB. He makes me feel so sane, and like I am not the least bit neurotic after all. Thank God for him

Stormy--in more ways than one

This is what the sky looked like when I got to the farm after spinning class tonight--around 7:30. It was hot, but really pretty, all day. Until I got home to do the things that I do after work, of course.

But that is all right, my whole day was pissy pissy pissy. It was fine until I went for my weigh-in this morning. I was so excited, I knew it was going to be good--and it was not as good as expected. I only lost. 2.25 pounds. Damn it. I really worked hard--2 training sessions, 4 spinning classes, under 100 carbs a day for every day but one--I really thought I would get close to losing all the 7 pounds I had gained back.

But oh no. Hell no. I was so disappointed, that when the Beast got on to me about something, I actually frigging cried. At the gym. Like some sort of damn girl. It was awful. I tried to get away from him, but he caught me at it and that set me off worse. So there I stood blubbering all over his shirt like a mental patient. It was truly appalling.

He worked me so hard though that I got my crying over with--can't cry and sweat simultaneously for very long. It was a good workout. Then I did right eating only a hamburger patty and green beans for lunch, then I worked my butt off at work.

I got caught up in a new case that is very confusing. Round and round I went for 1600 pages trying to figure out which end is up, which is hard enough with some of these cases, but when you have a certifiably insane person doing all the talking it is even worse.

I guess the word spread that I was having a day. One of my antagonizers at work (a good one) has a habit of sneaking up on me and scaring me half to death while I am concentrating. Then he comes in and sits in the chair and THEN asks if he can come in and sit down. He did that, and started asking me some legal stuff. I was trying to concentrate but I think my poor little brain was over-taxed. Before I knew what had happened, we agreed I am an idiot and I threw him out of my office. Then I cackled so long and hard someone came to check on me.

I think the psychotic break is coming on. I really do.

Tomorrow has to be better. I am going to insist it be free of jackassery and people who do not appreciate things. Or else.

Twins, etc....

For some reason, now that I post this pic of Tarzan and Daisy, they do not really look that much alike. Or at least no more than any other set of Slybabies around here. Tarzan is the one in the back, and Daisy is in the front--she has a teeny wiggle of white down her face.
They hang out together though, like a little gang of two. You rarely see one without the other.


This is how Hawk and Radar were, and still are to this day. They aggravate each other, but always pick the other one for their antics. I see Tarzan (Foxy's boy) and Daisy (Snap's filly) doing the same things.


And I cannot even tell you which is which from the back here.

This is Daisy. Of all the babies we have had, Daisy , has to be the sweetest. She so wants to be good, she begs for attention, but is not pushy. She has the funniest little face, very dainty and looks like she is up to something. All she wants is some loving though.

While we were moving horses from pasture to pasture this afternoon, these two and the Ghostie one walked right through the damn fence to pester Barry. Guess someone forgot to plug it in again. They followed him everywhere--he looked like the pied piper, which is not that uncommon around here for some reason.

In other news, we mostly played all weekend. It was swell to have Barry home. We got a lot done Saturday morning, so we took the afternoon off. Which means I totally blew it on the low-carbed-ness. And made an ass out of myself. You would think I would learn.

Today we did more work, had to drive all over the ass end of the State, and ran errands. He is on his way back to Chicago right now. I am going up there next weekend, so this will be a jam-packed week to get things done.

On a side note--this is Something I do not like: When 60 Minutes is running late, thereby screwing up my viewing of Big Brother. Had I known his was going to happen, I could have taken a nap. Me with no nap on a Sunday is not a good thing and this is the second week in a row that it has happened. Not good at all, and no way to start a week.

Like a toothpaste ad

I swear when I talk about this filly, I sound like a toothpaste ad. She's WHITER! She's BRIGHTER!

But I do not know any other way to describe her--now that she is all shed out, she is white white white--I could not see her pasture of horses when I was out there tonight watering. That is not all that uncommon as it is really hilly, and they can get on a down slope and I not be able to see them from the gates. Finally, I saw a little white shot, and voila, I had found the herd! She is like a beacon out there, even in the twilight.

She is a sweet baby though, I love her. Now if she only had a name....she may be the only one left that does not have a name, and that is just pathetic.

Meanwhile, I am on day 6 of the low-carb ass kicking. I started plumping up again, so I had to change things up in here. I have had only one crack and one fight with Subway about having 46 carbs in a 6 inch sammich, and am otherwise rolling right. I have not even had a beer since I started this. If it does not kill me, I will probably wish it had. I got back into spinning finally this week-- I have done three classes and am doing one in the morning as well, and the Beast is trying to kill me in our training sessions. I am holding out til next Monday for the first weigh in--my goal is to drop the seven pounds I have gained. Let's hope it happens!

Eyeballs and varied wonkiness

My mom keeps telling me she is having eye surgery.

This is funny for two reasons. First, Dad is forever having eye surgeries due to his diabetes and I hear the last one has made his eye go all wonky pointing at random things. I cannot abide a rebel eyeball so I am afraid to see it. He did not have much vision in that eye anyway, but it was also hurting, so the surgery fixed that hurting part at least. I hope he does not notice that I do not want to look at that any more than I want to see him without his teeth. It is not like he can see me being appalled by this. So that is funny thing number one--thinking of them as a matched set of jacked up eye people, like some defective salt and pepper shakers

The second thing that is funny about this is that mom is NOT having eye surgery. She is having a friggin eye lift, or eyebrow lift, or both or something of the sort. So not the same as eye surgery. I don't know if she is being a drama queen by trying to make it seem like it is a real medical issue or whether she is losing her mind, and thinks it is kind of the same. Surely not.

There is a pathetic part of this. I too have weird eyelids. I say all the time that if I could get a quick lipo of the lids/lift of the brows, I would damn sure do it. And here comes my own mother and GETS IT. I wonder if we could get a a BOGO on this deal

Round three of Summer 09 training extravaganza

Vixen is now taking her turn at the trainer's. I traded her for Hammer yesterday.
I am pretty sure Vixen has never been in the trailer, but she willingly hopped right up in there Sunday morning. And thank God for it, since it was already 90 degrees at 9:30 a.m. when I was loading up for the big switch.

Vixen's big brother Voodoo was the first one to go to the trainer this season, and he did well. Vixen is much more self-confident, so it will be interesting to see how she gets along. She is a level-headed sort. Her most famous experience is probably when she was a baby and got a bucket stuck on her head in the pasture. What a hoot she was trying to get it off, and taking her stuck head to everyone she knew to get them to take it off. Eventually her mother brought her to me, to have it removed. I like smart horses.


Obviously, her daddy is Sly. Her dam is Wilson's Foxy Gal, an own daughter of Doc Wilson, and out of a daughter of Freckles Playboy. Third dam is by Fox Easter. Like almost all of my horses, she is HERDA N/N, and will be for sale when she gets home from the trainer in a couple of months.

Hammer graduated

Maybe he does not look so proud, but I am so proud of him, I could explode.
We picked him up today from the trainer, and I could not be happier with Hammer. He is such an athlete, but most significantly to me, he is happy, relaxed and willing to work.
He has been very busy, learning the basics and riding out in the big wide open world. As you can see, he was totally content to lope forever in the open fields.
And stop and pose for me occasionally.






Look how happy he is in every picture--he is just one satisfied dude.




That makes two of us. He is going to make a great all around horse for someone--so send some takers my way! His mom is GDA Playboys Melody (Playboys Guard x dtr of Freckles Hustler), so he is loaded up on the Jewel's Leo Bars. Crossing a horse bred that way to a horse bred as intensely Doc Bar as Sly looks like a success after all!