Monday, February 18, 2013

Look What The Trailer Fairy Brought Us!



What, you didn't know there was a trailer fairy around dropping off AWESOME horse trailers at deserving peoples homes? Haha, if only, right? Well my fairy comes in the form of my parents! Lets start over!

So my mom and I have tossed around the idea of buying a trailer for a few years. We had one when I lived with them, but sold it with my QH mare I had to get rid of when I got married. My mom calls me out of the blue the beginning of last week and says, "well I've decided since your dad is buying stuff for him, I'm going to by myself something!" And proceeds to tell me to find her a horse trailer. A three or so horse slant, nice looking trailer, no more then 4k. I was pretty excited! Who doesn't like spending other peoples money on things they will get to use? NO ONE! I scoured the internet and came up with a nice (or so I thought) one in TN, right over the Alabama line, so only about an hour and half from us. It's at a trailer lot so she also has several others. Long story short we end up all traipsing up there this past Saturday.

Thank goodness I brought them along instead of just taking money. I went up there to look at a 1991 Jackson 3 horse slant steel trailer, priced at $3995, and came home with a $11,500 aluminum FOUR horse! I know, how the heck does that happen? Well for one thing, the Jackson was a pile of you know what. Its amazing what a picture can miss! (Not to mean misleading saleswomen, sigh) Anyway it was a rust bucket so we moved along to look at the line of MUCH nicer trailers. It took us a while, (the frequent bouts of snow blizzards didnt help!) but we finally decided on the Featherlite pictured above. Its GORGEAOUUUSSS! Here are some more pics:

Love how each stall has a front and rear window, and a top air vent

Rear collapsible tack

Front dressing/tack room

Gooseneck for storage, bed?
So we really liked how most of the other trailers had the dressing rooms converted into mini living quarters. So we will probably do the same to this one somewhere down the line. Do we need it? No, do we want it? Heck, yes! We found one online that is a very similar model to this one with a really nicely done interior that we might model it after.

Thank you mommy and daddy!! We also get to keep it at our place until further notice ;). I can't wait to load my big boy up in it and go somewhere to ride! It is a little overkill for just one horse of course, but this spring hopefully we will be filling the sucker up to go trail riding! Cisco, the BIL's horse (Stormy), my moms (Daisy), and hopefully the FIL will finally find him one! (BTW, went to look at another gelding yesterday, ugh, another big no)

Thats all for now! Will def keep you updated on the changes we do!

I'm leaving you with a picture of my Chloe; I'd say she is the love of my life, but she ties with her daddy, so she is ONE of the loves of my life! Just blessed.


Monday, February 11, 2013

Loving My Saturday Rides

Lookit those cute ears!

I got another free Saturday this past weekend, and you know what that means?? Horsey time! I really can't wait until the sun stays up to at least 6:30, so I can get time in after work. I don't get home until 5:30 or later and that really limits my outside time at this time of year. One more month and we spring back forward in time (March 10th) thank goodness! I lived in Arizona from birth to 14 years and never had to deal with the nonsense until I moved to Alabama.

It was pretty cool that morning so we waited until two or so before we went out there. I was also waiting for the big fuzzy sleepy head to get done with his nap! In the course of the two to three hours that I was out at the inlaws before we rode, I saw Cisco laying down sleeping in three different spots! So funny. That definitely set the tone of the entire ride, too. His energy level was about a 2!

Went out with my little brother in law of course. Stormy did great again. The BIL didn't have help tacking up this time, so I talked him through some things to get her to stand, etc, and they both did great. (Would love a hitching post, but it is good practice for ground tieing!) Her biggest thing last time was bridling. I think she might have had a rough hand at sometime because she is a tad head shy. I gave her a cookie right after she accepted having the reins up her nose a little (in preparation for over her ears) and after that she seemed much more obliging, lol.

Cisco was a mess on one side from laying down so that took me awhile to get cleaned up. He didn't seem to mind though as he nearly fell asleep. Then he had a foot resting the entire time I was saddling him, so I finally had to pull his hind-end over to get him to square up. Silly boy. Which reminds me, I need to have my mom bring the other cinch from her house to me. The one he uses now when I cinch up pulls the FIRE out of his hair right at the latigo buckle, ripping quite a few out. Which he does not appreciate, lol, poor guy.

We ambled over to the round pen again just to make sure we were all functioning correctly, but didn't stay long. I could see Cisco was going to be a total dead head and Stormy was her normal slow self so we went on up the road again and then back to the pasture and moseyed around in there. The older BIL was down at the far end (right on the other side of the lane going to the other pasture) trying to run some more hot wire to the fence between each of the big pastures. Apparently everyone was quiet excited about the new addition (Cisco) and the BIL thinks the hot wire needs to be, well, hot, to make sure everyone plays nice and stays on their side of the fence.

So we went over there and talked to him a bit, then I asked the little BIL if he wanted to swap horses. Wow, was that a difference! I felt like I was riding a pony, lol. I did like his saddle much better then Ciscos, it felt a lot more solid. I think Cisco needs a bigger one. Sigh, only takes money! I ran her about the pasture a bit, working on turning and such. It took quite a bit of effort but I got her to lope a bit and then let her settle down again. She was sure happy when I got off, I bet! ;)

Stormy the fireball
The BIL had already dismounted by the time I got done, definitely not liking how my gaited horse rode, lol, besides the fact the saddle was too small for him. They are all QH guys, but at least he tried him out.

So after that we made another trip up the road for fun, and I discovered my big gentle giant has no problem with me getting mail out of the mailbox, lol. Then it was back to the house to untack!

I had gotten his blanket in from schneiders a few weeks ago, but this was the only time I had had to try it on him. He was such a good boy standing there while we fiddled with all the straps forever. It looks so good on him!

He says, really?? Its nearly 60 degrees out!
Until next time!!