Slowly coming along

I've been slowly working on my horse trailer! Far more slowly than I'd like, but so far:

Today I pulled out the mats and finally got a good look at the floor boards. With the more expert help of my brother and my dad, we've decided we're gonna put untreated oak down. My brother works for a construction/black topping company, and this is what they use on their open flat bed trailers to haul the road equipment. He said the untreated oak would be stronger and last longer than pressure treated pine or anything. The people who put the current floor in apparently didn't know that you're supposed to space the boards at all, they were smashed tight together and were holding moisture. The rubber mats that I pulled out were basically long rubber strips like from tires or something that were 'sewn' together. In other words, they did jack for preventing urine from hitting the boards and then sitting there! I figure I'm going to have my oak boards spaced, and then put solid mats on top, with bedding, that way vast majority of wet spots gets trapped in bedding where it can be picked out and doesn't sit on the wood floors.

I've had to scoop out a mosquito-larva laden puddle out of the manger. I'll still have to clean that out well, though thankfully the water's all out of it.

Mom and I are going to buy the vinyl fabric needed to recover all the mats (black! Unless I find really cool red vinyl, then I want red!) since a couple of them are really really torn up. I'll have to get some more plyboard to use as backing there though.

I also need to fix the lights, some of them aren't working. And, I also need to find a way to turn the plug-in on my jeep for the lights, the trailer plug won't fit the box because it's sideways instead of straight back-facing.

And then I also want to remove all the decals (shame, some of them I like, although there's a fade-through on the front of the For Sale sign that was on it and on the drivers side there's the outline of an old decal that reads Save a Horse... Ride a Cowboy!) and power wash and repaint. I'm going to keep the white/black/red color scheme because it's absolutely adorable, but I also want to paint the inside (it looks like crap, the inside paint is spattered with black and shriveled and cracking) and scrub rust off the latches and handles and hinges and give them all a good WD-40 treatment.

Eye of the Horse

Just popping in to share this absolutely stunning photo I took of Siaga's eye. Getting him to hold still is a horribly difficult challenge! But somehow, the Horse Gods and Goddesses smiled upon me yesterday when I toted my camera up to a very curious horse.

This photo is, by way, available for sale as a high quality print here.

Riding season is upon us!

Well and so...

I bought a new saddle, bridle, breast collar, reins, saddle pad, girth, wither strap for the breast collar, and a few other things. In other words, an entirely new tack set, of the Western variety.

I used to ride western primarily until I learned a bit more about saddle fit and how my western saddle was damaging my horses back, wherein I completely overhauled. I jumped in headfirst and bought my horse a set of English tack, starting with a Wintec dressage saddle with an easy-change gullet system. I've taken dressage lessons and really learned how to hold myself in the saddle.

Missing the Western riding, I dug back into it (with a flying leap) and bought a whole tack set in preparation for the trail riding season. I applied to the Ohio Horseman's Council (I'm still waiting to hear back from them) and I've already been out to ride once this season.

The saddle fits well, though it's a smidge long and certainly makes him look so tiny! But then again, he is tiny! And the breast collar is definitely too big, I'll have to punch some holes in the straps and get the wither strap on there when it comes in, which will help hold it up where it's supposed to be.

Siaga was also so *thrilled* to be my coat hanger for a few minutes while I prepared to switch out his bridle for his halter. At least I can 100% say that my horse is not afraid of bright blue and white plaid flannel shirts.

Seriously though, he's so beautiful. :D

And one more thing before you go, just watch this adorableness.

Big updates!

Well, last Saturday, on the 22 of February, my friends and I went back to Last Chance Corral again to see all the babies and take a hefty donation!

The view from the road.

This bay and the buckskin filly in the middle were both adopted while we were there.

My other update is that.... I bought a horse trailer! It's in pretty good condition, mostly needs some minor repairs and some cosmetic touch ups, but it's already super cute as it is.

Some of the floor boards under the mats need to be torn out and replaced, some new pins for the top halves of the back doors, and some serious cleaning and replacing the spare tire and a couple of the pads on the inside need replaced, too. But, I got a good price on it and even haggled the starting price down a couple hundred bucks!