Dream Boat



Dreamer and Mariah in the trailer



 Dreamer is the sweetest horse I have known!   He is inseparable with his friend Mariah.  He loves treats and attention.  Always looking at me with a questioning face. He is my Hollywood.  It is very rare that Dreamer is seen dirty.  Always a gentleman, lowers his head for babies to touch.  Loves to lick hands.  Such the charmer, has stopped parades while children pet him..

Mariah has been his companion for 4 years and they are never far apart.  He is her eyes as she has moon blindness.  They spend every afternoon napping together between the pastures where the breeze is the best.  He is very rarely challenged for herd position as he runs his own special herd of mares mostly seniors and those that has been most neglected

Maraih following the cart

when they came in to our life.  Destiny weighed 80# on a weight tape when she came to live with us.  She should have weighed 150#.  The other lead gelding who has a wild nature tried to kill her and tore through fences to get to her. Soon she put on weight and joined the herd and became strong enough to find her place in the pecking order.  Destiny found her place in Dreamer's herd.  She has mellowed in the last year we have had her and she is no longer in recovery.  She follows his lead mare Sparkle who is 21 years old.  Destiny is 5 years old so she has bonded with Sparkle as her adoptive mother.  Never too far from this quiet gentle group. Dreamer has been a carriage horse for about 11 years and can also give saddle rides to toddlers.  We visit handicapped facilities and nursing homes and they even let him come in the building.

Dreamer was the first mini to bolt on me in harness.  I bounced out of the cart when he got scared of a pit bull in a fenced yard.  Horses don't reason and they react lightning fast.  My daughter who was 5 at the time was still in the cart so I couldn't let go.  He drug me several hundred feet down the street when I finally got my arm around his chest and pleaded Whoa.  I was scraped and bruised but otherwise OK.  Dreamer to this day is still very afraid of large dogs.  He must have had an experience before I owned him.  He is small and there are definitely dogs bigger than him and we have seen some together.   He is still the most wonderful mini to drive with his elegant movement and pleasant attitude.    Six months after I bought him his previous owner asked if she could buy him back and regretted his sale.  I couldn't part with Dreamer ever, and he will live out his life with me and his best girl Mariah.                                      

Dreamer

Country Pony

We had the opportunity to go trailriding on some new trails.  A drive through the city and we end up at a park that has equestrain trails.  It was so peaceful and was a setting right out of the 1800's....to look across the wooded field my  thoughts wandered to the pioneers that may have settled in this place at one time and those that may have fought and lived or died here during the civil war.  Maybe this place has always looked like this and no-one has ever appreciated the serenity that lies here with the hustle and bustle of progress only moments away.  I forgot my reins so I constructed some Hillbilly reins out of rope I found in the toolbox. One may have done something similar long ago? Hmmm

For the horses this was something we don't get to do often enough, enjoy adventures together,human and horse as one looking upon this land for the first time.  For  most people looking at a place for the first time is usually done out of a windshield.  Looking at something new from the back of a horse (or behind one) is so different. There's no back ground music. The sound is of insects and the chirping of an occasional bird.  The sound is of the wind as it blows through the trees.  I look at the hoofprints, no tire tracks, no human footprints, only hoofprints.

Hoofprints in the Sand

Little Prince was the smallest horse on the trailride at 10.2 hands (not counting the minis).  He didn't know it and kept up with the big guys, climbing up steep hills, walking (and galloping) through the shallow creek. Sliding down the embankment.  I think he ended the ride with a smile and a kind of tiredness he has not known. Like when we exercise and feel exhausted but exhiliarated at the same time. The trails boasted a time from long ago when people rode with a purpose.  To get their mail or supplies. To get frompoint A to point B. 

Now we just ride to capture that feeling for a short time.  Where are those endless trails?

City Pony

 

What a lucky girl...rides her pony (just to the trailer) on a pony in an upper class neighborhood.  Little Prince is such a great guy! The weather was perfect,not too hot, cool breeze, the street so quiet almost as if these large houses were vacant.  The party was so large that we had to park a block away and by the time we were leaving there were just a few cars left on this quiet street.  Staight ahead was a beautilful pond that just added to the serenity of the surroundings.  All that was missing was a pony until this moment which was only to last a few minutes. Little Prince goes places that no pony has ever been before and sometimes will never be again.  Watching my daughter ride Prince to the trailer while I was leading the minis, I remembered my youth and riding all over the county.  So, many kids these days tell me how much they wish they had a pony.  Most will never get the opportunity and some will be fortunate enough to take riding lessons to be around horses.  The larger percentage will ride Big Horses only the lucky few getting to enjoy the smaller ponies. 

My first horse was actually a welsch pony named Bonnie Belle, a smart red roan pony standing 11.2 hands tall.  She taught me more about living with a pony than I will probably ever learn from another pony in my lifetime.  Maybe it was because she was my first or maybe it was our special connection. I remember her now in my dreams and my thoughts and have probably said her name a trillion times since we parted.  I had a step dad that thought it was time for me to move up to a larger pony and sell my beloved friend.  This was the saddest moment I have ever known and horses were never quite the same to me.  I was not old enough to speak my mind about the situation and still to this day will never understand why I had to part ways with my best friend, my pony, Bonnie Belle. 

All the kids that say to me I wish I had a pony, how many would actually stick with it and enjoy a relationship with a pony that could last 30+ years?  How many people actually do that with their horses?  So many of the equine that live with us have had multiple owners.  Some not even given a chance to get used to their new surroundings only to be wisked away to a new location.  Equine can form lasting friendships that can last up to 40 years. 

I watched Little Prince walk so carefully and slowly such a gentleman. My daughter with the biggest smile ever.  My thoughts went to all the city girls that may look out their windows and dream they are riding a pony down their street. Breeze blowing their manes, warm sun on their faces, and smile so big they almost hurt. I wish I could capture all the fun rides and adventures I had with my pony and share it with kids today.  Some would be content with just one ride, others would realize their dreams and that dreams can be possible....so never stop dreaming because they might come true even if for a little while!

Accidental Lena AKA Fanci Bar O' Lena

What a Sunday, woke up a little late, hoping it was warm for a change, which it was.  Not long after we started feeding, my son comes running up and says part of Lena's cheek is hanging off. We ran back to the pasture and sure enough she had a serious wound on her face.  Our immediate plan of action began, my mind was groggy only moments ago, but now  it raced with thoughts. 

Lena came to us with a scar on her side from an injury that definitely had stitch marks.  She also had a large growth on her elbow.  We had the growth removed and biopsied, no cancer, whew! Lena loves the sun, not a lazy shade dweller, she is always playing and basking in the sun.  So, to prevent future growths on her pink skinned body, sunscreen is in her daily routine when needed.  Lena always smells like she's going to the beach or pool.  Thank goodness for Lena's sake they carry spray sunscreen with a 70 spf and it's waterproof, her next favorite thing to do. 



Fanci Lena spent most of the day Saturday playing with the donkey guardians, a standard and mini Jack, that are to be gelded this spring.  The kids remember late in the evening seeing Everette the mini palying rough with Lena and somewhat hanging on her face?! HMMMM.  Neither of them are talking, but $300 later Lena is not phased by the incident and Everette spent the day in his pen.  Lena had torn muscle which took an internal stitch and the outside flap of skin matched up perfectly,  Staples all the way around finished off the Doc's good work.   Several injections for, tetanus, an antibiotic, and bute sent her home feeling pretty good.  She felt good enough in fact that she was playing with Paco the standard Donkey.  Lena was put in her own pen for the night and Paco sleeps with Everette.  Alls well that ends Well......  



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