NaBloPoMo Days 14-16

Posted on November 16, 2017 by the_everything_pony

Day 14: Your dream barn

So I had one that I’d been keeping tabs on for the past year or so, which I knew it wouldn’t be on the market forever and also that I’d never be able to afford it, but it looks like it was officially sold since I can’t find it (and can’t remember where exactly it was; stupid me for not writing it down). It had 2 small houses and garages, a small pool, a 25 stall barn with indoor arena, an outdoor arena, 5 or so fences pastures and ~31 fenced acres. All for the amazing total of $575,000. Like, whaaaat?! They didn’t have too many pictures of the place, but hey, that is damn affordable. I’d put xc jumps up there, invite people to stay or like pay a small fee to come school and overnight if they wanted…. (because I wouldn’t board many people if any and I can’t afford 25 horses lolol).

But I found this other one that’s a little more, but has more acreage. I’d need to repair some fencing because Amber would so get out of that, but the grassy arena looks big enough, the house is small, old-fashioned and quaint which I love, and it has tons of space to do a lot of xc. Yes lol. Plus it’s got fruit trees, tons of space, and looks pretty neat. It’s in Florence, looking a good distance north of Austin, but hey we can dream, right? lol

Other than that, though, I’m pretty darn content with our current dream home. I get to have Amber near me, see her every day, be in charge of her food intake, stall quality and happiness, and it’s pretty amazing!

Day 15: If you could speak to a horse dead or alive, what would you say?

Well, obviously I’d speak to Amber and ask her why she loves other horses and then decides to hate them when they so much as look at her (or not for that matter, she doesn’t discriminate lol). I’d ask her and Whisper what happened that day I brought her to Vegas. Whisper had never seen Amber before, never met her, and Whisper in all the years we’d had her (at that point it was 7 years) she’d never done this before. But she just glanced at Amber, and started whuffling up a storm. Amber, who I knew hadn’t been around or was best friends with a chestnut mare, responded in kind. My mom and I stood there dumbfounded as these two mares who had never met each other just seemed to be talking to each other like they knew the other was family or something. Like Whisper knew Amber was mine and that I was related to my mom or something. It was so wild and one of the coolest horse things I’ve witnessed.

Back when Amber was actually nice about showing her love lol (just a fun fact – that breastcollar on Amber that was so big when she was 3? Yeah, it doesn’t even fit around her chest anymore. That girl’s grown lol)

This next one is sad, though. I’d talk to one of my favorite little guys. He had an “official” nickname, but I called him Snips and I thought it fit much better. He was a little orphan foal – his momma contracted strangles, had him early and didn’t have any milk for him, and rejected him. So he fell into my care. I’m not too sure how long it lasted, but I’d say about 3 to 4 days I bottle fed him every half hour to hour. I did the night shift and most of the afternoon until a surrogate momma was found for him. Unfortunately, he didn’t make it. He got a bone infection and that’s extremely hard to fight for a little foal. But I’d tell him I was sorry I couldn’t do more to help him, sorry that I knew so little and that even when I tried to make things better it didn’t work. I’d tell him that I miss his little face, and that I was sorry he wasn’t able to grow up to be big and strong like I knew he could be. RIP little Snips.

Day 16: Your favorite equine memory

On a happier note, my favorite equine memory is a few months in the summer of 2012 bunched together. I had just gotten Amber back from Steamboat Springs, she was in the back pasture and it was the first time I’d ever had a horse – much less my own and first one on top of that – so close to me. I loved seeing her, hopping on her, spending toodle and goofy time with her after such a serious first year of us together. It was when I first rode her bareback, when I first took her swimming, when for the first time I was a horse owner and fully enjoyed that. I went on tons of trail rides, rode her in the back pasture, and just had the greatest time with a new horse.