Tuesday, November 17, 2020

charlie thee stallion

Oooooh my goodness, the fall friskies roared in this past weekend. In a big way. And guys, Spooky Charlie is a sight to behold, lemme tell ya. 

there's something about late fall / early winter's austere landscape that i just love <3
Add in the #FreshClip plus a wind gusting directly up Charlie's butt.... And, yea haha. Excitement abounded!

grateful that charlie's clip distinguishes him from twinsy iggy. esp since iggy's ears are too small to see from a distance LOL
First of all -- the construction happening on one of the farm's oldest buildings (right outside Charlie's barn!) is definitely not helping. Homeboy is straight up convinced that they must certainly be building some manner of equine crematorium up in there. 

always together <3 <3 missed literally every single nose to nose shot tho... sorry!
Which.... Is challenging, because poor long-suffering Charlie has to walk past that very same construction site every time he goes to and from his field.... or up to the rings.... or, ya know, like... anywhere haha. 

oh. my. gawd. sir, rly? also.... how is it still SO GREEN?!?
And not coincidentally, on the weekends when we can actually be at the farm during daylight, **everywhere** is exactly where I want to go lol. 

how the fuck does a CLIPPED horse get this filthy?!?
But ya know, it's ok haha. Spooky Charlie is still like.... Charlie, ya know? His patented go-to spook move is to just stop and stare and become very very tall, periscope-up style. Naturally, with his heart pounding straight through the saddle flaps. 

And when he's very very sad about the spook, he'll ask --- pretty please with a cherry on top --- if we could please just turn right the fuck around and leave.

hoof update! november is when we transition from full leather pads to rim pads, before ditching the pads altogether come (wet) winter. that sole doesn't look half bad for having been covered up for six months! fwiw.... i'd personally prefer to always do rim pads, but charlie's farrier feels like they squish out the sides too badly so he doesn't like doing them. tho, he amuses me during what i call "this transition period." and, go figure, the pads really don't squish out much. the farrier does such a nice job on every other aspect of charlie's feet that i'm fine with taking his advice on this part... but maybe one day he'll be like, "yea ok, let's give rim pads a real shot for a while!"
Back in my earliest uninitiated days with Charlie, this moment of frozen-in-ice heart pounding rigidity.... scared the ever loving shit out of me, I'm not gonna lie. 

That's an enormous volume of flight animal sitting under you. You can really just feel the energy coursing through his body, amplified in some massively alarming way by his stillness. 

gosh the colors are pretty, even without a filter <3
But.... Charlie's a very good boy, and so far, has never really opted for a full blown explosion haha. So far. 

Tho, he definitely kinda pushed it this weekend haha. Many random scoots and skitters, much snorting and farting. And one little synchronized spin-bolt move (and I mean that in the absolute gentlest way possible) that I'm positive he and Punky planned in advance lol.... 

Which also naturally left me and Amy giggling at our ridiculous hot blooded goons...

sharing a birthday cupcake -- where charlie's like, "what in the ever loving fresh fuck is this fluffy sweet goodness?!?"
easily my new favorite picture with chuck <3 <3 <3
So ya know. It's been exciting haha <3 

Charlie and I are still plugging away at our hybrid equine/human couch-to-5K fitness schedule --- we're up to like a whopping 8min of full work at this point. And esp in the darkness of weekday evenings.... It's not exactly the most scintillating material haha.

such a good dude, wearing our typical weekday outfit
(illumiseen breast collar - literally EVERYBODY at my farm has one now...)
That's winter for ya! Tho I'm excited that Charlie's feeling so fresh and feisty haha --- he feels like a horse who wants to go running and jumping. Which, not coincidentally, is exactly how I like my horses to feel!

Anyone else dealing with bi-polar, ridiculous animals during this absurd season of change??



14 comments:

  1. sassy charles!

    that breastcollar is a pretty sweet winter addition. may have to get me one of them for my night rides (ugh, i don't wanna ride in the dark thoooo).

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    1. dude these breast collars are legit. our arenas are lighted, but there's a long (long) walk down a very dark twisty narrow driveway, and speaking as a driver it's very VERY hard to see horses in the dark. i rec'd this breastplate as a secret santa from Susan at Saddle Seeks Horse a couple years ago -- and the idea has caught on like wildfire at my barn just bc of how much safer it is. there are a ton of different color options too -- and actually the way the lights are oriented mean that they don't blind you or the horse, but do illuminate the ground beneath you. very useful!!

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  2. So sassy, Charlie! You have to lol at the good-natured sassiness, I find. I had an older, quiet as can be appy gelding that was almost ready for retirement, but he loved getting a little zippy on those fresh fall days. He was very fun to ride when he was "up" lol

    Fred has been Mr Zoom-zoom the past couple of weeks. To his defence tho, we've had some routine and horse changes, so that plus the cool weather has him a little wound up. ;-)

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    1. i do love the good-natured sassiness -- so so much! <3 <3

      and lol i think it's definitely zoomie season basically everywhere right now -- horses have been wild! maybe they're as sick of 2020 as we are, and are excited about the cool weather blowing in a new year?!?

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  3. Ooo you've got a spicy avocado!(?) Spicy mango!(?) I was trying to come up with a fruit for Charlie, but I don't know many dark colored fruits, so you'll have to help me. Sounds like the good kind of spicy, either way.
    Cosmo was spicy last Saturday in the cold rain/drizzle but then a SLUG this Saturday when it warmed up and he had to do dumb trot sets.

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    1. lol i just read your post and admit to being full on jealous of watching how that pineapple canters around (and am just blissfully pretending i don't know how much work that was LOL). for real tho, definitely a spicy sort of season we go going right now. hopefully it lasts long enough for charlie to be fit to play jompies again before the ground gets too bad....

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    2. We were reading/commenting at the same time :)
      Not sure if you saw my offer to come out and ride Cosmo's canter to get the feel ANY TIME YOU WANT.

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  4. Dude! I want to light up my horse too!
    Since we've moved indoors, the spooking is less thankfully. But I definitely know the feeling!

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    1. oh man, i avoid our indoor like the plague. it's just too small, too deep, and too dusty. we both kinda hate it in there.... (altho obvi grateful it exists at all when the ground is super frozen...). so yea, outdoor spooking in the dark is kinda the way we roll this time of year lol. these lights are great tho!

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  5. Ah Charlie- fall is definitely here. Carmen is feeling it as well. But then she feels everything so perhaps not the best barometer.

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    1. lololol i have this strong belief that carmen probably feels just about everything at an 11, lol ;)

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  6. Post title is killing me 🤣🤣🤣

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  7. Glad Sir Charles is feeling good :P

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