Guinness' Goggles

 

Guinness wears a head bumper in the trailer (because he's not so careful about shoving his noggin through the window with lightning speed).  But it doesn't stay on top of his head very well for some reason.  Thankfully he doesn't seem at all bothered by the fact that it obscures his vision and fails to protect his head.....

In Touch With Their Inner Thoroughbreds

We've been riding nearly every day for a week and the horses are starting to settle into a nice routine. Guinness has started to chill out quite a lot, actually. At one point last week he was so mellow out on the trail that we wondered if the big fella was feeling alright!  :)

Guinny looks like a bay in the setting sun!

It's really been neat to see our bonds forming. Shanna and Jessie spend most of their time as a team, as do Erin and Guinny. Occasionally we swap horses and that's equally as fun and insightful, but for now we're all working on cementing our relationships with our primary horse.

Relaxing with the horses in the back yard

Guinness definitely seems to trust Erin a lot more than he did even just a month ago. Every ride brings about some new, scary thing and it's evident that he's listening to her and more and more willing to just take a deep breath and move forward. We've been working a lot on this -- trusting that when the human says, "go, it's okay, trust me and just move forward" the horse will really not be eaten by the scary fern or mean sign post.  Jessie is definitely more bold and compliant than her big brother, but Big G is clearly making good progress in this department.

Guinny likes it rough....

It's been such a pleasure to take them out and not have an undercurrent of fear about what might happen -- before we got the horses to the house there was always an element of concern when riding Guinness.  His quick startle response can sometimes be a lot to handle, but as he's getting more and more experience with new and different things he's really maturing into a lovely horse.  There was a good period of time when we had our doubts about his ability to run cross-country without spooking at everything, and now we're actually excited about the prospect of doing so with him!  Our favorite professional eventer is a woman by the name of Allison Springer.  Her Olympic mount Arthur is incredibly spooky. But she has believed in him and learned to tap into his inner workings in a way that gets him to focus on her voice and her leg/seat/hands and to trust her when he's afraid. Those two serve as a constant reminder that, while we're not looking to become Olympic eventers anytime soon, it is possible to be successful on the cross-country course (or in a hunter ring with those dreadful plastic flowers) with a horse who tends toward having the jitters.

Once Jessie gets in the trailer she has an awesome time in the real world!

Our latest adventures have included hauling up to the Coronet Bay trails up near Deception Pass twice to ride with our good buddy Laura and her intrepid mount Zee.  There are unbelievably gorgeous trails through the old growth forests there, and it's well worth the 4-hour round-trip. There is plenty of room to canter side-by-side along the roads and the horses enjoy the views as much as we do. The narrower trails aren't too technical (Guinny is still learning "hoof placement awareness") but still provide a challenge.  The ride lasts about 2 hours at varying paces, which is a nice amount of time to be out.

We can ride to the ends of the earth and back on this trail....

We also recently discovered the Snoqualmie Valley Trail that runs for 31.5 miles and starts minutes from home! The Tolt Pipeline Trail is the one that literally runs past our driveway and connects 3 miles up the road to the Snoqualmie Valley Trail!  How fortunate we are for truly endless rides without ever having to get in the trailer! (Although we're working on that too)

Speaking of the horse trailer.... little Jessie is still choosing to be suborn about getting in. Some days it takes just a few minutes of coaxing for her to decide to hop in and others it takes days. And multiple attempts.  On the extremely rare occasion she abjectly refuses to get in. Period. We're not sure why she's so reticent to get in, but there has clearly been some issue in the past.  When we picked her up in Oregon after purchasing her it took us 2.5 hours and a cadre of helpers. The whole thing was a mess and something we vowed would be different once she got home. But Jessie has a mind of her own (which is normally quite sensible) and getting in the trailer just isn't something she's been willing to do without issue.  Yet.  Thankfully she's very food-motivated!

We have practiced it many times, feeding her inside, loving on her like crazy once she's in and always letting her get back out if she'd prefer.  Thankfully she's not upset about being in the trailer -- just getting into it. Once she's in she hauls like a lady and has a thing or two to teach Guinny about standing patiently. (He paws like a maniac while she's contemplating getting in). Last week we wanted to haul out to the Redmond Watershed for a leisurely ride but Jessie had other ideas. After about an hour of trying to gently coax her in we gave up and Erin just rode her on the front yard trail.  Jess had a ton of energy (no doubt frustrated by all that stupid trailer nonsense) so Erin let her gallop a good way.  To start the afternoon, Guinness was not excited by the idea of having his sister out of sight, so since he was in the trailer already and they needed to practice being separated, we hauled him up the road a few miles to a place where the Tolt Pipeline trail crossed the main road.  We unloaded him and then Erin somehow managed to stay on for the ride home.  Guinness, not dealing well with the separation from his beloved Jessie, tried to insist on passaging and cantering in place all the way home. Eventually the pair managed to come to an understanding in the woods, until Guinny heard his girlfriend calling to him. Needless to say, both parties were full of adrenaline but it all worked out rather well.  And once they returned safely home Erin saddled up Jessie for her gallop. She more readily walks off the property with out Guinness but she's full of GO! So after a good warm-up Erin decided to see what the pretty girl could do -- Jessie is definitely half Thoroughbred! And quite fit -- after her gallop Erin was the more winded of the two!



Last night we enjoyed an easy hack of about 5.5 miles. We've been trying to discover the point where the Tolt Pipeline Trail meets the Snoqualmie Valley Trail. Unfortunately to cross from one trail to the other we've also got to cross a major road. But last evening we were short on time and decided to head back without such an adventure. With the horses good and warmed up (no only do we just hack along the trail but we practice all sorts of things like shoulder-ins, half passes, bending and flexing, collected and extended trots and canters, etc.) we decided to let them both run a bit. Erin knew from experience that Jessie was willing to come back to a walk after her gallop and never once attempted a buck or anything else naughty.  Thankfully Shanna took her word for it. Not having let him run before, she wasn't so sure about Guinness.  But since he was being a rockstar she gave him his head as Jessie and Shanna galloped on up ahead. With the rushing noise of wind in our ears and stinging our eyes to tears, the 4 of us hauled ass up the road for a few minutes. It really is a toss-up to determine who of the 4 of us had the best time!

Sometimes the Scary Red Ball isn't quite so scary

We SO love having Guinny and Jessie here at the house with us.  After having euthanized our Akita Tori a few weeks ago it's been especially nice to have their love and affection right here.  How fortunate we are to have two perfect horses in our family, right in our own front yard.  They love to be turned out in the lush back yard to graze for a few hours every afternoon.  They're two peas in a pod out there.  Standing side-by-side grazing together, they always get along nicely when turned out. Unfortunately Guinness is a bit of a pill when it comes to being in their stalls.  Lately he's taken to biting Jessie hard on the neck as she enters and exits her stall, and since their doors are adjacent we've had to rig up a wooden barrier to keep his teeth from making contact with her flesh. It's amazing because he's so sweet to her any other time, but when he's in his stall he's quite a shit! Hopefully the hot wire and extra wood will prevent any more "sharking" occurrences....

 Some sights around the barn:

He obviously hasn't had his morning coffee yet

Jessie's starting to love being loved on

Everyone got in on the arrival of the new hay

Even the little one with the good manners!

And since the feed room is adjacent to Jessie's stall....

The Turd Fairy waves hello

Guinny's stall is on the left

And Jessie's is on the right

Needless to say we moved the top bales!

Jessie having breakfast in the frosty morning air

Big G devours his grain and supplements

Getting out on the Trails

Each of the three days Erin was home last week we got both horses out for some time along the trails.  Thursday our friend Cari drove down for a visit and she and Jessie had a great time together.  Cari said that Jessie might be the one to change her mind about mares!  Friday after work we had a great ride together, and on Saturday morning we were out and about for an hour.  Each time the horses were more relaxed and seemed to appreciate that the Loop trail by the house was starting to become familiar.

Guinny has indeed been bolder with his little sister by his side when we come upon scary things along the ride.  Mostly.  Last week we found a new trail off the power line but were challenged a little by a rusty old abandoned bus. Poor Guinness was sure it was going to kill him! Unfortunately he refused to stand still long enough to see that it wasn't deadly, instead frantically backing up like a spider and spinning wildly 180 degrees to bolt from it.  Thankfully Erin rides him in the Amerigo dressage saddle (read: deep seat, long legs) for just that reason and though he's not trying to be naughty he just can't help himself sometimes. After about a half dozen spins with no sign of willingness to go forward (and almost clobbering Jessie and Shanna more than once on his way backward) we decided that proving a point wasn't a good idea right then.  So Shanna expertly led Jessie up to the scary pile of metal and she stopped to think about it.  Though Jessie looked really hard at it, she was willing to walk past it, leaving poor Guinness with little choice other than to follow his brave little sister.  This was exactly why we decided to add Jessie to our family -- because she has a good head on her shoulders (not to mention a pretty one) and we figured her boldness would help Guinny to deal with "scary" things like metal and water and shadows and people and deer and squirrels and logs and mushrooms and whatever else he swears is trying to eat him.

After awhile he was proud of himself and we decided to have him and Erin lead through the familiar woodsy trail.  There are some nice places to pick up a slow, collected canter and Big G was happy to oblige. After a minute he settled down and got used to the fit of his Big Boy Pants, leading at a canter for most of the rest of the ride! Shanna kept waiting for him to screech to a halt at any moment as he's apt to do, but he was awesome and brave and thoroughly enjoyed himself once he started to listen to and trust his rider.

When we got back to the house Uncle Neal was waiting to take our picture in the front yard!

They've both settled into a quiet life with us here at the house. We keep thinking we'll get out and ride with a trainer again soon, but schedules and energy levels and time off together have all been at a premium lately. We're still working on the barn little by little (it needs to have outside walls finished soon), in between busy full-time jobs for both humans. But the horses are content to snooze and play and hang out in their spacious paddocks until evening comes when we get out to stretch our legs together in the woods.

Shanna and Jessie went up the trail by themselves last week and poor Guinness just about lost his mind! We've clearly got work to do helping him to understand that his sister will be coming right back. It's expected that they'd both have separation issues (we've yet to remove him and leave her) so it's on our list of things to work on. Everything in time....

Meanwhile, there are few things more lovely than sipping our morning coffee in lawn chairs in the paddocks while Guinny and Jessie are having breakfast. Of course, the Big Guy loves his own lick of java too!

After all, he IS now living very near the coffee snob capital of the universe!

A little post-breakfast dirt coating

They're HOME!

Holy cow!  It's been a long summer of crazy hard work building our barn in the yard of the new house!  We feel like other than handle our full-time jobs, all we've done is prepare for and build that structure.  Shanna master-minded the whole thing and some of our favorite minions helped us get the job done. Our heart-brother, Neal, has been out there every weekend and lots of weeknights after work, and we couldn't have done a lot of it without him. Erin's Dad Al flew out and his long-time buddy Gary drove up to spend 3 days recently slaving away (but agreed it was an excellent excuse to play with Shanna's tools).  They did an amazing job on the roof and helped us put up the supporting beams in the individual stalls.  Their shingle work was fantastic and the structure is even nicer than we'd hoped for thanks to their expertise and eyes for detail. And our buddy Rachelle spent a day helping us clear out garbage from behind the pokey blackberry bushes and move chunks of cement (because she really just wanted to drive the Bobcat!). Thanks, you guys, for making this project easier on us!

While we were in the yard building every day, the horses got precious little attention from us.  We had our trainer Rachel ride them from time to time, but they were pretty much on vacation for a few months. We know they really missed the affection and snacks, but we think they understand that it was all for their benefit in the end.

The site we'd picked for the barn was on the side of the house where there had been a large shed on a 14x32' cement slab. Unfortunately, the land surrounding the shed was pretty much a trash heap for the former owners. They had copious amounts of garbage and junk in the vicinity and we had a TON of cleaning up to do before we could even think of building. Eventually we got all their crap hauled away (in more than one giant dumpster) and got the land leveled and cleaned up of their nasty trash.

We decided to build a 2-stall pole barn with a separate feed room. The slab is the aisle and their stalls are built just off that cement. We've got cross ties and rubber mats, and soon we'll cover the concrete with rubber pavers so it's cushy and nice for their hooves. Eventually we'll enclose all the sides and even have some pretty landscaping, but our first priority was just to get it horse-ready so that Guinny and Jessie could move in and be with us forever.  By way of visual explanation we've attached photos of the build in chronological order below.

Guinness and Jessie didn't really know each other since they were boarded at separate facilities just up the road from one another. We had a few rides together but they didn't spend much time bonding. So when we introduced them at the new barn we were delighted to see that they ADORE each other -- just a few days after being home they've started mutual grooming and kissing each others' faces! Jessie historically hasn't even acknowledged other horses' existence, so the fact that she not only tolerates Guinny but seems to really be in love with him cracks us up!  She walks around her paddock squeaking and making cute little noises, and while each sleeps they guard one another. Much to our surprise Guinness hasn't made even one Ugly Face as he's so prone do to with most everyone else. Jessie is definitely the Alpha horse, and Big G seems to be happy about that fact!

They're so funny together. We never saw Guinness lie down and nap much at his last facility, but he seems to be making up for that now. His favorite activity (other than smooching on his girl) is to lie in the dirt and snooze. He is a rough sleeper, though, and Jessie's probably glad they don't share a paddock! He twitches and jerks, grunts and snorts. We have a funny video of him getting what appears to be some very deep REM sleep -- legs flailing and dust flying (you can hear crap he kicked up hitting the camera at the very end)! He's a total goofball....

We took our first ride this past weekend from the new property and all 4 of us had a blast.  We expected it would be a bit of a rodeo since neither horse had had much work the previous few months, but they were on their best behavior.  Jessie is a bit bolder than Guinny and he seemed to derive a little confidence from her about the new things we encountered. There is an 18-mile trail that runs just past our front driveway, but we were delighted to learn that there are miles and miles of wooded trails that branch off of that main Tolt Pipeline Trail too!  It's lovely back there in the forest and both horses, though not at peak fitness, thoroughly enjoyed themselves and their adventure. We'll slowly start building up their fitness (and ours) and find a regular training program with someone who'll work with us and our quirky schedule issues.

Life is very good now that our entire family is on the same property.  We still have tons of work looming ahead of us (finishing the last 100 shingles on the barn roof, fencing and planting grass in the large meadow on the other side of the driveway, finishing enclosing the barn walls, cementing the feed room floor, building a compost area for manure, and planting grass in their now-dusty paddocks). It's sometimes overwhelming to think of all the things left to do, but when we look back at the photos of where we started it's hard not to smile in satisfaction.

This is a life-long dream come true for both of us and we couldn't have chosen two more perfect horses for our family than Guinny and Jessie.  Please consider coming for a visit -- we've got a ton of space for guests and if you're lucky you can even get a guided trail ride!

 

Neal and Shanna at the original barn site (a disaster).

 

The poles are in and cemented!

 

Shanna managing the 16-foot board by herself 

(like she did most everything!)

 

Some of the metal siding removed from the shed.

 

All the trusses are finally in!

 

What will be the paddocks eventually was initially a burn pile.

 

It's starting to look a little like a barn.

 

Shanna in the rented Bobcat (some of the best $ spent), 

leveling the lower meadow for future pasture.

 She became a master at maneuvering this thing (after getting it high-centered once!)

 

Some of the gang taking a break (Gary, Al, Neal and Shanna)

Outer stall walls going up.

 Gary, Dad's awesome buddy, putting on the roof fascia.

 

Neal being hoisted up in the Bobcat

 

The boys pulled down the last of the nasty old shed!

 

Erin and Dad on the roof installing the shingles.

 

The stalls are coming along.

 Chaos.....

 

It really looks like a barn now!

 

With our new barn we obviously needed a new rig!

 

Jessie and Guinny meeting for the first time at the new barn.

 

And it was love at first sight!

 

They spend hours smooching on each other....

 

And we spend our mornings in our jammies smooching on them.

 

Geez, it's a shame they're so tense and can't seem to settle in....  ;)

Guinny's Got A Sister!

At least, we hope that's how he chooses to see her, as opposed to The Woman of His Dreams! It's always a risk having a mare and a gelding in the same family, but we're confident that he'll only be well-behaved about it and suspect that her little tomboyish personality will lend itself well to the "friends" rather than "lovers" situation.  We introduced them the other day for the first time (they're being stabled at farms less than a mile up the road until one barn has 2 stalls available next month) and though Big G. looked at her with googly eyes, she really didn't even seem to notice him standing there.  When he got in her face, she pinned her ears and gave him the Stink Eye....  Poor fella.

Our little family feels complete now that we have two horses to love on and learn from and grow with. It's been fantastic having Guinny in our lives since March and we're very excited to be moving him and his sister to our own property in a few months when the barn is up and the pastures are all fenced. Since the new house is finally officially ours (it took more than 6 months from offer to close on this amazing short sale property) we've been working like crazy to get the place horse ready. And shortly both horses will be right there in the yard, only a stone's throw from the 18-mile Tolt Pipleline Trail that meanders by our front door!

Our new zoo.... er, home!

The back yard, soon to be lush pasture for Guinny & Jessie!

The front yard as seen from the house
(and the 18-mile equestrian trail is just behind those trees!)

Unfortunately our ride together on our own two horses for the very first time wasn't properly documented with photos (wtf?!), but we do have a few pictures of the adorable Jessie.  It seems weird and blasphemous to talk much about Jessie the Little Sister on Guinny's blog but in an effort to conserve time and Internet bandwidth (for now) we'll do so.  We're pretty sure he won't mind.....

In a moment of serendipity Shanna noticed a beautiful mare on DreamHorse (where we first learned of Guinness) from a barn in the same town as Big G.  When we decided to go meet her we asked Shirley and Stan if they'd be willing to meet us -- not only would it be great to see them again but they obviously have an eye for a good horse! And it turns out the barn was literally 5 minutes up the road!  So Erin and Shirley met to have a look at darling Jessie. She's a 15.3 gorgeous bay Hannoverian/TB (like Guinny!) eventer who has excellent dressage and is a jumping machine. She and her former owner, Lucinda, made an awesome team and we are thrilled to know such a sweet woman as Lu. She and Jessie obviously adore each other and we're looking forward to being a 1/2-way stop for Lu at the new house when she's road tripping during college breaks.  It'd be perfect for her and Jessie to be able to hang out together on the trails!

Look, Guinny -- your little sister isn't afraid of flowers!

Not afraid of much, it would seem!

We're excited to bond with Jessie and learn to ride her this well!

So, there's been a lot going on lately between getting the new house habitable for horses and humans (and dogs, cats and birds) and trekking down to Wilsonville, OR to pick up Jessie. Then Shanna had surgery (which sucked but means a pain-free abdomen from here on out!) and Erin left for a 10-day trip.  Thank goodness for our trainer Rachel, who loves riding both horses and is keeping them exercised for us this week. Shanna is able to get out and love on them every day, adjust Jessie's blanket (the poor girl doesn't like our Junuary weather), stuff them full of treats and gently keep their coats looking nice. Good therapy for everybody!

Now, since it's his blog, back to Guinness.  He had his first massage since he's been with us -- Kim worked on him for 90 minutes and discovered all sorts of things. The poor fella's got a lot of knotty muscles -- pretty legit reasons for his Ugly Girth Face!  His fanny is tight and sore too.  So we've stopped taking him up the logging road hill for now.  :(   Once we work on some of his soreness those will resume, but for now we're focused on keeping him straight when under saddle (he still wiggles a lot) and building up his rear end. He's such a good boy for his rides and though we really miss the hack up to the meadow, pretty soon we'll have miles and miles of mostly flat trails to ride along!

It's been tough to plan a show so far this season with what feels like a million different obligations -- we need clones!  And Erin's had a tough time managing to get weekends off with work, but July is looking promising for a schooling show for both horses.  Most of our time will be spent working on the house and barn, but our plan is to be moved into the new place and living there the first week of July. If our fathers are willing to fly across the country for a week of hard physical labor, we expect to have the barn up and ready for Guinny and Jessie by the end of July. Fingers crossed!  But all work and no play is really a drag, so we'll likely hit a local show of some sort soon.  Jessie is really chilled out and relaxed by nature, so we think her personality will be a positive influence on her more lively brother!  Maybe she can talk to him about those plastic flowers....?

Guinny loves hacking along the logging road to visit his little deer buddies

The view at the top of a hilly gallop! (no worries, we pulled his mane after this shot!)