Meet Belle!

[mariegrantaire]

Yay here she is! Kind of a bad picture, but she wouldn't look up for me. I still think she looks like an Eponine - she's all skinny and is super sweet, if a little on the jumpy side. She's an 8 year old Morgan, and her baby is due May 11th, the day before my birthday!

Comments

[bramblefox]

Oh, she's gorgeous! I love Morgan horses...and she's pregnant to boot? Wow. What does the father look like? And what breed is he?

[mariegrantaire]

I've never actually seen the father, but I think he's Morgan too, and he's a buckskin. It'll be interesting to see what color the foal turns out. I haven't ridden her yet, but she has perfect ground manners. She's the second Morgan I've owned - my first, Ricochet, is 14 years old. He's a Lippitt Morgan, and has the biggest heart of any horse I've owned.

[bramblefox]

I have a horse who is half Morgan--but she's not exactly a perfect horse. *grins sheepishly* She likes to challenge her rider...who usually happens to be me...*rolls eyes* Have you always owned Morgans?

[mariegrantaire]

I actually started with Quarter Horses because I rodeoed a lot, and my aunt gave me Ricochet, she raises Morgans. My dad got into Missouri Foxtrotters awhile ago, and now we've got one Quarter Horse, two Morgans, and three Foxtrotters.

Ricochet can be a challenge at times. He's very well trained, but was abused so he's a little jumpy, and he definitely has a mind of his own! And he's always ready to run!

[bramblefox]

Oh cool. I've never been much for rodeoing (don't have the means or the time), but ah well. Six horses? And I thought three was a challenge...but obviously your dad (family too?) is into horses, so that helps. I'm the only horse-person in my family, although my oldest brother is an Amish-cowboy-wannabe. XD

[mariegrantaire]

My dad's into horses, not so much my mom but we're working on her! All my horses are at home, so I don't get to see them often. They're also range horses, so I don't have to muck stalls or anything like that.
What's your background with horses? Showing or just pleasure riding?

[bramblefox]

Mostly pleasure. I've done a few backyard and 4-H shows, but nothing big. The reason we got Colletta (the half-Morgan I mentioned earlier) was because my oldest brother decided when he was 15 that he wanted to do things the Amish way, and every noteworthy Amish has a horse, right? Well, he lost interest after a while and I bought her from him because I was the only one doing anything with her. Most of what I know horse-wise is self-taught (lotsa reading--books are my friends!!) but the farrier, who is also a horse trainer, has taught me quite a bit as well. Anyway, besides Colletta there's Violet, a 2-year-old Arabian filly that my mom bought when we had Colletta bred a couple years ago (loooong story), and Shiska, Colletta's yearling foal. Violet is in the process of being 'broke'--I've ridden her a few times at a walk, nothing faster because she's still quite unsteady with a rider (but she's got excellent ground manners!).

Oh now look, I've gone off on one of my horse-anecdote/tangent again. *headdesk*

[mariegrantaire]

Most of what I've learned is self-taught as well. You should read Pat Parelli's books on Natural Horsemanship, they're excellent and they go through alot of ground training. My first horse had 3 fillies, and I helped my dad train all of them, along with a couple others that we bought. And if I ever make it home, I'll probably end up being the first one one to get on the 2 year old Quarter Horse, 'cause my dad got tossed off one of my barrel horses once and broke four ribs, soooo I bounce better.
Also, my dad taught me to ride the "cowboy" way, which was putting me on a horse and telling me to get back on if I fell off, so I've been pitched my share of times. Rodeo horses can get a bit rough! I also have an extreme aversion to showing. It's just not my thing. I like to go fast and have people cheering, not the whole crowd critiquing every tiny thing I do. I throw up before shows because I get soo nervous.
Yep, I've gone on a tangent of my own. Meh.

[bramblefox]

I've read Pat Parelli's books--okay, actually just one book because they had it at the library. But I know what his methods are anyway. XD I also like Clinton Anderson and John Lyons' methods. What I like to do is look at as many different trainers as possible and then find kind of a happy medium, because what works with Colletta (she will take a LOT of smacking around before she decides to obey XD) does NOT work for Violet (who is a nervous wreck if I push her too fast)...yeah. Have you ever broken any bones falling off? *fortunately has not* I've had my shares of falls, though

[mariegrantaire]

I like Clinton Anderson, but I've watched John Lyons' show on RFDTV and he's always riding the same horse! Ricochet can be sooo stubborn sometimes - at a rodeo once, I had his head pulled all the way around so that his nose was touching my knee, and he ran the OPPOSITE direction -- toward the gate. Ooooh I was so mad! I've never broken any bones falling off, but one of our Quarter Horses almost broke my finger and gave me a concussion in the same go when we were giving her wormer. 11 years old and suddenly decided that she wanted to go crazy. Also, I got my foot sprained when this huuuuge QH mare fell on me at a ranch I was working at. I never did 4-H, it was a very elitist thing in my hometown. The local rodeos were fun because you knew everyone and you cheered for everyone. There was competition, but it was very friendly.
And yes, I'm in college haha. I'm a junior this year...ack, I have to face the real world soon. Ack.

[bramblefox]

4-H was elitist? Huh. It's anything BUT that around here (upper Midwest), it's actually starting to die...meh.
Ooh, the pressure is on! XD You ought to do well in the 'real world' as you put it...as long as you have a job and a dog or something to keep you company you're great. :D

[mariegrantaire]

4-H in my town was homeschoolers who thought they were better than everyone else. There were 750 people in the town I grew up in, and the homeschoolers actually LEFT the regular 4-H group to start their own. Small towns, ack.

[bramblefox]

Ooh. I hate it when people act that way...too bad. They don't know what they miss, associating with other people that don't necessarily share their own viewpoint. Gah.
I actually kinda like small towns...<.< >.> but not for that aspect.

[mariegrantaire]

Small towns can be all right, except there's nothing to do. EVER. I guess I'm prejudiced against them, because I grew up in one, and most people don't care for the place they grew up. But really...nearest movie theater or ANY shopping was 35 miles away, and even that wasn't great. Oooh, looked at your website, love the horses.The grullo (Violet?) is super pretty. Also, I realized why you have problems with that one: she's an Arab! Haha. I don't have alot of experience with Arabs, because I've always worked on ranches, and they're not ranch horses, but all the ones I've worked with are terribly jumpy and nervous all the time. They're gorgeous horses though...

[bramblefox]

Yeah, I lurves Violet. Actually, she's not too bad as far as young horses (and Arabs!) go. I've done gobs of ground work with her and she's nice and calm except when she sees something potentially scary, like the Big Mean Horse-eating Trash Can or the Thrashing Weeds That Hide Bugs or whatever. *rolls eyes* She only gets nervous outside the pen...inside she's so relaxed that she's about to fall asleep most of the time. Talk about extremes. *shakes head*

[mariegrantaire]

I know how that goes. I got pinned between the highway and the city park one time, and a semi went by. The horse I was riding reared, it was pretty scary. The best is there's this race in rodeo called the "flag race" where there's a barrel with a coffee can & a little flag inside, & you have to grab the flag. It's a timed event. And if there's even a tiny breeze, my Morgan Ricochet will dance around it & I get to lean wayyy out of the saddle to grab it. Because everyone knows that little white flags eat horses.