How the children grow!!

I know it's been quite awhile since I've posted. Things are still hectic, but hopefully (fingers, toes, everything crossed) I've found an awesome job. It will mean a move to a state I'm not crazy about, but the benefits outweigh the pitfalls. More about that later, when things are completely finalized and set in stone...

So, I will try to post more regularly again. I'm working part-time now, just two days a week (Tuesdays and Wednesdays). While it's wonderful to have so much time to work on my house, especially with such incredible weather, obviously these kinds of hours aren't going to pay the bills. The house still has lots of work needed. Last night, when I returned home, I found that the front storm door my brother-in-law kindly replaced last fall was torn off the hinges and propped on its side against the front step!! I was pissed. I don't see how the dog, goat, or wind could've bent the metal and ripped it out of the frame, nor how any of those things could place it next to the step. What the hell??!!

Sorry about that, I just had to vent. On to more pleasant topics.

This was my Spotted Boy Wonder around this time last year. He was close to 3 years old (I'm not entirely sure of his birthdate, just know it was sometime in spring of 2006). I sat on him the first time on Easter Sunday. I need to get some recent pictures of the Boy, but you won't believe how much he's grown and filled out!! I think he's right at 15 hands now, the perfect height for an Ay-rab! He shows the best traits of his CMK ancestry, with many of the characteristics I love about the American Foundation bloodlines (I'll have to post a picture pedigree for him sometime). He's still a bit narrow in the front, but broadness will come as he continues to mature (physically, at least. I don't know if he'll ever completely mature mentally, the brat).

I can't wait to really start working my boy. I've been so busy with the house that I haven't done more than take the ponies for walks and some longeline work, but I need to change that if I'm going to have him ready for the Friday Before Mother's Day Ride (FBMDR) in Valparaiso, NE. We are going to trot, trot, trot, trot! this year. Maybe sometime late in the summer I can take him on his first limited distance ride. I want to register him with the American Endurance Ride Conference (AERC). He already thinks he's a race horse, this will be his chance to prove it! Eventually I'd also like to show him in the Pinto Horse Association of America (PtHA).

Jazzy is coming around again faster than Mr. Reactive. I threw my exercise ball into the roundpen with them the other night. Jazzy stretched out her nose and trotted straight at it to check it out. Zeplin's head flew in the air, his eyes grew wide, and those nostrils flared. He bolted away. After a few minutes, he finally examined the ball up close, then he wanted to pick it up with his teeth.

The ponies are shedding like crazy, Zeplin worse than Jazzy. I told my friend Julie that I could create a clone of Zep from his hair if she wanted one. You can't pet him without coming away with a fistful of white.

That's how things are for now. I'll be heading out of state next week for a few days to check into this job possibility. Back to story-telling again soon!!