Boots!

Raven bought me boots today!! (Thank you my love!) He bought boots for himself as well, which is wonderful! He previously had said that I would never get him into cowboy boots. After dealing with the dirt that gets inside regular laced shoes and boots however, and after Stella stepped on and bruised both my feet in the space of a few weeks (I was wearing sneakers, having nothing more protective), he changed his mind. He could see the usefulness of and purpose for cowboy boots at the stable.

Things were crazy at the stable today. There is a seminar going on all weekend, and there were horses, people, and trailers all over. Last night a few of the horses for the seminar had already come in and things were off-schedule so we ended up cutting Stella's time out and about short. She was not at all happy about the sprinklers coming on in the outdoor arena when we were in the adjoining pasture. The sprinklers in the pasture came on not long after we left it. I really don't want to think about what would have happened if they had come on while we were still in there. I don't know if there was actually a person turning them on or if the auto stuff just got messed up, since the sprinklers in the pasture weren't scheduled to come one for another hour.

Stella was somewhat mollified when she didn't get outside this morning by getting lots of petting and brushing instead. Some days I think she would rather just get pet and not have to do anything to earn it.

Along with the horses that came for the seminar, there is also a huge mule. Turns out Raven had never been up close to a mule before, so we went to say hello to it when its person had it out for the lunch break today. It is a Percheron cross, so it is an extremely large, quite sturdy animal. It also makes a noise that Stella finds amazing and intriguing. When we had her out this evening (just walking around the drive since both the inside and outside arenas looked like we weren't supposed to use them this weekend) Stella wanted to go and see the mule. The mule's owner says that they smell different than horses, and Stella makes me believe it. She doesn't care one bit about the other horses when we walk past them, but that mule really got her attention. Its braying also made her stop and pay attention. The first time she heard it, Stella spun around with a "What was THAT?" expression.

Even with the excitement and interest of the mule though, Stella will be happy when the seminar is over and she can get back to going out like normal.

A Little Bit of Stella Love

Hello again. I know it has been a while, sorry, life was happening and then I got . . . stalled. Anyhow, I'm back, and there are more pictures of Stella!

Where Stella was fairly brown when we brought her home, she is getting darker again. When she is really brushed down and clean she sometimes looks like the BLM might have been right when they labeled her "black." Usually though she is now just a dark bay. And her white flecks are growing more and more numerous and have spread to her cheeks and the top of her back.

Stella goes out and walks around with us in the mornings. This weekend I upped her distance from .70 miles to a full mile. Most days we walk that distance twice a day, so she is getting in two miles of walking most days. Mondays and Wednesdays are the exceptions, since there is a horse riding class at the stable those evenings. After Stella dragged me across the gravel because of those students I now just stay in stall and love on her. Not that she complains much about the extra love and attention. Love from Raven, love from Mom, love from me, she really doesn't care as long as whoever is in the stall with her is petting and loving on her and giving her attention.

Stella loves getting pet and scratched so much that there are those days where I think she would really prefer to just get loved on and not go out walking. I don't think she would ever turn down going out to the grass pasture though, she loves her grass, and since she only gets to go out to pasture if she goes walking first, she is willing to walk with us.

Horse in a Hat

I wore a hat to the stable to see how I would handle it (My MS means that I usually cannot handle having a brim, and sometimes not even a beanie). Since I was handling it ok, I decided to see how Stella would handle wearing a hat.

She didn't care. At. All.

For that matter I'm not entirely convinced she even noticed until it fell off when she put her head down into her feed bin to eat.

She did give me a bit of a look though, as if to say "Really?" Then I put it on her while we were walking around the indoor arena, and she walked along without any issues. I think she might even have held her head still as she walked so she didn't drop it. 

Stella is adorable, and now I am going to knit her horse hats! I found a pattern for a Santa hat, and reindeer antlers, and a leprechaun hat, and . . . well, I found a few patterns. And she will be ADORABLE!!