Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Been extremely busy with the holidays! We had a crazy windstorm on November 17th! It beat the records of ice storm 1996 apparently! I was only 3 years old during ice storm of 96, so I really have no memory of it. It was way long before I got my first horse, which was 2002. Artax got hurt the night before Thanksgiving! Fortunately it was only a superficial wound and it is healing like a champ! We finally had the bandage taken off since it is starting to scab over. We've been putting on panalog, a cortisone cream to prevent from proud flesh growing. I haven't ridden in over a month because Artax got hurt and also because of the weather. Artax's injury is healing up nice and he's also walking as if he hasn't gotten hurt. It's mainly the weather and we have about a foot of snow now, so it will most likely be spring that I can ride again. As much as I dislike the snow, we really need it because last winter we didn't get snow so we had a huge drought this spring and summer as a result. It was awful with all those wildfires, most notably the Okanogan Complex fire. Not to mention all the bugs we got. We've had worse winters years back, got through them, and this winter is still not nearly as bad as those years back such as winter 2008-2009. That was my sophomore year in high school. I plan on moving Artax to Valley Chapel farm in the spring, so I can have more access to arenas and lessons so I want to get into dressage and jumping. I hope to do a schooling show at Spokane Sporthorse farm in April. Here are some recent pics of Artax! Happy holidays!

Veteran's day ride and weight gain

Had a beautiful ride yesterday. We took the summer roads and rode all the way to Coulee Hite Rd via the summer roads. It was glorious. Getting as much riding in as I can before winter hits. Artax is gaining so much weight! Victory! His top line is filling in nicely and his ribs are hardly showing! I think I finally found the solution to helping keep his weight up. I'm going to have his teeth checked by the vet regardless in the spring.

Now to Work on weight gain and snow

Artax is doing wonderful with ground driving and is obeying my commands well. We'll be hooking him up to a tire soon. We just have to get a warm day. He still could use some improvements in his weight. We're going to be adding supplements to his diet. Also it will be getting a fecal sample and getting an appointment for the equine dentist to look at his teeth since he is showing signs of his teeth needing floating. It started to snow right after I put him away.

November ride

I've been trail ridding Artax on the surrounding trails where I keep him boarded. I hope to get him off the property and trail ride him at Riverside State Park this month. Hopefully take a lesson or two in dressage. Pics from today.

Training has begun to pull a cart

I have been having so much fun with Artax since purchasing him this summer. We have become a great team and learning so much together. I am not only learning to do jumping and dressage on him but I am training him to pull a cart. I don't have a cart yet but I hope to purchase one in the spring. I have been ground driving him and he is picking it up like a champ. I have been doing my research and one of the essential components of training a horse to drive as well is riding is getting really responsive to your voice commands and use to steering. Then the next step is to hook them up to a tire or sled if it's snowy out once they are ground driving down pat and are really obeying your voice commands. That's the next step with Artax once he's really comfortable with me ground driving him. He's picking up ground driving really well so it won't be long before I will hook him up to a tire. Here's some pics of me ground driving him and some other ones just letting him loose to graze.

New Chapter, New Horse

Hello all, I haven't posted here in some odd years. Been busy the last several years. I've been with my fiance for the last 3 and a half years, with Facebook and all the social media, I guess I never bothered to post on here. I'm now 22 years old and living in a little house in Hillyard. I have four dogs and a lot of cats. My dog is my service dog. She is mostly Shepherd but we think she may have some collie in her due to the shape of her face. She's a good dog and has helped me with my disability in ways that could never be helped. I sold Fox this last spring due to his lameness issues that where even light riding he was soar. I thought it was the end of my horse riding deal. But I was suffering serious horse withdrawals and couldn't live without a horse. With me getting approved for disability and taking on a new part time job, I started horse searching again. I wanted to try a new breed. After growing up with Quarter Horses and stock horses in general over the years, I wanted to try a Thoroughbred. Thoroughbreds are few and far between in my area due to the popularity and high demand for stock horses. After some persistence and perseverance, I came across this Thoroughbred up in Rathdrum, Idaho. He was a 12-year-old bay 17 hand off the track Thoroughbred. He didn't have any lameness issues whatsoever, he was the most chill Thoroughbred I've ever met(not your typical TB), and his age since he was still relatively young is what sold me on him. His registered name is Pete's Boy. I call him Artax after the horse from the movie, The Neverending Story. It was love at first sight. Me and Artax clicked immediately. Here are some pictures of me and my recent events with Artax. I'll try to keep this blog up to date with my adventures of my horse and other critters.