Wildwych Oleander

Yaaaayyyy, we’re back!!

Or so I thought… I started to work kind of seriously with Ole, she now walks, trots, canter with all her tack on and she walks with me on her back. Well, it’s more like a pony ride, but it’s an improvement! After that, Ole had to move to her new place and I did not have the time to continue. I have to say, i is very difficult with a 5 mo baby. You have to schedule a time when the baby won’t need to nurse, you have to find a baby sitter, and you have to find a lunger. All of them must be available at the same time. Soooo we are still working on the scheduling part so far.

She is now in a paddock facing the Pacific ocean though, and she gets to see an amazing sunset every night. She is with 2 other geldings, one is in love with her and the other one, not so much.

I am leaving for Europe in 5 days for Christmas and I’ll stay there with the baby for 6 weeks. Ole’s gonna have to be put on hold while we are away but I am pretty confident the rest of her work will go as smoothly as it has been so far.

New pictures online and talk to you soon

Wew, can’t believe it’s been more than 6 months since I posted an update! To be honest, I got kind of busy: got pregnant, had to take care of Ole, got the baby, had to take care of Ole and the baby obviously… And I just have a minute while the baby is sleeping to post a word about Ole.

So how have things been going?… Last winter was fairly good, with had a TON of rain, I had never seen that before in California. It was good for the state but not so good for Ole. Yes because rain means water, californian sun plus water mean grass. Plenty of grass.

Of course Ole ate a lot of grass, of course she started to show signs of laminitis… So off she went to the stable area and got to work. At this point, I was 8 months pregnant, entering my 9th month, but I had to work her… I lunged her everyday for a month, she lost a bunch of weight and finally she was allowed to go back to pasture.

Since she went back, she put back on the weight she had lost and she is now looking mighty good! Fall is coming pretty fast and I’m gonna have to figure out where to put her, to finally break her. Sooooo… I’ll let you know when anything exciting happens!

Yup. Ole has a BIG FAT ASS. Ok, not only, she also has a HUGE belly. She even made me wonder if she wasn’t pregnant and if so, how she could have gotten pregnant?

She is so fat I need to work her… Too bad for her, if she would cut back on the hay she would be fine. But no, missy wants to look like a hippo. So now, she is lunged once a week and we’ll see how her fatness is regressing. I am the one saying that but I could cut back on meat myself as well apparently… Oh well, welcome in the wonderful world of dieting. At least we won’t cost much in food.

I uploaded a couple of pictures so you can see for yourself.

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Hello there,

I know it’s been ages since I posted here but I have been really lazy lately. But unlike the usual, I have some exciting news for you!

Ole and I went to the West Coast Connemara Show this year. We didn’t go last year because we did not really have a truck and trailer to haul the lady up in Sacramento, plus it wasn’t the WCCS but the Mountain and Moorland Show.
Anyway, this year, I decided that we were going and so we went! Ole got into the trailer ok and she was a champ on the show ground: settling really well, not anxious at all, eating, drinking, sleeping in her comfy stall. Per-fect.

I had entered her in the 3 and under fillies class. It was one of the first class and it took about 10 mins. We finished 3rd over 4. And here are a couple of pictures :

So then, she was entered in the produce of dam. There was only Ole’s dam produces in that class so we won. You can see her with Redbud’s Cracker Jack (Glenormiston Billies Bay) and Redbud’s Celtic Tiger (Wildwych Eclipse)

And finally she was inspected. It went well and she passed the inspection with fairly good marks.

I don’t know if I’ll go to the next WCCS, it seems to me that it’s not worth the money. We might go to the Mountain and Moorland Show instead as it is judged by foreign judges and it could give me another point of view about Ole. But first, she is still in her pasture for one year, then I need to get her broke, and then maybe a baby? We’ll see… But I have at least 2 ponies on my short list (1 americans and 1 french) depending on my visa’s issues. But guess who? ;)

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Well it’s not like if winter was very long but I feel so relieved it finally came, you can’t imagine! I can put back my flip flops, Oleander is shedding and I don’t have to worry about the mud all over my shoes anymore.

Yeah, this is nice weather. Unfortunately, we tend to forget that we are still in a terrible drought… And it’s not getting better. Drought after drought, it looks like this year the water restrictions are going to be bad. So we try to save water! Ole will only have ONE bath this year: right before inspection. Then she will be allowed to go back at being a dirty piggy. 

Anyway! As you’ve probably noticed, I upload new pictures regularly, I try to keep this website as updated as I can but sometimes I am just too lazy…
Last weekend Ole had her first run in the round-pen! Not exactly the first one, as she’s already been in the round pen at Brookside, but it was her first time at this one! We have a really exiting life, have we not?
We’ve been “working” on going on the trails, and we have a lot of fun! Going up and down the hills is very fun according to Ole! But this time we went ALL the way to the arenas and the round pens and since nobody was in there, I decided to introduce Ole and the free lunge. I mostly let her trot/canter around, didn’t ask her much… She was a bit anxious. No horse was around and in this new environment she wasn’t the bravest one

Buuuuut she did really good and I finally had the chance to see how her movements had evolved. Actually, she trots really nicely! I love her hock action and the fact that she pushes very hard from behind. Her canter is… OK. I mean, there’s nothing special! She is very compact and she doesn’t have such a big stride. She has a good balance though.

I am going to let you see for yourself as the nicest husband on earth went with us to video tape!!   

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And a couple of new pictures online!

Et quelques nouvelles photos en ligne! 

Ok, so it’s official, we will be at the WCCS ‘09 at Twin Rivers Ranch! I don’t know about Ole, but I am pretty excited about that. I also signed her up for her inspection… I’ve never been to an american inspection before so it will be new for the both of us. But I think it’s going to be interesting to see how it goes around here. 

Other than that, here in California, the weather is turning crazy (well, actually, I think this is the case pretty much everywhere in the world) and Ole is wondering between shedding or growing more hair. And I am turning on and off the heaters at home… That’s pretty annoying but it’s not the worst: California only had something like 35% of the average water we usually have at this period. Scary! Hopefully, more rain will drop soon and we will feel more comfortable.  

New picture, as soon as Ole stops eating all the time… 

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Hi there!

Things have been quiet here, as usual, I just don’t take the time to write very often. Between work, my family life, Ole, and Ember… It’s like time is flying without me noticing anything. 

Anyway, Oleander is doing good now. She had a little episode a couple of weeks ago: she choked on we-don’t-know-what. The vet came out and tried to either push it in or out. After 2 hours of tube, we decided to take her to the clinic to do an endoscopy. Well I was scared this little incident was going to cost me my Christmas but fortunately, Ole heard me and just swallowed the thing during the hauling. Since then, she has been happy again in her pasture, eating and playing with friends. She actually has a new best friend: a little QH filly, she must be Ole’s age. They get along really well. 

I uploaded a couple of pictures, not much. But I’ll try to put some more up as soon as I can. 

Late Merry Christmas to all of you and a wonderful 2009. Full of joy, love and ponies in GOOD health!!!

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Wow it has been a while. But I have to say that there isn’t much going on in our life lately… Ole is eating and eating and eating. Elise is working and working and working. 

But last weekend, we had for a family hike with Leo. I wanted to take her out of her pasture for once and to walk her around in the pasture across the street. And she did really good (except when she smashed Leo’s ankle when she got scared of a cowboy), we went all the way to the arenas and we came back. Even when she got scared she didn’t take off or anything, she just came closer to me (ok really closer, she almost  walked on me but niah…). So that’s good, she doesn’t seem very spooky. 
And here is a little video of our afternoon. You will be able to see how Ole’s life is aweful.

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Ole has been doing just fine… And the gallery is updated

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