looking better...

still skinny, but starting to fill out a bit... these pictures are from end of last week and compared to when she arrived I think she's looking a lot better. All the feed I'm stuffing into her seems to be starting to show ;)

so many special people :)

Thursday my friend Kathrin came and said hi to Bella. Aren't they a handsome couple? ;)

way to nice for indoors ;)

Yesterday Cascara had her first outdoor ride. Not a trail ride but at least not an indoor arena anymore. It was just way to nice to ride indoors. Cascara was a champ! Other than a few little bucks or lets rather say popping her put in the air while cantering, she did great. It was only our second time cantering too, so no blame there.

both of us exhausted after our first outdoor session

a new set of German shoes

Bella needed some new shoes. She has needed them ever since she arrived, but because she has been so up and not settled at all I have been putting it off for as long as possible. Monday when she pulled loose and run of down the alley between our fields they finally got very loose and I couldn't wait any longer. So yesterday Christian our farrier came to say hi to her and miracolously all of a suddon Bella was her cam usual self again. She was as good as can be while getting her new set of shoes. I did bribe her a bit with a big bucket of feed infront of her, but I think even without it she would have been good, since she was more interested in what Christian was doing to her feet and what was going on outside anyway.

Christian fitting the shoes

the bribe

checking the fit - "you sure they are fancy enough for me?"

those chicken out there are so interesting...

birthday feasts day after day after day...

I'm trying to get Bella to put on weight so at the moment I think everyday is like a birthday to her... at least she is getting birthday feasts everyday... ready made up cereals and beat pulp and hay cops and hay pellets and oats and barley... and mash....

Bella enjoying a big load of beat pulp mixed with cereals

Happy 4th Birthday my gorgeous girl!

Today Bella turns 4. It's been over a year since we picked her up from Turfway, when she was only 2., ...ok almost three, but from 2 to 4 years just sounds much longer ;)

Here's one of her sale pictures that made me fall in love with her the second I saw her. I don't think I've ever fallen for a horse that fast...

Cascara's first Canter

I've been riding Cascara for I guess about a month now. It's been an on - off thing because of holidays like Easter in between (1 1/2 weeks off) and days that I couldn't make it like when we went to pick up Bella. But I think the off times more often than less really did her well. Afterwards she's always really good at everything we learned before the time off. Not that she isn't a very quick study anyway, but it just seems like she always uses the off time to think things over and than present them like she has never been doing anything else, whenever we start back up again.

There's only one thing I hadn't had the guts to do yet all on my own: CANTER

When I first started cantering Cascara at the longe line, without a rider or anything else, she acted like she had never ever done it before getting her legs all tangled up and then getting really mad about it and exploding into all sorts of directions at once. With time she got better and better at it. And by now she's really good. Most of the time she gets the right lead and even if she doesn't she calmly corrects herself without throwing a hug fit. The only thing left is that she still likes to take of bucking if she finds a reason to, like another horse knocking his feed against the wall of his stall...

So up until now I haven't dared to canter her in the saddle without any help from somebody else and since there hadn't been anybody to help me I hadn't cantered her while riding at all.

Yesterday, when Nikola came to the barn with me I finally had the chance to do so. Cascara was so relaxed, that I even passed on having Nikola hook us up to the longe line. The only thing she had to do was help out a little bit with the long whip to get us going, since Cascara obviously didn't yet know what I wanted her to do. I'm so happy with my little girl! Here's a video of our first canter:

our first canter under saddle

We also took some videos of her trotting. She didn't do her best job there yesterday because there were scary poop piles lying around in the arena. Usually our arena is very clean, but somebody
"shovel-naped" the shovel to get rid of them. So yesterday there were these scary piles lying around. Also another horse suddenly started bumping around in his stall which sent us flying... ;)

trott I

spooky trott

trott II 

another new friend - or: it's all about who's standing next to you

Today my best friend Nikola came to the barn with me to meet Bella. We met years ago through the horse, but sadly our lives have taken us to different parts of Germany and we aren't able to keep our horses at the same barn anymore. While Bella next to me looks small to regular sized, next to her Bella looks so tall!

Unfortunately Bella's still terribly sucked up from all the stress. I wish she would settle in faster, but right now she's still very up and not her usual relaxed self. I also wish I could put hay out on the field for her, but our barn owner won't let me. So I have to do with bringing her in during the day and feeding her another extra special meal.

a new blog member

I think most of you know, that we have another young mare here in Germany, that we have owned ever since she has been a foal. She will turn 5 in July and I have only recently gotten around to start her of under saddle. I was going to start her of at 3 1/2 years of age, but then we got sent to the USA and Cascara got to enjoy some more time in the fields.

Here are some pictures of her as a foal:

At about 12 months old:

14 months:

Yummy

out of proportions... ;)

16 months:

fluffy

baby girl

midget girl :D

22 months old:

pondering?

synchronous dancing

a new friend :)

Today my friend Laura came to the barn with me to meet Bella :)

two pretty Ladies :)

mule ears :D

settling in... sometimes isn't that easy...

Today is Bella's third day in Germany and I still can't believe she's here. Every time I go to the barn I have this huge grin on my face as soon as I see her. I just can't believe it's her standing in the field out there.

Bella seems to like our German grass. The little bit that is there for her to eat. Thanks to the long winter that lasted until a few days ago there's not much of it there yet. She seems relaxed out in the field nibbling away.

Other than the grass, she doesn't yet seem convinced of our hay and grains. She's not eating as much of it as we would like her to, for her to gain back weight. Our barn owner has tried mixing haylage into her hay and Bella does eat that much better, but I'm not a fan of it so I don't want it to be a permanent solution. I'm hoping she will start eating more as she settles down. Still, anybody any other ideas to get Bella more interested in her feed? Fortunately she does drink well and loves playing in her water trough in the field.:)

Today I put her in our indoor arena for her to stretch her legs... here's some pictures and a video :)

yummy grass! :)

http://youtu.be/1cHbku4C20g

Bella's journey - goodbye USA, hello Germany

So we moved back to Germany. Heart got  lovely new home at Bits&Bytes farm and Bella would move to Germany with us. While we returned to Germany Bella moved to Houston, Texas for a 30 day quarantine. 

Day of flight was April 10th. It turned out to be April 11th due to bad weather in Houston. We drove to Luxembourg to pick her up on Friday April 12th. They were due do touch down the day before, then they changed it to Friday morning. It ended up being Friday 11:40am. For us that meant long hours of waiting in the cold at the airports cargo pick up. 

funny truck we passed on the way - "Caution, toys on the fly" lol

gorgeous rainbow on our way to pick up Bella

Basti taking our new SUV apart to kill time while waiting

Our Toyota and trailer waiting for Bella...

a container with horses on it's way to the stalls. Maybe Bella inside?

The wind and rain disheveled both of us, but other than me I think Basti kind of looked cute like that ;)

disheveled me

the gate behind which Bella is waiting

Around 3:30pm we finally got the go to drive in and pick up Bella. They asked us if we knew our horse and when we affirmed that, they sent us in to go look for her. She was nibbling at her hay and I almost didn't recognize her. Her summer coat is so much darker than her winter one and she has changed to summer almost all the way since I left her in the USA. She also looked like she was really puzzled to see us there :) We took her out and wanted to load her, but Bella thought otherwise. I think she was sick of getting stuck in a trailer. It took us a couple of attempts and trying every single method we could think of. When all other horses were loaded and I almost out of ideas, she finally just walked in after me and a handful of hay. 

Bella waiting in her stall at the airport

first attempt of loading her. It took three.

non mum, not another trailer!

two hoofs, that's as much as she would give us for a long time...

I think it was around 5 by the time we finally had her loaded and headed out on the road back home. Another 7 hour drive ahead of us...  I guess it could have been a bit less of a drive, but our GPS decided to fail just there and than and the first part of the trip until it finally decided to do it's job again was a bit of a pass and fail without any type of a map.

We arrived at Bella's new home around midnight. All of us more than exhausted.

a gorgeous little castle on the way home

so which are hills and which are clouds?

Bella's first glimps at her new home. Not much to see in the dark...

inspecting her new stall and her new neighbours

When I came to the barn this morning to check on her she was in the indoor arena. They had put her in there around 7 in the morning so she could stretch her legs. She looked at me when I came in, but stayed at the opposite end like she was afraid I would stick her in a trailer again. I took her out and we went for a walk around the barn. Later the barn owner gave us a small grass paddock for her to enjoy the nice weather.

stretching her legs

what do you want mum?

looking at me from her paddock

Bella's first German grass ;)

looking at the horses in the other paddocks

!!!SHE'S HOME!!!!