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Ammo gets painted
Sharing a video of my mom painting with Blitz. While she was away visiting her sisters in Arizona a few months ago I taught Blitz to paint. I originally bought Blitz in the Summer of 2008 but eventually sold him to my mom when I discovered he was much happier to go a slow a steady pace (I was looking for a speedy pony).
So when my mom returned home from her trip I announced that I had taught her boy to paint. Since then we didn’t have time to work with him again, but on November 29th I pulled out the easel and got him painting again. I asked my mom if she wanted to try it with him….after a few “But I don’t know how to do it” I convinced her to give it a try. So here’s the video of Blitz and my mom painting.
Oh and yes – Ammo the Dachshund gets painted in the video. His favorite spot to hang out when the ponies paint is right under the easel. He’s hoping the ponies will drop a Cheerio or a bit of grain for him to nibble on. This time he caught a paintbrush on the head. By the end of the session he looked like he had a multi-colored mohawk.
Ammo | A Dog Named Christmas
Ammo | A Dog Named Christmas
Vote for Ammo as A Dog Named Christmas’ Cutest Dog of the Season! Your vote will help us win money for our favorite animal charity! And we if we do win – you can help us decide on which charity we should give them money to! So help us out and cast your vote!
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Ammo the Dachshund
So today I’m going to share with you some photos of my adorable Dachshund, Ammo. He’s 8 months old today – Happy Birthday Ammo, sorta! He’s my husband and I’s wedding puppy, as he was born the day after we were married. Ammo has been a constant source of amuzement for us, and we consider him our child (although don’t worry we still treat him like a dog – he isn’t allowed to sleep in our bed, he doesn’t eat table scraps and mike wouldn’t let him be caught dead in clothing). Anyway enjoy these photos of Ammo, he’s definitely got character.
Ammo and my husband take a break at the farm
Ammo will be attending the Keystone Dachshund Races on June 14th to raise money for charity! Come cheer him on!
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
The Last Painting
This is the very last painting created by Chincoteague Minnow.
Minnow passed away peacefully at home on our family farm in Pennsylvania on October 29, 2020. He took a very special piece of my heart with him and left me with 18 years of amazing memories that I will never forget.
Minnow came into my life when I was 18 years old (He was 10). I had no idea then how deeply connected we would become over the years. While most people I meet who have an affinity for the Chincoteague Pony Breed say they fell in love with them after reading the famed Misty of Chincoteague Book – I on the other hand fell in love with the breed because of Minnow.
His kind eyes and willingness to try could never be outmatched. Lest I not forget that in his younger years – when we could be found tearing around the mounted games arena, fox hunting, playing polocrosse or trail riding – he was a powerhouse. His body was built like a tank (with tiny little legs) and when he made up his mind about going somewhere there was nothing you could do to stop him. I spent many of our early years hanging onto his mane for dear life as we raced around at top speed.
But his instinct for flight was not unstoppable – likely stemming from his wild roots – as he was born a wild pony on Assateague Island in Virginia in 1994. I never once doubted that I could “tame” this wild pony. It just took a little imagination.
A few years into our new found partnership I discovered a book on trick training. We dove head first into the world of tricks as Minnow learned to shake hands, play fetch, and bow. I had stumbled upon a language that allowed us to communicate and it forever changed my life and Minnow’s as well.
When Minnow was diagnosed with Ringbone in 2008 and deemed unrideable many would have given up on him. He was my best friend, and I refused to believe that it was the end for us.
Minnow picked up painting and we began to learn new tricks and skills that brought us closer together. In my early 20’s we spent much of our time training and touring around to fairs, expos, and our favorite – the annual Chincoteague Pony Swim every summer. We met hundreds of people who I like to think also fell in love with him as they took home a small piece of him in the form of a one-of-a-kind painting.
While each year Minnow’s body began to fail him just a little bit more, we spent some of the best years of my life connecting with each other and painting for anyone willing to watch.
Minnow was there through all of the major milestones in my life – high school graduation, college graduation, my wedding (he was the “flower pony”), and later the birth of my two daughters. He was the very first pony my girls met after they were born, and later took on the role of “protector” to the girls’ two miniature horses who lived in the stall with him.
Our endeavors with Painting Pony slowed in the past few years, as I got busy raising my young children and Minnow’s body continued to age. His steady limp that was always there became more evident as the years went on. We took him to New Bolton to have injections to help his joints fuse and bought him extra years of comfort in doing so. But through it all, we still painted. Stable flies, gnats, mosquitoes, ticks, lice, etc. are extremely annoying and can further harm him too so we use the Best Fly Spray For Horses that can provide complete protection.Â
On October 28, 2020 I brought his easel out for the last time. It was a warm fall day and my girls helped me ready his remaining few canvases I had in the barn loft as Minnow eagerly hung his head over the fence in anticipation. They went inside to have lunch and I was left to paint with my best friend. We painted with no one watching, no crowds, no onlookers – just us. Because that’s how it all began, just Minnow and I, doing something we loved together. And when he was done he gently placed his paintbrush on the easel ledge and walked away.
Forever in my heart, xoxo.
Chincoteague Minnow
1994 – 2020
Grazing Muzzle to Keep Ponies Happy
Disclaimer: This post is brought to you by Greenguard USA and does contain some affiliate links. All opinions are my own and I only share products I think you and your horses will love.
If your ponies are anything like our ponies, then you probably struggle with keeping them at the ideal weight and protecting them from laminitis during the summer months when the grass is extra lush. Thanks to our new friends over at Greenguard USA our boys were able to test out one of the newest muzzles for horses on the market, the Greenguard Grazing Muzzle.
The Greenguard’s patented basket style muzzle comes with breakable (for safety) buckles which you can attach to your own halter. It’s also recommended to tape them in place with duct tape once you have them adjusted properly to keep it from sliding around. Stable flies, gnats, mosquitoes, ticks, lice, etc. are extremely annoying to the animal and harm their bodies in different ways too so using the Best Fly Spray For Horses can provide complete protection.
Blitz (on the left) tested out the horse size (he’s 14.1 hands tall) and Boomerang (on the right) tested out the cob size (he’s 13.3 hands tall). We found that with these muzzles it’s better to have them roomier, and Boomerang probably would have been a bit more comfortable in a horse size as well (also to prevent rubbing). We did eventually add some sheepskin padding to Boomer’s halter and the back of the muzzle to prevent rubs, which helped. It’s nearly impossible to prevent any and all rubs when your horse has to wear a muzzle – it’s just the nature of the beast! We’ve also found that rotating muzzle styles every few weeks helps to keep the rubs at bay.
As you can see in this shot of Blitz, the Greenguard muzzle fits loosely around your horses’ nose giving them more room to chew and makes breathing much easier (and cooler too!).
Other muzzles we have tried the ponies wear through the bottom pretty quickly.
The Greenguard muzzle is a much stronger/sturdier plastic which appears like it would likely last a lot longer than some of the traditional styles you might be used to seeing. I also noticed that overnight the traditional style muzzles tended to collect much more dirt and debris than the Greenguard ones, which seems like it would be a lot more comfortable to your horse.
All our horses have automatic (Nelson) waterers in their pastures, and during the summer we always make sure to give them a trough to drink from as well.
Once we found Boomerang (wearing a more standard style muzzle) caught on the automatic waterer, so it’s always a good idea to give your horse a trough if they are wearing a muzzle. The Greenguard muzzles don’t really fit inside the openings of the automatic waterers, so it’s especially important to make sure your horse has access to water.
We compared the Greenguard muzzle to one of the more traditional styles of muzzle to see how much grass our ponies were getting. As you can see the muzzle on the left allows the grass to pop up through one hole in the center, while the Greenguard muzzle on the right has a less amount of grass pop up in several different openings. We felt the Greenguard muzzle made the ponies move their mouths around more to get the grass which kept them busier, and intern happier about the fact that they had to wear a muzzle at all!
Even with the boy’s silly antics we haven’t noticed them trying to escape wearing the Greenguard muzzles at all. We haven’t tried it on our resident escapee pony, Minnow, who has gotten out of every single muzzle ever (even with our added “pony proof” gear). He seems to do better with a muzzle that has higher sides and we didn’t want to risk him slipping this one and having a problem.
The Greenguard Grazing Muzzle can be purchased on Amazon and comes in mini, cob, and horse sizes. (P.S. buddy Ammo the Dachshund couldn’t help himself and photobombed every single video I tried to shoot of the boys grazing, but he’s awfully cute isn’t he!)
Thanks for Greenguard for letting us test out their great muzzle on our boys!
