I decided to practice taking action shots with my DSLR camera... I've never taken action shots with a manual focus.  It is SO hard!!  I'm not fast enough, but even though some of these were fails, I still love how a lot of them turned out.  Chrome is SO gorgeous and such a good model. He was feeling his oats today!!  I hope you enjoy them and if you have any tips for my next try please share them.  I'm still using the automatic setting which is why some of white balance is off, but I really wanted to just practice with the focus without complicating things. Focus fail, but he's so cute ..read more

I changed the blog design.  It hadn't changed since 2015 and it needed it.  I know it may be bland for some people's taste, but I'm in a simplistic, minimalist frame of mind right now, so it is what it is.  Please let me know what you think! Also I've been meaning to mention this, but Rocky went back to my best friend (his prior owner) during the spring of this year.  I was having trouble managing two horses and she was back on her feet, so it was the best decision.  I miss him desperately, but he is happy and Chrome is happy.  I didn't really mention it on the blog, but Rocky was bullying ..read more

Anyone who follows me on Instagram already knows this, but I finally made a dream come true! I rode a mule named John John at the Grand Canyon!  I wanted to ride to the bottom of the canyon, but there was no way I could afford it.  So expensive!!  So I just did the three hour ride along the rim of the canyon.  The views were incredible and the experience was amazing! The time in the saddle was probably only an hour and a half, so not bad for beginners if you know anyone who wants to try it that doesn't ride normally.  The rest of the time was spent on the bus going to the stable, listening ..read more

I completed forgot to post these pictures from when I saw the Budweiser Clydesdales in person!  I have a bunch more photos, but I can't find them.  I seriously need to organize my photos.  I'll post them someday when I find them.  Sorry for the quick post.  Too much to do and too little time ..read more

I am blown away by the difference in Chrome's hooves in just seven weeks!  With only five weeks of rehab (started on September 1st).  Wow!  This is just shy of eight weeks since his founder scare on August 12th.  I apologize that the picture on the left is slightly off center and that the flash went off in the picture on the right (his collateral grooves are a lot deeper than they appear so he has great sole depth).  You can still see the huge difference in his hooves, especially his frog and the contraction of his heels! In case you missed my earlier post a quick recap is that on 8/12 the ..read more

I'm going to keep trying to post updates on the blog about Chrome and his rehab, but they still may be sporadic because of my schedule. I have really been enjoying posting to Instagram and I'm planning to post to it regularly so you might want to follow me over there @chromechevalier to see more regular updates ..read more

Before we get started I have two things to address.  One, please don't laugh at my baling twine Vienna reins.  I'm going to order real ones, but I'm on a tight budget right now because of the emergency vet bills.  I also wanted to see how he would do with them before I spent the money on a set.  Second, sorry for the quality of the photos.  They are screenshots from video.  I don't have time to process and upload the video right now so I just grabbed some screenshots for you. Okay, next I'm going to update all of you on what we've been doing since the founder scare.  I'm still working wit ..read more

 I have sad news that I learned about last week.  Lady, the pony I grew up with, died last year at the age of twenty eight.  She was the first horse I fell in love with and the horse who taught me how to ride (and fall).  I had her from when I was nine until I was twenty one.  When I moved to a property without a pasture I decided to give her to a friend (I was too big for her anyway and her job in life had always been to make little girls happy).  He kept her until she died last year in a freak accident that caused a broken leg.  It happened out in the pasture so no one knows for sure how i ..read more

 My gorgeous Chrome, photo taken 9/21/19. August 12 2019 was one of the scariest days of my entire life.  I walked out to the pasture after work to feed Chrome and he was dead lame.  I had never in my life seen him in so much pain.  He wouldn't walk at all unless I was pulling on the lead rope with all of my weight.  I only had him walk a couple of steps to get a video to send to the vet.  I have uploaded it so you can see it.  It still makes me sick to my stomach to see it. Direct Link If you can't watch a video here is a screenshot of how he was standing when I found him.  I immediately ..read more

Ugh this picture is awful.  It was so bright outside and all we had was a cell phone, but hey we're on our new trailer! My husband and I have been looking for a new horse trailer for a long time because the one we have is too small for Chrome and has a few other features I just don't like (heavy ramp!).  My dad finally found one for us that a friend of his was selling and he gave us a good deal on it (it's nice to have such a well liked dad!).  It's definitely a fixer-upper, but that's fine because our truck broke down and hubby is having to replace the engine in it.  We also will have to ge ..read more