Halloween: Goose Edition

Halloween is typically one of my favorite times of the year. The weather is cool, the leaves are gorgeous, and there’s something about dressing up in costume that brings out my inner child. Though I haven’t quite enjoyed dressing myself up the past few years, my animals have always been willing participants. Maybe not Zu so much, but I swear Goose lights up in costume and poses for the camera. He is such an attention hog.

As it’s Halloween and I’ve dressed up Goober every year since I’ve owned him, let’s take a walk down memory lane, shall we?

Halloween 2012

This was my very first Halloween with Goose and at this point I had only owned him about four months. Right after I bought him, he blew an enormous abscess that required about six weeks of stall rest since his hoof had nothing left to it. By mid-October, he had come off stall rest and was on turnout. He’d had some light rides to get back to work, and when the barn I was boarding at asked to borrow him for a few flat classes for an IHSA show we were hosting, I agreed the goon could play show pony. Once the day was done, we got a call from one of the lesson kids who lived right down the street from the barn. They were having a Halloween party that night, and could we pretty please dress up a few of the horses and ride down so the kids could see? Of course, our reply was ABSOLUTELY so we can up with impromptu costumes and took Tubby, Sky, and Goose down the road. What a reentry into the riding horse world for poor Goober!

I hadn’t had a costume handy, so someone found a white sheet, we cut holes in it for eyes, and cleverly decided I’d be a ghost on a ghost horse. Goose didn’t even need a costume! To make things more interesting, I hopped on my horse bareback in the field covered in a sheet I could barely see out of (after he stopped snorting and spooking at me. Note to self, don’t run at your horse dressed in a big spooky bed sheet!), rode down the road in the dark followed by the truck to keep us safe, and we arrived at the house with screaming, running children dressed in costumes and glow sticks. Jenni was on Tubby dressed as the Headless Horseman, and Rachel was on Sky also as a Headless Horseman. 

This picture is actually super creepy

Tubby totally looked the part

Another weirdly creepy picture

Goose couldn’t have cared less about the whole situation. I think he was a little spooky, but this was five years ago and I’m getting old and can’t remember. Looking back, I think I’m now just grateful I survived this whole ordeal. I don’t think I would do this again if someone paid me! My 20-year old self was like, ride down the road bareback to a house full or screaming demon children? Hold my beer! Now I think I would have laughed at the suggestion and said HELL NO. I trust Goose but good grief am I grateful he didn’t kill me that night. I remember Sky and Tubby being spooky and Goose being the calmest of the trio. Regardless, these horses earned their keep that night, what good ponies!

 2012 was also the year of our very first hunter pace together! We went on a costume poker ride somewhere, I can’t remember which park. Jenni had a box of costumes at her house so we picked random things and I chose the Jester outfit for home dress up and some funky star shirt for the pace. I picked up some finger paints and painted colorful spirals all over the Goober. The ride was so much fun, and I was so proud of how well Goose handled himself. I distinctly remember the quarter horses taking off across a field, and my lazy goon gamely galloped with them, even making his way to the front of the herd. I had no brakes, but learned he can book it when he wants to!

So furry and dappled! He was only 8 here.

Halloween 2013

When I got back from New Zealand, I spent the summer looking for a new barn for Goose. I needed him closer to school and wasn’t thrilled with his weight and upkeep. It seemed like a good opportunity for a change and to make my life easier by bringing him closer to home. The barn in Milford was 45 minutes from school and from home, so when the opportunity arose to be a working student at a gorgeous farm in Stockton, only 20 minutes from campus and 30 from my house in NJ,  I jumped at the opportunity. He moved in August, and by October we had already had the best riding buddies in Rachel and her mare, Keira. In what was the first of many adventures together, we signed up for the Spookarama at Bucks County Horse Park. After much costume deliberation, we chose to be cows and farmers. We painted Goose with horse paint, and when the white didn’t show up on Keira, we painted her spots with poultice. They were the perfect cows and our flannels and jeans completed the picture nicely. I think this was the most fun I’ve had on horseback, and Goose and Keira tackled every challenge perfectly. There were stations with activities, putting the “spook” in Spookarama, and we had a blast bopping around the horse park.

Only slightly terrified of his surroundings but he handled it like a champ

Halloween 2014

Rachel and I once again wanted to go to the Spookarama, this time dressed in outfits from the 80’s. We cut sweatshirts so they half fell off our shoulders, bought crazy colored leggings, and did our makeup like we were in elementary school playing with colors. For the horses, I borrowed crazy colored polos from Jenni, we found crazy saddle pads in our own tack trunks, and scrunchied every piece of hair we could on our poor horses. I’m sure there are still some colorful scrunchies littering the trails at BCHP.

 We always popped some of the low cross country fences at BCHP, and when we tried to pop the ditch (which we had practiced over the summer with absolutely no issues), I ended up getting some pretty fantastic shots of Rachel taking a tumble. I think the colors make these even better, and we had a good laugh when we saw them! Don’t worry, both Rachel and Keira were no worse for the wear and she got the mare over it the next time she took her up to it. To be fair, it was freezing and windy that day and both horses had been feeling their oats a bit.

I crack up every time I see these

Redemption for a perfect Keira

Halloween 2015

In December 2014, I moved Goose to a barn in Hillsborough because the drive to Stockton was slowly killing me. I was now working at Weatherbeeta in Edison so the drive to Stockton took over an hour, and since I was no longer a working student and had to pay full board, I was basically signing paychecks over to the farm and to gas. When I realized I could no longer reasonably afford the nice barn, I looked local and found a place 10 minutes from my house and on my way home from the office. Rachel moved in summer of 2015 to save money as well, and our Spookarama dream team was back in action for October.

This year we put the most effort in yet. I bought fabric and funky Halloween sticker things, and made us saddle pads, things to slip over the reins, and matching triangle things for the breast plates. We braided their manes and tails and put colored ribbon in them and wore black sweaters and clothes that we pretended looked like knights clothing. People said Goober looked like Peter Pan, others thought they were witches’ horses, but the horses were meant to look medieval.

We had another amazing year at the Spookarama, and this would end up being our last adventure with Goose and Keira. Rachel sold Keira the next summer to the most perfect home, and Goober and I needed to find new adventure buddies.

My last picture of the dream team

 Halloween 2016

Last Halloween we were boarding at Planeta Stables in Ringoes after the Riverview Catastrophe earlier in February 2016. Rachel didn’t have Keira and couldn’t borrow her mom’s horse, Tucker might literally kill Marissa if she attempted to do anything involving the word “spook”, Dawn would probably have been game but was going to be in Ireland, and that left me searching for a riding buddy. I had a feeling this would be my last fall in NJ (it was) and I didn’t want to miss out on one of my favorite events. Last minute, Pam and her horse, Groot, agreed to join me and we broke out the cow costume once again. It was simple for a last minute costume, and Groot was already a giant black and white cow and Pam had a milkman costume to wear. I broke out the flannel and bought some black finger paint for the goob. Not our best costume, but we still had fun! In fact, we almost won that year! Groot and Goose were awesome despite the obnoxiously slow pace. We got stuck behind so many riders and were bored for quite a bit of the time, but still managed to have a great day with two perfect ponies. We dubbed them Unigoose and Unigroot (Like unicorns but funnier that Grooticorn and Goosicorn).

 I will also note I broke my hand the day before this ride. I had bathed Goose and once he was dry, decided to bareback ride up the driveway before clipping him. It was a little windy out, and he decided to spook at ABSOLUTELY NOTHING and I had nothing to hold onto when he spun out from underneath me. I think he probably kicked my hand by accident and that’s what did it. I felt like I had a weird lump in my glove and when I looked down, it looked like I had a golf ball in my hand. Yay for injuries! I don’t know if it was actually broken because I never went to the doctor, but I’m pretty sure I broke some tiny bone in there. At best it was a pretty damn good sprain and bruise. Of course, I still managed to have a great ride the next day and my hand healed perfectly well in a few weeks after some pretty bruising and creative splints.

A week or two later, Kendra took Goose foxhunting on their Halloween hunt. We recycled his medieval costume from 2015 and it was a hit!

 Because I can’t leave Zuzu out, 2016 was also Zuzu’s first birthday and her first Halloween with me! She dressed up as a skunk and hated every moment of it. I also took some pictures of her and Mags with our decorations out front of our house. I will treasure these forever.

The most adorable Zu-Skunk

Halloween 2017

And that brings us to this year. Unfortunately, I was unable to find a fun Halloween event to take the Goose to this year, and honestly had such a busy month I wouldn’t have had time to go even if there had been something. The barn had a little costume party for the horses and kiddos on Sunday, but I had family here and couldn’t participate. I was stalking some facebook pictures and the lesson ponies all looked adorable. Kelly was teaching another clinic this weekend so was the costume judge, and it looked like fun was had by all. Maybe next year I’ll manage to get my life together to do more fun Halloween things with that Goober. 

Does it count as a costume if he looked like a rhino wearing a party hat tonight? 

Looking at all these pictures makes me so incredibly grateful for this goon. He is so tolerant of all my shenanigans and is always up for an adventure, even if it means dressing up. Love this beast to the moon and back, even if he did think his blanket was going to eat him alive tonight. Even in the south, chilly weather does something crazy to their brains!