Rose

Rose is our newest addition. Even if she IS 14 years old.

The Irish Rose Jasmine. I wish they had called her Jazzy....Rose is so lame. And the Irish Rose is a Farm name. I did call her Jazzy when I first looked at her at the sale....and she did respond to it. But she's been called "Rose" for at least 10 years, and that is the name she responds to automatically.

The Irish Rose Jasmine could be an incarnation of another horse we had, The Irish Rose Liza Jane, except Liza died in 1999. Liza was 17.1-17.2hh; Rose is 18hh or a little better. No relation whatsoever (except Farm Name) but she has the same face, same expression and many of the same mannerisms. So much, that I've called her Liza a couple of times.

Hubby took her to a drive last week, and she was driven single. The previous owners said she was broke at one time, but that they had used her as a brood mare for the last 7 years.....never even hitched her. Until just before sale time, when they hooked her with another old lady and the 2 of them just walked off as if they had been hooked the day before. And, even in the cart, which is usually more difficult than team when working new horses, she worked just fine. And she's sweet, which is a definite change from the rest of our barn.

And she "talks". Both Rose and Bill are the barn "talkers". No, not with nickers or snorts or neighs.....but with their eyes. There is absolutely no doubt about what she is trying to convey to the stupid human who is too dense to understand things right away. But, she's patient, and waits until the human "gets it".

She wears her heart on her sleeve, so to speak. One look at her and she tells you how she feels about what is going on around her. For one, she doesn't understand why there is no grass in the pasture they are in (they ate it all, most of it before the frosts, and the frosts killed the rest), and why they can't go on the other side of the fence where there IS some. Me, too, Rose. But, the stupid humans don't have it fenced yet, and we'd prefer you remain on our property rather than be shot by our neighbors who don't know the difference between a horse and a deer (even if the horse is 2000 lbs compared to maybe 400 lbs on the deer). It IS hunting season, after all. And she doesn't understand why she is kind of ostracized. Although Princess will come up and groom her, she will, just as quickly, turn around and kick the $%!# out of her. And, unfortunately, Princess doesn't just kick and quit....no, she continues on until her anger over whatever is finally vented. (Princess and K go on kicking sprees against each other and needs human intervention. Fortunately, they aren't very often). Even as Rose moves away, Princess will follow. And you can look at Rose and see that she is totally confused about why this is happening.

Even Jill (who DOES seem to be mellowing) merely pins her ears and looks ugly at her. And Rose doesn't understand why. Then again, there ARE times when Jill will break up the altercations.

It doesn't help that Rose is so obvious, so "verbal" as it were, that she gets a lot of consoling. Which only makes the others more jealous. So we try to keep it even.

I can only wonder what's going to happen when we start working with Dee and Bo this year. We'll be watching for signs.

Catching up

Hi y'all.

Well, it's been a wild ride this year. Sold our broodmare to some friends of ours that fell in love with her; bought a mare for the same friends (and one for us!); made up our first 6-horse-hitch this year (at times THAT wasn't pretty!); and just bought an old mare that reminds us of another horse we once had.
Yep, another horse we really don't need.
Oh, well.

Our Jill horse.....the horse that hates everybody....except Bill the gelding...has surprised us. Maybe she's getting mellow as she ages. Poor Bill came up lame at the Fairs this year. As both the Rock of our multiple hitches and the mate for Jill, this was indeed a hard blow to us. Star and Princess (who we bought this Spring) are the lead team, since they are just awesome to watch. So we thought to put K and Queen together. And we found out that K as grown up to be pretty close to 18hh, to Queen's 17.1. On a lark, we put Jill and K together, expecting an explosion of some kind. And they worked. In fact, K pulled her weight, instead of sandbagging and being lazy. Of course, that might be because Jill can have a real hissy-fit when her partner doesn't hold their end up (just ask Bill!). Now Jill and K are the wheel team. That left Queen in the middle by herself, but our friends who bought Sheena wanted her used. Sheena is the same size as Queen, so it worked. Our first 6-up did reasonably well. The second time we showed it.....well, there was just a lot going on.

Star and Princess had been in a wreck the day before. They had been in the "Tandem" class; a class where one horse is in a cart and the other is ahead of it in single file. Apparently (according to witnesses), while they were waiting for the rest of the class to enter, Star (the lead horse) get hit by some rocks thrown by some kids. Now the kids didn't mean to hit the horse; they were throwing them at a mailbox that is placed high up along the fence for another program at fair. But even though they hit her several times and she jumped, they didn't quit, either. When she was hit the last time, she just started backing up, then turned 180 degrees. Now, once that happens, you have one going north and one going south and it is not good no matter what. Star boogied and Princess couldn't back up fast enough and everything eventually went down, with Princess literally falling over the cart. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending how you look at it)it was so muddy that the ground was soft. Ultimately both horses went down, the cart went on it's side, and the horses ended up tangled in each other's harnesses. It was ugly.
Fortunately we had a lot of horse people hanging around (most of the drivers in the rest of the class were busy with their OWN rigs), even though most of THEM were not particularly draft horse people.
Two people jumped on the horse's heads. For those of you who do not know, this is one of the best ways to calm a trapped horse. Kinda like the squeeze chutes for cattle and sheep. The horses stopped thrashing around, and people came to help get them untangled. It took awhile, but when all was said and done, the harness was off, the cart uprighted, and horses lead from the ring. A few scrapes on horses, one harness piece was cut (but easily replaced) and the holdback lost a snap.
The dramatic wreck, described as one of the worst wrecks the judge had ever seen (oh,yeah, he was on one of the horse's heads)ended up with both horses fine, the cart in one piece and a really, really, REALLY dirty harness. Thank goodness for BioThane. Considering that I have seen a few tandem wrecks in which the horse in the cart was actually impaled by a broken shaft.....I consider us very blessed.

Neither horse seemed worse for wear. I took them into a ladies' team class and they were a bit nervous but performed like troopers.

Queen, however was all out of sorts. She did not get used much, and I think, in some ways, she was not happy about everyone else getting to go out. Queen is a work-horse in the true sense of the word. She actually LIKES to be hitched. But, we found out, not by herself. We had intended to use her in a cart class, but she was so wound up, she started bucking and kicking, so she was pulled. By the 6-up, she STILL wasn't happy, so the great swing (middle) team we had the first time was not so great the second.

Live and learn.

But then, that's what horse ownership is all about!

Babies and Self-Destruction

Watizzit about young horses and self-destruction? It seems that if they can get into trouble, they will find a way....and an unusual way at that.

"D" decided she wanted into the barn, even though Jill was already in the barn; which generally means that anyone coming in behind her is going to get blasted. Roy had closed the gate to the pasture in order to get Queen Jill in her stall without any bloodshed.

NOT.

"D" decided to jump the gate. "D" is 9 months old, approximately 12hh, and the gate is around 4'6" tall. In other words, the gate is bit higher than her back.
Well, she got her front legs over it. But her back legs got a bit tangled in it. Since we are both firefighters, he likened it to "locking a leg" in a ladder....which is to wrap your leg through and then back under a rung, which allows you to have both hands free to do whatever needs to be done. I was working, so Roy was on his own. Even HE is not really sure how he managed to pry the gate off the hinges and unwind the leg. But it all turned out ok in the end.....except for the gate....and her hocks.
By the time I got home her one hock was huge. The other was scraped as well, and swollen, but not so bad. It was really ugly.

You always worry in youngsters, since you are not really sure just how much damage they have done. It's just so easy to stretch a ligament or tendon and NOT have it return to normal. Or a lesion could start a real nasty scar-tissue process and you end up with not only an ugly site, but also a stiff joint.

Before we got Star, she had been in a tussle with something (probably wire) and cut her leg. Fortunately, she did not do damage to the joint (she still has awesome hock action), but she has a "fat leg"; the scar tissue that was created was massive. She cannot be shown in halter classes.

Only time will tell with "D". Her Canadian sister "K" also banged up her legs as a youngster, and come through with no scars or problems. But that situation was not as scary as "D"'s It is still too early to tell for "D". So far we have got the swelling down with Bute (yeah, Bute), and the scrapes are healing and should not "show"....no white hairs or anything. But the hock is still stiff, and the swelling just below the hock is still there. But, it doesn't seem to stop her.....she still will run out (or in) although she prefers not to use that leg consistently as her lead push-off leg.

I just don't know what it is about babies and self-destruction.

A New Year

Well, the first of the year brought RAIN, and 50's and the snow melted (Yea!!!).....for 2 days. Then the snow and cold came back. Once again, the road to the barn was filled up, and wheelbarrowing grain and sawdust was the game. This time, however, hubby snowblowed not only the house drive, but the extended drive and out to the barn. How nice!!!! You could actually walk out there!!

And then it snowed again, and it filled again, and he had to blow it out again.
Winter is just not fun in NorthEast Ohio when you've got animals. I'm beginning to think we need to build a barn to house enough sawdust for winter!!

Although "D" (Melody) likes it. Oh, yeah.....snow outside....get out the door.....and ROLL. Never mind the fact that 4 more much bigger horses are on their way out the door, too.....NOOOOOOOO. That snow is just too inviting, and down she goes. At least Star and Bill wait until the ruckus settles before dropping and rolling.

For the most part, it's quiet time in the barn. D and K are growing (at 6 months and coming 3 yo it's expected). In fact K is now bigger than what WAS to be her partner this year, Queen. If she continues on, she may even get taller than Star, and that could be troublesome. After all, the next partner for a MARE team would be Jill......and that just won't work. Although Bill would be fine. But I'd rather not subject Bill to any more work than is necessary. He's 15, this year, and although he has done very well on the Adequan injections, I'm sure there's some damage in his joints.

But weather (and sunlight) is the issue. I really don't like having to shut up the barn to keep the snow out....since it cuts down on ventilation and light. But with the snow coming in from the EAST instead of the West this year, it tends to get into the feed room.....and that's one problem we don't need. We had that last year, where some feed apparently got wet, and actually molded!! We were not aware that it had gotten wet, and started feeding it, when I actually saw it. Not good. But found in time, and no one got sick.

But it does stay dark until almost 8am. Although it has been lighter until after 5pm, it still is a long spell of "dark" for the horses.

But it hasn't stopped heat cycles. Star's in hers right now, so I expect Queen will show up with a day or so. Even Jill (who tends to be either dormant or a "silent heat-er") has been obvious. Of course it's during the coldest times. Go figure. But even K has been cycling along this winter. Maybe it will be an over-all warmer winter.....but we sure could use a break from the snow!!

Maybe I shouldn't say that.....it's freezing rain right now...and that's worse than snow. At least snow stays on top of the hair and can get brushed off when they come in.....freezing rain seems to penetrate to the skin and stays wet much longer. I really don't like my animals being wet when the temperature threatens to drop!!

What can I say.....my creatures are spoiled (rotten).

Beginning 2011

Spring has joined us for a few days.....in the 50's, and the snow is melting.
Which makes mud.
Which makes everything filthy and slippery.
Including what the horses are walking on.

I'm not sure which is worse.....the cold and snow.....or mud.

Mud clings to everything, especially horse's feet and legs. Mud's more slippery than snow making slips and strains easier. Or it will hang onto one foot while the rest go sliding. It clings to the pasterns and legs, allowing for "scratches" and other nasty skin problems. Guess you could say I'm not a big fan of mud.

2010 was, in many ways, not such a good year. But, in other ways, good things DID happen. Horses we sold went to happy homes....and I always like that.

Lilly did not break (bummer).
Athena twisted a gut (devastating bummer).

And we've been treating Star for a fat leg.

Star was not bought to be a halter horse....she was bought because she can MOVE!
She has an old injury on her left hind leg, which looks like a wire cut but no one is really sure what cut her. It was not treated early enough, and so her hock always looks "fat". On Christmas Eve, our friend Caren was kind enough to feed the horses for us so we could make a trip into Michigan to see Roy's family. SHE is the one who noticed that her leg looked fat. She called us to let us know. Naturally, we checked her when we got home, but, it really didn't look much worse than normal.

Ho, ho, ho.

I worked Christmas and the day after, and hubby told me her leg was not looking good, she was not a happy camper and did not go to demolish her grain.

Rule No. 1 at our place.....if the horse won't eat.....CALL THE VET.

Temperature check was 102. Time for SMZ's and Bute.

Monday, he went to work and I came home. When I checked on Star, I was stunned.
IT WAS A TREE TRUNK! Vet came out that afternoon....well really close to noon. (I have GREAT vets and he snuck me in before going on the rest of the afternoon's calls.)

Temp down.....leg down (I had let her out earlier and she had been bouncing around in the snow).

But I learned something. After he checked her over, and finding nothing specific (we had checked her over for any new wounds, naturally), he said he felt it was due to the old injury. He said that sometimes the lymphatic system can get "clogged" at the old injury site, and things will back up. There does not seem to be a rhyme or reason for it, it just will. He gave her a shot of Banamine to help drop the swelling, and we've been continuing on with the Bute and SMZ's....antibiotic is a "just in case we missed something" thing.

She's pretty much back to her normal self, although the leg is still a bit puffy.
She doesn't like taking the dose of SMZ (Carrots help that) and she really is not a fan of powdered Bute in her grain. That kind of surprises me, because the powdered Bute has a taste of apples in it, while the tablets taste like....well, chewing aspirin.

But it's a New Year....with New Hopes.
Here's to it.

Winter's Here!!!!

Winter has arrived in NE Ohio!! And none too gently. We were lucky through this first onslaught....most of the heavy squalls went west and south of us, so we only had to deal with 6-8" vs 2' in Burton!! But this next storm promises to be ugly....and they are talking about FEET instead of inches.

The biggest problem with winter in our area is that the road back to the barn gets blocked. The drifts tend to set up right where the road leaves the main pad, then another at the end of the old barn, another halfway to the hay barn, another in front of the hay barn and then one humongous drift right in front of the horse barn. We can easily get easily get 5 18" drifts out of a little 5" snowstorm. This time the winds are expected to be over 50 mph, so the drifts will be even worse.
Occasionally, we luck out and the wind comes from the direct west, which blows most of it right down the drive and across the street.

This blockage makes life interesting when you have sick-y animals.

Right now our newest arrival, weanling Melody (or "D" as we are calling her), is having trouble shaking the snots. It seems all weanlings get "the baby snots" when the weather turns.....and since our weather has had a hard time deciding whether it wants to be warm or cold-----she's been dealing with sinus problems for some time. Now she has developed a cough....a cough we've been treating for about 10 days now. So even tho her lungs are clear and air is moving easily, she has a dry cough, high in her airway. As a medical professional, you get an ear for where these coughs are starting. We have her on an anti-biotic to prevent bigger problems.

I don't like putting horses on antibiotics unless they need them, for the simple fact that they begin to build up a tolerance to the medicine (as do the little nasties that live in them) and it gets trickier to treat them as they get older. It's no different than we see in humans, where the so-called "super-bugs" run rampant because we all have had way too much antibiotics for no reason (colds/flu are VIRUSES and cannot be treated with antibiotics which is for INFECTIONS). But all things considered, antibiotics prophylactically (oooooow, THERE's a big word!!!) is probably the better part of valor. In other words, trying to PREVENT pnuemonia or bronchitis is better than treating it once it gets a hold of the horse.

The snow also makes it harder to get sawdust and feed back to the barn.....it needs to go back little bit by wheelbarrow or shoulder.
That's probably one of the biggest drawbacks of farm life. Since we don't plow or harvest with tractors, the tractor we have is not quite up to the serious plowing it needs to do. Oh, we've TRIED....but it just isn't heavy enough (and we get some really heavy snows!) Some day I hope to get a bobsled style sleigh to let the horses help in their own care. Hey! What a novel idea!!! Totally new concept!!!

2010 Shows, K's Futurity

The sting of losing Athena is still with me, but I want to get this down before I forget.

This year, fairs were not especially kind to us....from the judging standpoint.
We did not place in some classes as we should have. Some were legitimate reasons, others were, well, things that made you go "Whaaaaa?"

We had sent our 2 2yo's to the trainer. Unfortunately, Lilly, the best looking one turned out to be not so good. Oh, she was a beautiful mover, but hitching her made her literally crazy.....bucking, kicking, urine everywhere. We've had these kind before, and I think SOME of it is due to the fact that they get so nervous, they just can't focus long enough to get it together. In fact, several of our horses WERE exactly that, and once they were paired with a teammate they knew, or were worked with, they got the idea. However, at this stage of the game, we just don't have the wherewithal to work with it. Thus, disappointingly, she was relegated to halter only. Her partner, K, however, got it together in record time, and was added to the string.

This is about K's ordeal......and what LISTENING can do for a horse.

K is lazy. That's the blunt way of putting it. She just doesn't want to expend any more energy than she has to. She didn't do anything wrong, but it wasn't the nicest drive, either. She did not do all that well at the first fair, but that was not surprising....most 2 yo's are more like pinballs than bowling balls.....they bounce from side to side. But, then, she didn't do anything stupid, either. Her had was way low....almost painful to watch.

The more experienced drivers around us convinced us that she needed to be in an over-check bit, to get her head up. If you read Black Beauty, this is what they used for the city draught teams to make them look prettier. So we tried it. It didn't work so good, but the "experts" insisted that when she "got used to it" things would change. She didn't "get used to it" and the fairs were over.

However, K still had her futurity show in mid-September. The week before the show, we took her to the local fairgrounds to basically just keep her going.
To say it was ugly......well, that 's just being polite. She fussed, she fumed, and finally she got plain old p.o'd and stopped. Just stopped and grew roots. She wouldn't go forward, backward or to the side. And the look in her eye.....oh, man, if looks could kill......this was a Mythbusters' Asian Arrow Machine Gun. She was having NONE of this. We tried to back her, and she just absolutely refused. She didn't go up (rear), she just planted her feet and stayed there. Jim, our friend and wonderful helper in this, actually PULLED the cart back, pulling her off her feet so she HAD to back up. We probably did this several times. Frustrated, we stopped, but after pulling off the cart, decided to ground drive her a bit.....and she went just like she was supposed to......even backing up!!!!

I thought long and hard for the next few days about this wreck waiting to happen. Then I figured we just needed to drive her a bit without the over-check. So we did.
And we had forward back, although backing still wasn't so good. And the head actually came up!!! Hmmmmmmmm. So, on a whim, the next night I put her in the "D" of the bit. And I had a whole different, far more willing horse.

A note to those who do not drive.....most draft horses are driven with a straight bit with a long curb on it. On this curb are holes for lines (reins) so you have more control over a 2000# animal. We usually have it "1 down", or in the middle, on young or very strong horses. I've only used it all the way down once, when Jill got so strong she nearly pulled my arms out of their sockets. Only had to do it once, though.....she got the message.

So, we figured that she would just go ahead and go into the Futurity show, and whatever she did, she did.
And, boy, did she!! I can't even begin to tell you how anxious I was when we got ready for the cart class. Because I simply didn't know what she would do. We got through her halter class, no problem, and I thought she did real well. Cart, well, here goes.......

SHE WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!

Well, I thought so, anyway. The judges, not so much, but some of these horses were really, really, really nice.
Anyway, K went into the cart class like she LOVED it. Her head was up, and she really moved out. She was actually FUN to drive. I had a feel in her like I used to with Bud.

Then the obstacle course. She did the back-up fine, crossed the bridge, no problem and went to the 90-degree turn. She started it, then turned her neck and looked at me......and I knew.....it was over. That look said, "Not today, lady" (once again I am taking the polite term) and she just absolutely would not do it. When we were asked to continue on, THEN she did it and finished the rest of the course....not so nicely, but it got done with no more balking.

So, we blew the futurity.

But I learned something.....something we will continue to use......
We fought the horse, using things others said would work. And they do work. Just not for her. And we pushed it.....doing exactly the opposite of horse LISTENING.
But, when we LISTENED, and did things differently....did things that most people would have said would be the WORST thing we could do, namely take off the over-check and make the bit LIGHTER rather than heavier, she became everything we wanted her to be.

Now, we'll have to do the same work with Queen.....she likes to tuck her head and drop it....but she has go, whoa and turn, down to a science.