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.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Saturday, December 11, 2010
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!!!
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!!!
Friday, November 26, 2010
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.
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.
Friday, November 19, 2010
What Happened?????
Tuesday was a baaaaaad day.
Athena died.
My beautiful, 4 year old, awesome-moving, blue roan twisted a gut.
And I don't know what I could have done differently.
It was a normal morning, although for the first time in months she had eaten her breakfast awfully fast. We kept a big rock in her feed tub to stop her from bolting her food. She has eaten so fast that she has become "icky", but she hadn't had a problem in over a year (since we added the rock).
She tore out of her stall and into the pasture as normal.
When she came in, she was slow; but everyone was slow that day.....it happens sometimes (not often, but sometimes). When I was finishing up the barn chores, I brought in the stallion and noticed her laying down. That was odd, but then, I had put them out a bit early and some of the horses are definitely not morning creatures. She got up right away, and I checked her out.....her ears were warm, her gums were pink and she seemed otherwise normal.....but I did notice that she did NOT drink any water when she came in, and she had pushed her hay snack around but hadn't eaten it. Red flags right there. I did see some pooh....false sense of security, there
I walked her a bit and she seemed to brighten, so I put her back in the stall for a bit. More pooh. I checked on her again about 30 min later and she looked uncomfortable. So, I gave her some Banamine and walked her for 30 minutes. She seemed to respond well and when I put her back in her stall, she seemed normal. More pooh.
I went in to eat lunch. I went back out....she was up but just standing there. She just didn't look right. Nothing specific.....her ears were still warm, her gums still pink.....but just not right. There was another pooh pile. Then she flummened....stuck out her upper lip and it was quivering. I knew something was wrong, then....her mother did the same thing when she was in bad shape. She looked a bit bloated, although her flanks were still sunken in. I started walking her again. Then she started kicking at her belly.
I called the vet.
While waiting for the vet (I have a great vet service and they come as fast as they can when I call) she just kept getting worse and worse. More and more uncomfortable. She looked more bloated.
The vet came out....sedated her and tried his best to do what he knew he needed to do, but she would not cooperate. Her rectal exam was abnormal.....he could not feel her colon or her cecum. Not good. He could not get her stomach to release its fluid retention. The heavy sedation just took the edge off, and it was not long before she was hurting again. He sedated her with even heavier stuff. She finally let him get a rectal, but it was still abnormal. As we watched, I noticed she looked even more bloated. Even under sedation I could see her muscles quiver with pain. The swelling went into her chest and came up between her legs; her flanks were now round.
Options: Surgery at the Equine Hospital (if she would make it there). Surgery on draft horses is a last resort, since they do not do well. Most don't make it off the table and of the ones that do, most of THEM end up not waking up or not surviving long enough to come home.
Option 2: Take her on a really really bumpy trailer ride and hope the twist would untwist.
As she came out of the deep sedation, it became obvious that even THAT wasn't a decent option. She was hurting too much; it was time.
This was the same horse I was hoping to begin riding; the one I wanted to turn into a Hunter/Jumper and/or Dressage horse.
I cancelled my riding lessons for the time.....I need to put some distance between this and riding again. It was too painful to think about it.
Athena died.
My beautiful, 4 year old, awesome-moving, blue roan twisted a gut.
And I don't know what I could have done differently.
It was a normal morning, although for the first time in months she had eaten her breakfast awfully fast. We kept a big rock in her feed tub to stop her from bolting her food. She has eaten so fast that she has become "icky", but she hadn't had a problem in over a year (since we added the rock).
She tore out of her stall and into the pasture as normal.
When she came in, she was slow; but everyone was slow that day.....it happens sometimes (not often, but sometimes). When I was finishing up the barn chores, I brought in the stallion and noticed her laying down. That was odd, but then, I had put them out a bit early and some of the horses are definitely not morning creatures. She got up right away, and I checked her out.....her ears were warm, her gums were pink and she seemed otherwise normal.....but I did notice that she did NOT drink any water when she came in, and she had pushed her hay snack around but hadn't eaten it. Red flags right there. I did see some pooh....false sense of security, there
I walked her a bit and she seemed to brighten, so I put her back in the stall for a bit. More pooh. I checked on her again about 30 min later and she looked uncomfortable. So, I gave her some Banamine and walked her for 30 minutes. She seemed to respond well and when I put her back in her stall, she seemed normal. More pooh.
I went in to eat lunch. I went back out....she was up but just standing there. She just didn't look right. Nothing specific.....her ears were still warm, her gums still pink.....but just not right. There was another pooh pile. Then she flummened....stuck out her upper lip and it was quivering. I knew something was wrong, then....her mother did the same thing when she was in bad shape. She looked a bit bloated, although her flanks were still sunken in. I started walking her again. Then she started kicking at her belly.
I called the vet.
While waiting for the vet (I have a great vet service and they come as fast as they can when I call) she just kept getting worse and worse. More and more uncomfortable. She looked more bloated.
The vet came out....sedated her and tried his best to do what he knew he needed to do, but she would not cooperate. Her rectal exam was abnormal.....he could not feel her colon or her cecum. Not good. He could not get her stomach to release its fluid retention. The heavy sedation just took the edge off, and it was not long before she was hurting again. He sedated her with even heavier stuff. She finally let him get a rectal, but it was still abnormal. As we watched, I noticed she looked even more bloated. Even under sedation I could see her muscles quiver with pain. The swelling went into her chest and came up between her legs; her flanks were now round.
Options: Surgery at the Equine Hospital (if she would make it there). Surgery on draft horses is a last resort, since they do not do well. Most don't make it off the table and of the ones that do, most of THEM end up not waking up or not surviving long enough to come home.
Option 2: Take her on a really really bumpy trailer ride and hope the twist would untwist.
As she came out of the deep sedation, it became obvious that even THAT wasn't a decent option. She was hurting too much; it was time.
This was the same horse I was hoping to begin riding; the one I wanted to turn into a Hunter/Jumper and/or Dressage horse.
I cancelled my riding lessons for the time.....I need to put some distance between this and riding again. It was too painful to think about it.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Time Flies
Holy smokes!!! Time flies when you're having fun, they say.
Well, maybe I wasn't exactly having fun, but we were busy trying to get things together for the Fall Fairs. Having a 2-year-old to work, plus getting all the others ready to do things they had never done together before.....well, it just kinda used up all our time. Between one thing and another, hubby and I have just been busy, busy, busy....and then the computer crashed. I am now on public computers (which is NOT fun!!). But I have lots to say.
Fairs have come and gone, and although some of the judging was a bit questionable, I was more than pleased with how our horses performed. Only the 2 year old, "K", had issues and she had issues right up to her futurity show in mid-September. But we learned a lot in the space of one week (7 days) after her spectacular temper tantrum.
Although I don't have time right now to really go into it, I hope to "catch up" on everything this weekend, when there's more time to put this together.
Oh, and I'm STARTING RIDING LESSONS again. Yep, the old lady is going to get back on a horse after 25 years of driving. Who knows, maybe I'll see you around the dressage or H/J shows!
Well, maybe I wasn't exactly having fun, but we were busy trying to get things together for the Fall Fairs. Having a 2-year-old to work, plus getting all the others ready to do things they had never done together before.....well, it just kinda used up all our time. Between one thing and another, hubby and I have just been busy, busy, busy....and then the computer crashed. I am now on public computers (which is NOT fun!!). But I have lots to say.
Fairs have come and gone, and although some of the judging was a bit questionable, I was more than pleased with how our horses performed. Only the 2 year old, "K", had issues and she had issues right up to her futurity show in mid-September. But we learned a lot in the space of one week (7 days) after her spectacular temper tantrum.
Although I don't have time right now to really go into it, I hope to "catch up" on everything this weekend, when there's more time to put this together.
Oh, and I'm STARTING RIDING LESSONS again. Yep, the old lady is going to get back on a horse after 25 years of driving. Who knows, maybe I'll see you around the dressage or H/J shows!
Monday, May 10, 2010
Sunday's Doin's
It was COLD this weekend!!!!
Usually our horses know that cold equals day off.....but not today. Even though most of the people from last week were not available (it WAS Mother's Day after all), two couples did come out. And four horses got worked.
We hitched Queen and Star again, this time putting Star on the off side (right side), since she has this habit of "freezing" as she comes up to the wagon tongue. Star is the first horse I've ever seen Freeze when she gets overwhelmed. Most of the others just go bonkers or throw tantrums. While "freezing" is less dangerous to your body, it's almost as hard to get past as a bonkers horse; it's hard to get their attention back on you! She didn't freeze coming up to the right side and we thought this would work out great. Unfortunately, she has an injury to her fight hind leg. Although we don't know EXACTLY what happened (we've been told she got caught in a fence), the tongue just touching it sent her off. She'd buck, fling her tail and basically act like Jill. Only Star settles down much quicker when it's over. Queen doesn't care which side she's on, so we'll work with the comfort factor for Star.
We also hitched the two grays, Athena and Missy. Poor Missy is 2 months pregnant and not feeling up to par, but we needed to see what they can do together. But Athena was so wound up from waiting that I had to get the bugs out of her first, so we hooked her to the cart (which took 4 people, where normally just 2 of us can do it). She was so much like my TB Rusty.....she wanted to just run, but I don't want her to get that idea while she's in the cart (she's still young yet), so I kept her at a trot, although I let her go as fast as she wanted. At times she'd fall into the canter, but came back easily into the trot (at least she's broke enough to respond to me!). When she finally did a flat-footed walk (most of our show horses only walk out in the pasture; whenever they're hitched, they do a kind of jig where the foot pattern is a walk, but it sure looks like they're trotting), I knew it was "safe" to put her into a team. I just had to laugh.....Rusty used to need a 1-2 mile "blow", where I'd let her run as fast as she wanted to, before she was able to settle down and begin working over fences or on transitions or whatever; Athena felt exactly the same way. Apparently Athena is connecting with me on that same level.
I really thought that as a team they would not look quite right, but I am glad to say that I was pleasantly surprised. Not only was their height close enough to not be distracting, but they moved somewhat the same. Once Missy gets over her PG ickyness (in a few months) we'll really be able to see what they can do.
I almost always learn something when I work with horses, no matter HOW many times I've worked with them. This time I became even more aware of the effect of "presence". We see it in humans all the time.....there are people who can walk into the room and no one even notices, and those who come in and everyone notices. Well, it was the same with these teams. When you stand next to Star and Athena, they seem larger than life. It is only when you put them next to another horse that you realize that they are NOT the huge horses that they appear to be on their own. Missy and Queen, although strong personalities in their own right, don't have that same presence, and seem smaller than their teammates. Yet when you put them in the teams, you realize how close they really are, at least in size, to each other.
Charlie, our first stallion, was like that. All of 16.1 hh, he looked like he was 18.0 hh+, and he carried himself like a big boy. As did Mac, who was 17.2, but looked so much bigger.
So, other than being exceptionally cold, and having snow or ice pellets hitting us while driving, it was a good day.
I may need to take up riding Athena. The "Rusty" feel was so strong, that I really do believe Athena would make the most awesome 3-day horse. She was doing her "floating trot" while I was drivng her, and the other three got to see the different between her "ordinaty floating trot" and her extended trot. Either trot is very impressive.
Usually our horses know that cold equals day off.....but not today. Even though most of the people from last week were not available (it WAS Mother's Day after all), two couples did come out. And four horses got worked.
We hitched Queen and Star again, this time putting Star on the off side (right side), since she has this habit of "freezing" as she comes up to the wagon tongue. Star is the first horse I've ever seen Freeze when she gets overwhelmed. Most of the others just go bonkers or throw tantrums. While "freezing" is less dangerous to your body, it's almost as hard to get past as a bonkers horse; it's hard to get their attention back on you! She didn't freeze coming up to the right side and we thought this would work out great. Unfortunately, she has an injury to her fight hind leg. Although we don't know EXACTLY what happened (we've been told she got caught in a fence), the tongue just touching it sent her off. She'd buck, fling her tail and basically act like Jill. Only Star settles down much quicker when it's over. Queen doesn't care which side she's on, so we'll work with the comfort factor for Star.
We also hitched the two grays, Athena and Missy. Poor Missy is 2 months pregnant and not feeling up to par, but we needed to see what they can do together. But Athena was so wound up from waiting that I had to get the bugs out of her first, so we hooked her to the cart (which took 4 people, where normally just 2 of us can do it). She was so much like my TB Rusty.....she wanted to just run, but I don't want her to get that idea while she's in the cart (she's still young yet), so I kept her at a trot, although I let her go as fast as she wanted. At times she'd fall into the canter, but came back easily into the trot (at least she's broke enough to respond to me!). When she finally did a flat-footed walk (most of our show horses only walk out in the pasture; whenever they're hitched, they do a kind of jig where the foot pattern is a walk, but it sure looks like they're trotting), I knew it was "safe" to put her into a team. I just had to laugh.....Rusty used to need a 1-2 mile "blow", where I'd let her run as fast as she wanted to, before she was able to settle down and begin working over fences or on transitions or whatever; Athena felt exactly the same way. Apparently Athena is connecting with me on that same level.
I really thought that as a team they would not look quite right, but I am glad to say that I was pleasantly surprised. Not only was their height close enough to not be distracting, but they moved somewhat the same. Once Missy gets over her PG ickyness (in a few months) we'll really be able to see what they can do.
I almost always learn something when I work with horses, no matter HOW many times I've worked with them. This time I became even more aware of the effect of "presence". We see it in humans all the time.....there are people who can walk into the room and no one even notices, and those who come in and everyone notices. Well, it was the same with these teams. When you stand next to Star and Athena, they seem larger than life. It is only when you put them next to another horse that you realize that they are NOT the huge horses that they appear to be on their own. Missy and Queen, although strong personalities in their own right, don't have that same presence, and seem smaller than their teammates. Yet when you put them in the teams, you realize how close they really are, at least in size, to each other.
Charlie, our first stallion, was like that. All of 16.1 hh, he looked like he was 18.0 hh+, and he carried himself like a big boy. As did Mac, who was 17.2, but looked so much bigger.
So, other than being exceptionally cold, and having snow or ice pellets hitting us while driving, it was a good day.
I may need to take up riding Athena. The "Rusty" feel was so strong, that I really do believe Athena would make the most awesome 3-day horse. She was doing her "floating trot" while I was drivng her, and the other three got to see the different between her "ordinaty floating trot" and her extended trot. Either trot is very impressive.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Catchin' Up--barn, sales, etc.
They say time flies when you're having fun.
Well, it's not been particularly fun.....but the time flew by anyway.
Stall floors are just about done. It takes a long time to get everything coordinated to finish them.....the stone/gravel needs to be added and leveled, the mats cut. We had to re-finish one of them.....there had been a big hole, and when the weight of a 2000-pound horse got put on it, the stone continued to settle until there was a hole again. Guess we just rushed it. The last one also had a huge hole in it, and it took a lot of chipping out of high spots to get to a point where I could start adding stone and leveling it. This time I took my time....layering the stone a bit more. I think that's what went wrong before.....I had chipped the high spots out and put it into the hole, but the new gravel did not mesh well with it, and allowed it to settle further. This time, the old gravel was well-mixed with the new, so hopefully we won't see the same problem.
We sold Odonata Miss Firecracker at the Dover Sale. Typically, she did not bring much. The good thing is she went to some people who were VERY interested in her and apparently wanted her. So we let her go, since we had seen several that might make a match for our awesome Star. She was early enough in the sale that we could do it.
There were 5 originally. The one I liked the best needed 5 people to hook her to the cart. Not a good start. And there was something.......she was an awesome mover, she was a beautiful mare, and she was young. But there was something.....odd. I watched her a lot, trying to figure it out. She kept trying to fall into a canter; and I wasn't sure if it was because she was being driven right to the "breaking point" or something else. Then I saw the slight hitch in her stifle. A tad of hesitation as the stifle joint moved to bring the leg forward, and the sudden "release" of the joint to allow it. Not a smooth move, but a catch. My favorite one had stringhalt....a stifle problem. DARN!
My next choice was way too big for Star, and would have been great for Jill: if Jill wasn't such a cranky-butt who hates everybody.....everybody but Bill.
My third choice looked good, but my gut was not totally convinced. There was a picture of her hitched.....and if you looked closely, you could see that it had been Photo-shopped. The leg had been moved to look snappier than it actually was. Why they did that, I don't know, cuz she moved very very nicely anyway.
Numbers 4 and 5 were pretty close. Both had better toplines than the other three, but just did not have the "presence" the others had. Both moved just as well. A thorough going-over found one of them to have a cloudy left eye. Probably due to an injury, since it was not just a single cloud, but a large one in the lower third and a smaller one about halfway up further back. Once again, my gut suggested that this was not going to get better; in fact it was probably going to get worse as time went on.
Fortunately, there were several who were early in the sale, so it would be one of those, "well, if we don't get this one, there's the next". And there were others who might do just as well (one had a particularly weird shoeing job), although we weren't going to push it just to have one. And coming home without any would have worked, too.
But we bought one. The first 2 we were interested in went rather high (which was nice to see, although it did not affect our baby). Well, at least higher than we wanted to go for the quality. But then Queen came in. She was 6, and not bred this year which was to her detriment (later we found that she had been bred before..twice...but they did not breed her last year or this because of prices....and who could blame them?). We bought her for half the price we would have paid for her. I had a few concerns yet, but we took the chance.
Bringing her home, we found out something about her......she is a go-with-the-flow kind of horse. Friends of ours also bought a very very nice horse, and some people we know who live close by also bought 2 youngsters. So, we had a loaded trailer. Because it is a stock-type trailer, there is no center divider; we usually put horses head to tail in them, since there is plenty of room for them to move with the movement of the trailer. But, I was driving behind, in the car, and it soon became apparent that head-to-tail was not going to work.
The big Belgian had slammed her body cross-wise and was standing sideways, plastered up against the front of the gooseneck. The 2 babies in the back were also having issues, with one pushing the other literally up the wall. I just kept seeing the sale numbers on the one's butt getting higher and higher as it stepped up on the wheel well because it was getting pushed by the other. Poor Queen had her head resting on the Trixy's (the Belgian) butt.
We pulled the 2 babies off and tried to change places with them, but the "problem child" immediately turned sideways and would not go head first. So we ties both of them sideways instead. We tried to get Trixy to move, but she just went right back, so we re-tied Queen so she could ride sideways, too. Problem child still kept smashing the other baby up against the back door, but the movement of the trailer was enough to pull it off at times. When we got to a rest area to check up on them, Trixy was STILL smashed up against the front of the trailer, the 2 babies were smashed up against the back door, and Queen was just standing there in a 3/4 position, taking up the space Trixy left her. She had about 3 feet on either side of her, between Trixy and the middle gate, and she was just as happy as a clam.
Once home, she paired up not with Star (who squealed and pinned her ears at the newcomer and chased her around for awhile) but with our 3-yo Sheena. Of course, Jill just went right after her, although Jill was actually the second horse to "warm" up to her. Jill actually ALLOWED her into her space (which is 5 feet around her body) without trying to kill her, after a few days. Bill....he just doesn't care. Although Star hasn't really warmed up to her, she's no longer chasing her around or away. However, Queen has a habit of squealing when she gets a bit nervous...which suggests a past that needs to be reckoned with. And the squeal is noteworthy.....a panicked, "I'm gonna die" squeal.
Sunday was the first time we were able to get everyone together at the Fairgrounds to see how things were going to go. 14 people, 9 horses, 3 carts, 1 wagon and 1 forecart all came. The objective was massive. Bill went to "help" a problem child. He's the rock, the one who doesn't do anything wrong. The problem child belonged to the Sparks, a family we have known for awhile. Rosie (the problem child) does not like being driven, although she was fine in the team. She just does not like being by herself. Sparks also have Lainie, who was the problem child last year (and really WAS a problem) that Bill "helped" get through her issues. I drove Star for the first time, single. She is definitely a man's horse. My arms are still tired! She's easy to drive, but if you relax for a second, she dives right into the lines and goes faster. She doesn't run away, but whatever you give her, she steps right up to take! Roy would definitely not be able to drive her with his hands.....mine hurt enough and his are way worse. While Star and Queen were hooked as a team, I drove Sheena around. Sheena is still a bratty 2/3yo. She needs a lot of time driving to get her consistent and compliant. She just likes to do what she wants to do. And of course Bud (my old gelding that Chris and Jim have now) was there so we were going around in carts, and teams....just all over the place.
One of the things we wanted to do was put Sheena and Bud together, since Chris has expressed in interest in getting her. And they actually did fairly well together.
Probably better than Star and Queen. Team is not Star's cup of tea, and she "freezes" when she's brought up to the tongue. They didn't start out so good, so John (the teamster that drives for us) ground drove them for a bit before hooking them. Queen knows how to do things (like step over a tongue) so it was a bit easier to get Star in the right place. Neither horse did anything stupid, but they did not work together very well. Again, just miles, while they get used to each other. Once they got going, they moved very nicely together, and match rather well. When looking at them separate, Queen looks so much smaller, yet pics show they are just about the same size. I think it's because Star has so much "presence" and Queen does not. But the pics show the truth, they are within and inch of each other. They move pretty much the same, but they don't move together....almost as if there is a competition as to who can be in front.
It was exciting and fun. Next time I will need to drive Star and Queen.
Well, it's not been particularly fun.....but the time flew by anyway.
Stall floors are just about done. It takes a long time to get everything coordinated to finish them.....the stone/gravel needs to be added and leveled, the mats cut. We had to re-finish one of them.....there had been a big hole, and when the weight of a 2000-pound horse got put on it, the stone continued to settle until there was a hole again. Guess we just rushed it. The last one also had a huge hole in it, and it took a lot of chipping out of high spots to get to a point where I could start adding stone and leveling it. This time I took my time....layering the stone a bit more. I think that's what went wrong before.....I had chipped the high spots out and put it into the hole, but the new gravel did not mesh well with it, and allowed it to settle further. This time, the old gravel was well-mixed with the new, so hopefully we won't see the same problem.
We sold Odonata Miss Firecracker at the Dover Sale. Typically, she did not bring much. The good thing is she went to some people who were VERY interested in her and apparently wanted her. So we let her go, since we had seen several that might make a match for our awesome Star. She was early enough in the sale that we could do it.
There were 5 originally. The one I liked the best needed 5 people to hook her to the cart. Not a good start. And there was something.......she was an awesome mover, she was a beautiful mare, and she was young. But there was something.....odd. I watched her a lot, trying to figure it out. She kept trying to fall into a canter; and I wasn't sure if it was because she was being driven right to the "breaking point" or something else. Then I saw the slight hitch in her stifle. A tad of hesitation as the stifle joint moved to bring the leg forward, and the sudden "release" of the joint to allow it. Not a smooth move, but a catch. My favorite one had stringhalt....a stifle problem. DARN!
My next choice was way too big for Star, and would have been great for Jill: if Jill wasn't such a cranky-butt who hates everybody.....everybody but Bill.
My third choice looked good, but my gut was not totally convinced. There was a picture of her hitched.....and if you looked closely, you could see that it had been Photo-shopped. The leg had been moved to look snappier than it actually was. Why they did that, I don't know, cuz she moved very very nicely anyway.
Numbers 4 and 5 were pretty close. Both had better toplines than the other three, but just did not have the "presence" the others had. Both moved just as well. A thorough going-over found one of them to have a cloudy left eye. Probably due to an injury, since it was not just a single cloud, but a large one in the lower third and a smaller one about halfway up further back. Once again, my gut suggested that this was not going to get better; in fact it was probably going to get worse as time went on.
Fortunately, there were several who were early in the sale, so it would be one of those, "well, if we don't get this one, there's the next". And there were others who might do just as well (one had a particularly weird shoeing job), although we weren't going to push it just to have one. And coming home without any would have worked, too.
But we bought one. The first 2 we were interested in went rather high (which was nice to see, although it did not affect our baby). Well, at least higher than we wanted to go for the quality. But then Queen came in. She was 6, and not bred this year which was to her detriment (later we found that she had been bred before..twice...but they did not breed her last year or this because of prices....and who could blame them?). We bought her for half the price we would have paid for her. I had a few concerns yet, but we took the chance.
Bringing her home, we found out something about her......she is a go-with-the-flow kind of horse. Friends of ours also bought a very very nice horse, and some people we know who live close by also bought 2 youngsters. So, we had a loaded trailer. Because it is a stock-type trailer, there is no center divider; we usually put horses head to tail in them, since there is plenty of room for them to move with the movement of the trailer. But, I was driving behind, in the car, and it soon became apparent that head-to-tail was not going to work.
The big Belgian had slammed her body cross-wise and was standing sideways, plastered up against the front of the gooseneck. The 2 babies in the back were also having issues, with one pushing the other literally up the wall. I just kept seeing the sale numbers on the one's butt getting higher and higher as it stepped up on the wheel well because it was getting pushed by the other. Poor Queen had her head resting on the Trixy's (the Belgian) butt.
We pulled the 2 babies off and tried to change places with them, but the "problem child" immediately turned sideways and would not go head first. So we ties both of them sideways instead. We tried to get Trixy to move, but she just went right back, so we re-tied Queen so she could ride sideways, too. Problem child still kept smashing the other baby up against the back door, but the movement of the trailer was enough to pull it off at times. When we got to a rest area to check up on them, Trixy was STILL smashed up against the front of the trailer, the 2 babies were smashed up against the back door, and Queen was just standing there in a 3/4 position, taking up the space Trixy left her. She had about 3 feet on either side of her, between Trixy and the middle gate, and she was just as happy as a clam.
Once home, she paired up not with Star (who squealed and pinned her ears at the newcomer and chased her around for awhile) but with our 3-yo Sheena. Of course, Jill just went right after her, although Jill was actually the second horse to "warm" up to her. Jill actually ALLOWED her into her space (which is 5 feet around her body) without trying to kill her, after a few days. Bill....he just doesn't care. Although Star hasn't really warmed up to her, she's no longer chasing her around or away. However, Queen has a habit of squealing when she gets a bit nervous...which suggests a past that needs to be reckoned with. And the squeal is noteworthy.....a panicked, "I'm gonna die" squeal.
Sunday was the first time we were able to get everyone together at the Fairgrounds to see how things were going to go. 14 people, 9 horses, 3 carts, 1 wagon and 1 forecart all came. The objective was massive. Bill went to "help" a problem child. He's the rock, the one who doesn't do anything wrong. The problem child belonged to the Sparks, a family we have known for awhile. Rosie (the problem child) does not like being driven, although she was fine in the team. She just does not like being by herself. Sparks also have Lainie, who was the problem child last year (and really WAS a problem) that Bill "helped" get through her issues. I drove Star for the first time, single. She is definitely a man's horse. My arms are still tired! She's easy to drive, but if you relax for a second, she dives right into the lines and goes faster. She doesn't run away, but whatever you give her, she steps right up to take! Roy would definitely not be able to drive her with his hands.....mine hurt enough and his are way worse. While Star and Queen were hooked as a team, I drove Sheena around. Sheena is still a bratty 2/3yo. She needs a lot of time driving to get her consistent and compliant. She just likes to do what she wants to do. And of course Bud (my old gelding that Chris and Jim have now) was there so we were going around in carts, and teams....just all over the place.
One of the things we wanted to do was put Sheena and Bud together, since Chris has expressed in interest in getting her. And they actually did fairly well together.
Probably better than Star and Queen. Team is not Star's cup of tea, and she "freezes" when she's brought up to the tongue. They didn't start out so good, so John (the teamster that drives for us) ground drove them for a bit before hooking them. Queen knows how to do things (like step over a tongue) so it was a bit easier to get Star in the right place. Neither horse did anything stupid, but they did not work together very well. Again, just miles, while they get used to each other. Once they got going, they moved very nicely together, and match rather well. When looking at them separate, Queen looks so much smaller, yet pics show they are just about the same size. I think it's because Star has so much "presence" and Queen does not. But the pics show the truth, they are within and inch of each other. They move pretty much the same, but they don't move together....almost as if there is a competition as to who can be in front.
It was exciting and fun. Next time I will need to drive Star and Queen.
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