Warming Up!

The weather is finally starting to warm up!  Our February was the coldest I can remember ever having!  We basically just went into survival mode that month...so glad that's over with!  The horses took the cold weather as good as can be expected.  Gunner was the only one who got cold, which surprised me.  Before he came to live with us, he was kept outside without a shelter most of the time so I half expected him to winter better than the rest of the horses.  But I ended up taking him in and putting him in a stall every night and during the frigid days.  We all got through it.  I just hope we don't ever have another month like that ever again!!  IT WAS FREEZING!!

Anyways, we are back to ground work with the horses, all of them.  Tyson had to be reminded that even though the other horses were calling he had to stay with me.  He was not thrilled about that.  Zoe is a hot mess any time I take a horse out without her.  I can't decide if it's jealousy or worry...either way, she's been a handful.  Gunner and Star have been fantastic with ground work, not much to report there.  I'm not riding yet because the ground in the round pen isn't good yet for riding (the first ride always happens in there) so I will keep taking them out for leading/ground work.  Melody has been a handful, just like Zoe.  But I believe her issue is that she's buddy sour.  Time for her to be in a separate turn out!  I have to get a pen set up for her so for now she's still with Star...not for long though!  I will be interested to watch her shenanigans when she figures that out!! (insert evil laugh)

Our cows should be calving in the next month or so.  It's always exciting when they come!  I will take picture!

Lola, the puppy, is also doing fantastic.  She's been such a great puppy to train and has a knack for working the chickens.  She wants to work the cows so badly but we don't want her to get her confidence crushed if one of the cows kicks or hooks her.  She will work cows after she's a year old.  Then the real cow dog training will start!  Until then, we work on her basic commands.  She does pretty good!

Well, that's all for now!  More later!


Quote for the day:
"Lost time is never found again."

-Benjamin Franklin

Star & Melody's Shenanigans

We've completed the bute pills regime for Star now.  She's doing much better now but still ouchy in the spot at the end of her ribs.  Might have a cracked rib in there, but there's really nothing we can do for that.  The swelling has gone down to almost nothing now so the vet doesn't think we need to do another blood test, but if the swelling reoccurs definitely need to have him come out again.  She was feeling so good the other day that she was bucking and leaping around in her turn out withe Melody!  I can't even tell you how happy I was to see her acting that way!!

Speaking of Melody...I was bringing Star to her turnout and left Melody in her pen in the barn by herself.  She didn't care for that at all!  She got to bucking and leaping in her pen while Star and I were walking away.  That stuff never phases Star...she had one thing on her mind and that was her turn out!  I went back to get Melody and she met me at the gate.  She tried to be patient while I put her halter on.  I could see it in her eye that she was anxiously waiting to get past the gate.  As I opened the gate she pushed past me and got the end of the lead rope and jerked around.  Naughty, naughty.  I don't tolerate bad gate manners - too many accidents happen at gates (or anywhere with a naughty horse)!  We did a few more passes in and out of the gate until she walked through like a good girl.  Then we were on our way to the turn out.  Star was standing at the gate waiting for us.  Melody was practically dragging me all the way to the turn out, so I decided we would do more leading work.  We would walk away from the gate/turnout, then circle back.  Every time we would turn away she would whip her hips around and face me like she was saying "Umm, you missed the gate lady!" and then pull on the lead all the way back to the gate again.  We did this for a while...I'm not sure how long it took but I know my hands were cold by the time she "calmed down".  I decided we were at a place I was comfortable with ending so we headed back to the gate.  We were almost to the gate when she reared up and started bucking and jumping with all fours off the ground.  She never came at me or tried to strike me so I waited for her to finish.  Then we were off to the round pen for some work.

Once she got her bucks and kicks out, she actually worked really well.  On a side note: Our December weather here has been unseasonably warm with temps in the 40's most days so the footing in the round pen was fine for working.  I was very pleased at how well she listened and had retained what work we had done in the fall.  To be honest, I haven't done much since we had the major snow storm in November.  To end our work session, we worked on her bending.  She still has issues with that so we will keep working on that.  Then she was finally out with Star and happy about that!  They played together for a few minutes and then got the serious business of finding blades of grass that could be eaten.

That's all for now!



Quote for the day:
"It is a fine seasoning for joy to think of those we love."

-Moliere

News

The vet called Friday afternoon with the news.  Her white blood cell count was good but her red blood cell count was low signaling that she is anemic.  The vet said that he wasn't too worried about it.  He would come back in a month or so and take another blood sample to make sure the red blood cell count didn't drop anymore.  In the meantime, we were to "worm her real good" to make sure it wasn't because of worms.  I have the horses on a regular worming schedule but I re-wormed them all again on Saturday, just to be on the safe side.

Star has been feeling great since we started her on the Bute pills.  We were worried she wouldn't eat her grain with the bitter tasting Bute pills in it, but she cleans up her grain dish - every last bit!  The swelling is still there but has gone down and she's been trotting around in her turn out.  I have her with Melody in her turnout and I think I'm gonna leave it that way this winter.  We seem to have peace within each grouping, so why mess with it?

Gunner's swelling has gone down a little.  The vet said he should be back to normal within a week so I'm keeping an eye on it to make sure it does.

I've been doing more groundwork exercises with Melody whenever I lead her in or out of the turnout.  She's been introduced to the tarp.  I first had her walk on it - no big deal.  She sniffed it a little and then walked on and stood with no problem.  The next time she walked right onto it, no questions asked.  The next time, instead of walking on it, I rubbed her with it.  She was alert at first and then got bored.  I repeated all the tarp stuff with her for about a week and then moved onto laying it across her, over her head, neck, back and butt.  She did some dancing but nothing major.  Those lessons were repeated over the following week until she was bored with that too.  It doesn't take much for her to be ok with what we work on.  She's very trusting and has a good head on her.  She came in from turnout the other day with a mystery cut on her face.  I have NO IDEA where that could've come from.  It's healed up nicely now, though.  Being a light colored palomino Melody is absolutely filthy, and you can see every spec of dirt on her!  I can't stand it!!  Zoe is a buckskin and her cream color gets really light in the winter too but she keeps herself clean, but not Melody!  I think she finds the smelliest, muddiest spots in her turnout and rolls, and naps there!!  I'm looking forward to the warmer weather already so I can get her clean again!  Yuck!  I should try to snap a picture just so you can see how nasty her creamy coat is!  Oh well, nothing I can do about it.  We brush her the best we can but it doesn't get the deep down stuff...

With all that's been going on, not much progress with Zoe lately.  She's been itching for work so I did lunge her the other day.  She was happy about that!  We are going back to working on leadership exercises to help build a better working relationship before the riding happens again.  Not that it's a bad relationship but more that we haven't been working together for a while now and I want to start off with a trusting relationship.  Make sense?

Well, that's all for now!




Quote for the day:
"He who has health, has hope; and he who has hope, has everything."

-Thomas Carlyle

The Vet

Since the cold weather set in, I started to separate the boys from the girls.  Tyson wasn't letting anyone in the lean-to so that meant Star ALWAYS ended up out in the weather.  She's gonna be 20 years old next year and I don't need her getting stuck outside in the bad weather we are having so I moved the boys to stalls at night and a different turn out during the day.

Before, the girls got along really well.  All three could stand the in the large lean-to comfortably with no issues.  Well, there's issues now!  Zoe decided she was queen and wouldn't let ANYONE into the lean-to.  So I moved her to the stall at night and brought her back out with Star and Melody during the day.  This was going great - or so I thought!

It started when I noticed that Star was losing weight.  I ended up working with hubby around the barn one day last week and that's when I realized that Star wasn't moving around in her turnout.  She would stand in a corner, appearing to be scared to move.  That's when I saw Zoe start blasting Star with both back feet right into Star's side!!!  Star had nowhere to go so she stood there and took it.  WTH?!  I was UPSET to say the least!  I took Zoe out and put her out with the boys.  That was enough of that!  If she can't play nice with Star then she will have to go out with Tyson, who is head honcho and will keep her in line!  Once Zoe was out, Star let out a big sigh.  She immediately walked over to the water and drank for what seemed like forever! 

The next day, I went to check on her.  Her spirits were up but I noticed she wasn't acting quite like herself.  Star isn't a cuddly horse (unless you have treats).  She's very sweet but isn't the one who will hang her head on your shoulder or nuzzle your hair.  That day, all she wanted to do was rest her head on my shoulder and kept nuzzling me on my neck.  In all the years I've owned her, she's NEVER done that.  I looked her over carefully and didn't see anything physically wrong with her.  So I chalked it up to her "thanking" me for taking Zoe away.

The next night (hubby did chores for me in the morning because I was running late to work) I went to check on her again and this time there were HUGE lumps on her right side and a long swollen area beneath her belly.  She was tender to the touch but let me touch her.  I called the vet and he called me back right away and told me it could be an allergic reaction and to give her a treatment (with the heaves medication).  I did as I was told, hoping that the vet was right.  The reason we were wondering about allergies was because I had just switched her to a pelleted grain (no dust) so I immediately stopped feeding that grain to her.  I gave her 3 treatments as instructed by the vet and kept an eye on her.  I thought I had seen a change for the better one night...

But the next day, she was worse.  She wouldn't even let me touch her on that side anymore!  I was immediately concerned and called the vet.  He said he would come over first thing the next morning.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to be there for the vet appointment so hubby was there instead.  That was today...he agreed with us that these lumps were probably from getting beat up by Zoe and she might even have a cracked rib.  He gave us Bute pills that we are to put in her grain (2 daily) to help with the pain.  Hubby pointed out her weight loss and the vet said the stress of being out with Zoe would cause her to lose weight, and then hubby pointed out the swollen area beneath her belly.  The vet wasn't sure what the cause for that would be so he took a blood sample.  He said he would get the results this afternoon and call us.  If it's a tumor, he should be able to remove it fairly easily.  But we will just have to wait and see.

While he was there, we had him clean Gunner's sheath.  I wasn't sure if he had ever had that done before so the vet took care of that.  He said Gunner was very dirty and also agreed that it appeared he had never been cleaned before.  Or if he had, it had been a LONG time since the last time.  Tyson was done a few months ago so we didn't have him done again.  It would be nice if we could get them all on the same schedule next year so we don't have to pay for so many farm calls!  I guess that's something I will have to work on next year!

Needless to say, our vet bill is gonna be a big one!  With this business with Star, our cows getting preg-checked, Gunner's sheath, and puppy check-ups...it should be a good size bill next month.  But, I would do it all over again - LOVE these animals!

Until next time!


Quote for the day:
"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."

-Leo Tolstoy

Moving Foward

My last post talked about saddle fitting on Zoe.  I can honestly say that I haven't ridden Zoe even once since that post.  I feel ashamed and guilty for letting her 'sit' in the pasture.  My life has been so full (imagine that!!) that my progress with Zoe has come to a complete stop.  My work with Melody hasn't been consistent and yet she still amazes me with how well she retains her lessons.  I rode Star a handful of times and middle daughter rode Gunner a handful of times (his back was sore).  I'm so let down with how the end of summer and fall have gone as I had BIG plans.  Have the horses been well cared for?  Yes, but I haven't spent the time with them that I feel I should.  The guilt is overwhelming...but I can't dwell on that, right?  I'm moving forward with a new plan...

I know I may have to do lessons with Zoe that we have already done but I'm ok with that.  I've found an indoor arena that I can haul to this winter that's really close to home (and SUPER nice) so I can continue our work together through the winter. We will be doing a lot of leadership exercises, trust and body work before I throw a leg over her.  She's gonna stand in cross ties (she's never been cross tied before) and stand like a rock when I put the saddle pad and saddle on her among other things.  We are going to have all this stuff DOWN!  I've put up with her dancing around the saddle and her tying issues long enough!  It's time for her to behave and act her age!! ;-)

Melody will be coming along as well, along with Gunner, if middle daughter can make it out to ride with us.  Melody will learn to be lunged (already knows how to round pen) and get better with her verbal commands.  We will keep working on shoulder and hip yields, giving at the poll, and flexing to both sides (she's not very good at her right side).  Her back feet still seem to be a problem with letting us hold them for any length of time so we will continue to work on that as well.

Gunner will need some time in the saddle as well.  The last time middle daughter rode him, he bucked her off when she asked him to canter.  I have no idea what that was all about!  I was so proud of her for picking herself up and getting back on!  She landed hard and it really shook her up.  No serious injuries, just a little stab at her pride I think.  Afterwards, I checked to see if his back was sore again but his back was fine.  I checked other spots that might be sore but he seemed fine in those places too.  The saddle fit is good so maybe middle daughter did something that triggered the bucking fit or else he learned before that if he bucked he got out of doing it.  Either way, I'm gonna have to get on and figure it out.

In other farm news, we replanted the front horse pasture.  It was getting full of weeds and the ground was so compacted from years of horses walking on it that the grass couldn't get a good root system going again, hence the weeds.  We had the soil tested to see what the ground was lacking and was able to pick up a fertilizer to help the ground produce the best horse pasture grass mix it could.  We have to keep the horses off it for one full growing season (all of 2015) so the root system can really take hold.  We were told to hay it so it will help the grasses to come in nice and thick.  We are really excited to see the fruits of our labor!  Oh, and while we were at it, we tore down all the old cow fencing that was up around this pasture.  We are putting up electric instead - always hated that fencing!

Not only did we replant the horse pasture, but we built a new horse catch pen.  While all of this replanting was going on, we had them in a cow pen.  It was fine but it was a reminder that without the horse pasture in the front, we were going to be short on turn outs this winter!  So we took another weekend and built a safe catch/turnout pen for the horses with a shelter.  This is where Star and her buddy (undecided on who) will spend the winter nights while the others are in their stalls.  Speaking of stalls, we built insulated water bucket holders for the stalls.  I'm excited to put these things to use this winter!  Last winter was awful with trying to keep the water fresh and unfrozen.  (Hubby doesn't like to use the heated water buckets because he had a bad experience with them once and now refuses to use them....)  We also built two extras for outside in the shelter for Star and her buddy.  I'll try to take a picture of them so you can see what we built...I will let you know how they work too!

Another farm project completed is my new tack room/office in the barn.  It's wonderful - and much bigger than my old tack room!  In order to complete the new tack room, we also built new saddle racks.  This time I have enough saddle racks for ALL of my saddles.  I used to always be 1 rack short so it was kept in the house, which is fine except it's a pain to haul a big western saddle out of the house whenever you want to ride.  So my brand new Billy Cook saddle still has very little use...  The new feed room is going right next to the new tack room but we haven't finished it yet.  Just have to put the floor in and then it will be complete.

In addition to all of that, we also built a new lean-to for the cows (it's HUGE) and are working on another one.  We added beef cows to our regime of animals this summer so more and larger shelters were needed.  I guess you could say we've been busy!

One more announcement...we added a new member to our family!

Meet Lola!  She's a red tri Australian Shepherd and we love her to pieces!  Couldn't be happier with our choice!  She and Riggin (black tri Australian Shepherd) have become good friends!  She will follow him anywhere and learns from him all the time, which is why we bought her now instead of waiting.  Riggin is probably the BEST dog we've ever had the privilege of owning and is getting up there in age.  We wanted him to pass along his knowledge to the next pup so now was the best time.

So that's a snapshot of what's been going on with me lately.  Not to mention the fact that I have 5 children, two of which are on student council this year, one is in high school and just had her first homecoming...My life is full, but that's exactly how I like it!

That's all for now!



Quote for the day:
"Never mistake activity for achievement."

-John Wooden

Saddle Time

I'm trying to get caught up on my blogging since my absence so bear with me as I get everyone up to speed...

The weather has finally taken a turn for the better and we were able to take Star out for a ride!  Actually, I didn't ride...middle daughter did!  She was "so bored" and I needed a break from the work so I got Star out, got her all groomed (which Star LOVED more than usual because she's shedding her winter hair), saddled and lead her out to the front yard.  I decided to leave her on the lunge line because this was her first ride this year and she might want to run and middle daughter hasn't been in the saddle much throughout the winter and she would also need a tune up.

Star was a perfectly behaved lady!  She ignored all the calling horses (Zoe and Tyson) and the running horses (Melody to be exact) and did exactly as she was supposed to without getting feisty.  I LOVE THAT MARE!!!  Having a horse around that I can trust and just be able to ride without any worries is so valuable to me!  Middle daughter did great too!  She needed a few times around to get the feel back but she was posting very nicely when we called it a day.  No cantering as the trot work for middle daughter isn't where it should be in order to canter.  In my opinion, if you can't do it at a slower gait, you can't do it in a faster gait so get it right while moving slower...

Star's trot was slow and collected for middle daughter.  When I say slow, it's not really slow compared to other horses.  It's just that Star has a fast trot when she's going at her free will - which is awful to ride!  Since I started to ride her many years ago, I worked with Star on  a slower trot that is a lot more comfortable to ride so it was nice to see middle daughter able to achieve that nice trot on both of their first rides.

Until next time!


Quote for the day:
"Food for the body is not enough.  There must be food for the soul."

-Dorothy Day

New Color

As you can see on the background of this blog, Zoe is a dappled bucksin.  A nice creamy color.

This is her now.  She has a smutty or dirty bucksin look to her as she's shedding out her winter fuzzies (notice the beard!! lol).  She always does this but it's still fun to watch!  Her dapples are coming through now on her belly so she looks really cool, I think!  I couldn't get a decent picture of the rest of her because she wanted to be right next to me.  Silly mare!

That's all for now!



Until next time...



Quote for the day:
"In youth we learn; in age we understand."

-Marie von Ebner-Eschenback

Melody's Turn!

Melody's biggest hang up right now is mud puddles so we tried to cross a puddle that was by the barn door leading to the turn out where Star was.  Her first time through she jumped it and bumped into me.  So we turned around and went back into the barn.  She spooked on the way in because one of our rodeo bulls was next to the gate by the barn and he spooked.  At this point she was getting frisky.

We headed back out across the puddle...she RAN through the puddle, right past me and when she got the end of the lead it brought her to a sudden stop.  I turned her to go back inside and she gave me a half rear and tried to go the opposite direction.  I held my ground and was able to keep her feet moving by zig zag walking in the direction of the barn.  We went back into the barn and it was no big deal this time.  Then back out of the barn like she'd never had an issue at all.  The only time we have gate issues is when there is a puddle so I really don't think gates are her issue...just puddles.

I figured that was good for today and let her go out with Star...meanwhile Zoe has been calling and screaming for Star the entire time (I had put her in her stall).  So when I went to get Zoe back out I could see she was seriously stressed about being away from Star.  She was covered in sweat (not from when I worked her because I had her dried out before I put her away) and had paced by the stall door to the point that the shavings had been pushed back.

I put her halter on (which she dove into) and lead her out.  She was a very good girl so I let her be with her friends.  I guess she has become buddy sour over the winter so we will have to work on that.  Might have to pasture her by herself like we did before when we were training.  I do that because if she gets insecure in her training or work, I want her to look to me for security and not rely on her buddies waiting for her.  Make sense to anyone?

Well that's all for now!

Until next time!


Quote for the day:
"I have not failed, I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

-Thomas A. Edison

Naughty, Naughty

After feeding the other morning, I went to visit with Zoe in her stall.  I brushed her a lot (she's shedding) and when I was done she was wanting something more.  She stopped eating and just looked at me (not typical).  So I grabbed her halter and thought I would take her to the round pen and do 5 minutes of work.  Maybe she was bored.  On our way out, Star started to call for her.  She got worried.  As we entered the round pen Tyson called to her and she called back.  Ahhh, maybe she was in heat?  Didn't matter to me, she is usually very good despite her heat cycles.  We started round penning and man did she want to run!  I only asked her to trot and she got to running!  I slowed her down (with my voice commands) but I could see she was aching to go faster so I gave her the command.  I didn't ask for it long because we've been out of work for so long and I didn't want her to get sore.  We did a little more work and then I caught her up again.  She seemed relaxed; licking her lips, head dropped.  She wasn't breathing hard or sweaty, obviously in better shape than what I thought after being out of work for a long winter! 

We walked out of the round pen and then she perked up again.  Star was STILL calling and it was very worrisome to Zoe.  She likes to be talked to so I started to talk to her and decided to go for a walk around the property, checking some fences along the way.  She was interested but very distracted by Star calling to her.  At one point she was so distracted that she bumped into me so I sent her out on a lunge circle (I had a long lead rope) and she shaped up.  So I thought we would call it quits at that point and turn her out.  We headed back through the barn, where Star was still calling, and back out to the turn out.  As I unhooked the lead Zoe spun around and ran past me almost knocking me over!  The barn was completely open, nothing to keep her from running out into the driveway, yard or street!  A slight panic attack occurred on my part, and then I realized that she only ran to be by Star.  So I quickly shut the front barn door so she couldn't run out there and possibly get hurt or hurt someone.  When I went to get her she bolted and ran out the back of the barn.  To the arena.  I took that as a hint that she needed to be worked more...

I got the lunge and lunge whip and headed out the arena, shutting gates behind me.  This naughty mare wasn't going to blow by me anymore - except she did but this time she wasn't going anywhere!  I put the whip down and then she decided to see what I was going to do.  I caught her and could see she was "up".  We got right to work on the lunge line, W/T/C transitions up and down.  Star was still calling.  Zoe was focused on me at this point but was still obviously worried about Star.  We changed directions and did the same W/T/C transition work.  She was offering some great trot work, canter was messy.  She kept cross cantering, where her front would be on the right lead but her back legs would be on the opposite lead.  If I urge her to go faster, she will fix herself.  When we got some good transitions and lead work done, I called it a day.  This time she was breathing heavy and had sweat on her neck, but she was licking her lips and her eye was soft again.  I cooled her down and put her away. 

I figured if Zoe was this naughty that Star might need some time in the round pen or on the lunge too...



Until next time!



Quote for the day:
"We may brave human laws, but we cannot resist natural ones."

-Jules Verne

Another Visitor...

My brother-in-law came and picked up his two horses this past Saturday morning.  To say I was excited would've been an understatement.  We just don't have the room.  But...and this is a big BUT...he had to leave another one of his horses behind and guess what?  We are the lucky ones who get to keep him!  I'm being very sarcastic.  To be really honest and fair, I do like my brother-in-law's horses.  They are good boys and are very respectful so they aren't too much trouble.  But they are living in my only horse specific pasture with lean-to.  My horses have a small turnout they can stretch their legs in but I would prefer the pasture because it's bigger and if the weather isn't cooperating then they have a shelter. 

The new horse, Gunner, is a gelding so we took Tyson away from the girls and buddied (is that a word?) the two boys together.  Tyson is definitely the boss and rarely let's Gunner in the lean-to.  Anyways, the other day the boys were running around and I was keeping a very watchful eye on Mr. Tyson to see if he was showing any signs of lameness.  Sure enough, he was short striding his canter.  His trot looked good with little to no head bobbing so that's an improvement but I guess he's still lame.  Shoot!

I don't have any pictures of Gunner because I keep forgetting either my phone or camera when I go outside.  I will try to get one soon! 

The weather is finally starting to shape up and the farm is getting messy.  I have a love/hate relationship with spring...


Until next time!



Quote for the day:
"Love is so short, forgetting is so long."

-Pablo Neruda

Little Updates

Since my last post, Melody casted herself one more time (the next day) but hasn't since.  Hopefully that means she figured that out now...Other than that, Melody has been a good girl.  She's so dang cute!  I can't wait until spring when she sheds out and we can see what color she's going to be.  I mean, we know she's a palomino but how dark/light will she be?  I've found that she enjoys ear scratches - she will stop eating for an ear scratch!

The other day I let the horses out and Tyson was feeling great!  He was running, leaping, bucking, kicking and rearing!  He hasn't done that in over a year because he was lame (injuries).  I was thinking that Tyson was going to be lame for the rest of his life so seeing him acting like he was a yearling was very encouraging, to say the least.  He didn't show an ounce of pain while he was playing and wasn't sore when I brought him in or let him out the next day.  Is it possible he's finally healed???  Time will tell!

Zoe has been such a good girl.  I've been having my children lead her in and out of her stall and her ground manners have been impeccable!  Better than Star's, in fact.  Last year at this time she was pulling and pushing when being handled but not now!  She's been lowering her head for my kids to halter her too - just a peach!  I can't wait to start riding again when the weather finally breaks, I have good feeling about her!  The farrier always makes comments about how nice she is too (great legs, feet and attitude).  I know I've said this before but she's a sensitive and tuned in horse, just a great mare and I love her dearly! 

Star has been a good girl too, like always.  Her only fault is when it comes to food.  When she knows there's food in her stall she will try to pull through you to get her food making it difficult for my kids to lead her into her stall.  That angers me to no end so I have to lead her in myself to keep her in line.  She doesn't try to push past me because she knows I don't put up with that but she does with the kids.  Grrr...

Brother-in-law's horses are being good boys too.  They don't have stalls (we only have 4) so they live outside with a large 3 1/2 sided lean-to for shelter.  We keep bedding in there so they can lay down and stay warm.  I don't think they are used to that but they certainly enjoy it!  They are in need of a trim soon so hopefully we can get that scheduled before they leave on March 13.  The vet came out yesterday to do their health papers for traveling.  They have a long ways to go and will be stopping every 6 - 8 hours to stretch and get a little exercise/food/water (if they aren't eating or drinking in the trailer) so that will make the trip a long one.  The trailer they will be in is a Sundowner 3 horse slant gooseneck with living quarters.  Brother-in-law has a beautiful trailer that is well maintained and the horses are accustomed to trailering so hopefully the trip will go smoothly.  The horses haven't been bad while they were here but I will be glad to have 2 less mouths to feed!  Hay prices aren't cheap these days...

Well that about sums it up for now.  This weekend is the Michigan State Horse Expo.  I plan on attending on Saturday.  I haven't been able to get there in several years so I'm really looking forward to it!

Until next time!



Quote for the day:
"Our attitude towards others determines their attitudes towards us."

-Earl Nightingale

Better Picture?

Sisco and Dash

I got a little better picture of my brother-in-law's horses...as you can see, they were on their way to me so they could shove their noses in my face.  They are good boys!

Until next time!




Quote for the day:
"Choose your love, love your choice."

-Thomas S. Monson

Cast

We came out to the barn to do some work when we found Melody cast in her stall.  She was laying on her side right next to her stall wall, unable to get up.  She wasn't moving.

Hubby grabbed a hose (it was the first thing within reach at the moment) and wrapped it around her back feet and rolled her over, then let go of the hose and within a minute, she stood up.  She was calm but you could see a little scared.  Hubby went to put her halter on and she shied away.  He was patient and was able to get the halter on within a minute or two.

She wasn't done eating her hay but I thought it would be a good idea to turn her out anyways.  Usually when I turn her out, she can hardly stand waiting for me to let her go so she can run and play.  This time she just stood there.  I went to get what was left of her hay out of her stall and when I came back she had walked away.  I left her hay and made sure she had water.

I checked back on her a few minutes later and she had made her way over to the hay and was eating again.  She had me a little worried at first, but she was back to herself, thank goodness!

So now we are wondering if she's going to be a chronic caster (is that a real term?) or was this a one time deal?  Anyone out there have any experience with this?  I have to admit...this was our first horse to ever cast itself...  Any input would be appreciated!

Until next time!




Quote for the day:
"Experience is one thing you can't get for nothing."

-Oscar Wilde

New Arrivals

Last week my brother-in-law called from Arizona (his new home state as of December).  His friend agreed to take two of his horses for a few months until he could come back for the horses (probably in March).  The two horses that his friend ended up with was Sisco, Zoe's sire now a gelding (don't even get me started on that subject), and Dash, Zoe's only foal...a stallion.  Brother-in-law's friend agreed to take them but they would be turned out with his Longhorn cattle.  That was fine because both horses got along and have been exposed to cattle a lot (roping).  After a week of being with the cattle, Dash started beating up the cattle so the friend had to stall the two horses.  Then this past Sunday, the "friend" decided he was going on vacation and called brother-in-law to tell him that no one was going to be around to feed/water his horses so he better get some one to pick them up or come out twice a day to take care of them.  We got a call from brother-in-law on Tuesday night, informing us of the situation.  Seriously, the horses hadn't been fed or watered since Sunday night.  Hubby and I were NOT happy - with anyone in the situation!!  How could people let these horses be without food or water since Sunday night and then call us on Tuesday night (10 pm) to beg for help!!!  Why did all the parties involved wait that long to get this figured out?  This put us in a tight spot.  We don't have enough hay to feed anymore mouths through the rest of the winter nor do we have the room!  But we couldn't knowingly let those horses sit in stalls without food or water! 

Hubby's parents came over and helped us dig out our trailer and then stayed with the kids while we drove 1 hour away to pick up the horses.  Thankfully, the driveway was plowed so we didn't have to park in the road.  We got the horses out of their stalls, expecting to have our hands full but they were very calm, lethargic maybe.  We didn't expect to have any trouble loading them in the trailer because brother-in-law travels with his horses a lot but they apparently didn't like our trailer.  The interior lights weren't working so it was dark and I'm sure that had a lot to do with it.  Eventually we were able to get them both on the trailer, just took some extra encouragement.  We went back to the barn and took the last two bales of hay (brother-in-law supplied the hay so it was his) and were on our way.  I'm glad we went that night not only because those horses were hungry and thirsty but also because we got several inches of snow that night and the roads were all country roads that rarely saw a plow.  That trip would've been so much worse if we would've waiting until the next day.

So the boys are in the front horse pasture now.  They have a nice lean-to but we don't have anymore stalls.  We put fresh water and hay out for them that night and went to bed.  It was now 2am.  We were tired and both had to work in the morning.

The boys have settled in nicely and definitely have perked up.  I tried to take pictures of them but they both kept putting their noses in my face.  This is the best picture I could get of them.  

Let's just say the brother-in-law owes us big time!

Sisco is the bucksin (actually a dunskin) and Dash is the Perlino (white)

Until next time!


Quote for the day:
"The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them."

-Ernest Hemmingway

It's been a while...

I'm sorry for the lack of posts lately.  I haven't been able to do any riding because with 3 feet of snow and temperatures in the single digits, I can't ride outside or get the trailer out to go anywhere!  So my riding/training with Zoe is at a stand still, unfortunately.

Nothing new to report with Tyson.  He lost a little weight with the frigid temperatures but the weight is already back on.  Ever since his major injury he's been a 'hard keeper' not to mention accident prone.  I think he gets bored so he gets into trouble...he's a character, let me tell ya!!

Star is sweet as always.  She's handling the winter very gracefully and enjoying her warm stall at night.  Have I ever mentioned how she starts her Harley at feeding time?  If not, keep reading...if so you can skip to the next paragraph...  Star makes noise, a nicker maybe, that sounds just like a Harley motorcycle starting up!  She kinda growls or grumbles with an eagerness to it.  Hard to explain but it makes me smile every time she does it!  The only time she does it is at feeding time - so stinkin' cute!

Melody has been the one that gets the most training done lately.  She had her first trim with the farrier so we had worked on picking all of her feet before hand.  She amazed me again with how quickly she caught on!  Hubby helped me with this task because he's so strong!  I didn't want to have her be able to take her foot away from me so Hubby helped out with her back feet.  She fought him BIG time the first time he picked her back foot up.  The second time wasn't near the struggle as the first and the third time she just picked it up and stood relaxed, like she's been doing this for years!  We went to the other side and the struggle for the other hind was 'half-assed' and then she just stood there like she was supposed to.  She picks her front feet up fine - has been since the second day we had her home!  When the farrier came, she did fine with her front feet and only fought her back foot a little, just to see what she could get away with, I think.  She did her other back foot just fine - no fight whatsoever!  We will keep working on leading and her feet but other than that, I don't like to baby the babies.  In my experience, foals who have been babied end up pushy and spoiled.  I want her to be respectful and attentive to my every move, not uninterested.  I know everyone has their own views on this but that's ok.  I just know what has worked for me and what hasn't.  I take her out and work with her on stuff about once a month or so, like yesterday I had to work on walking calmly through gates.  She developed a want to run through gates so that she can get to playing so that was a lesson needed right away.  But her next lesson with something new won't be for a couple weeks since we did the feet thing.  Does that make sense?  I address the issues right away that show themselves but teach her new things every 4 - 6 weeks and refresh the stuff already learned.  I hope that makes sense...

Until next time!


Quote for the day:
"Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get."

-Mark Twain

Waiting

Zoe is patiently waiting for us to ride again...Me?  Not so patiently waiting...

Until next time!

Quote for the day:

"Love's greatest gift is its ability to make everything it touches sacred."

-Barbara de Angelis

Wonderful

So this is what I look at everyday when I'm at work.  It's beautiful but cold!  Plus we have more of it on it's way here tonight...no riding today for me!

In other news, we might be boarding my brother-in-law's horse for a few months...more details later!

Until next time!



Quote for the day:
"Do whatever you do intensely."

-Robert Henri

Over the Weekend

This post isn't about my horses - sorry.  Instead it's gonna be about our bucking bulls.  I hope you don't mind reading about those crazy animals too!

Over the weekend we took our two youngest bulls on the farm to buck them with a dummy.  A dummy is a small metal box with a cinch on it to keep it on the bull.  It has a pin that holds the flank strap (the rope tied around the back end of the bull - not his testicles!!) on and you push a button on what looks like a garage door opener and the whole contraption falls off.  We use a dummy on our young bulls who aren't big enough to handle the weight of a rider to help us determine if the bulls are gonna buck.  If they buck we keep them and raise them up.  We might buck them a few more times to make sure they are getting better, not worse.  If they don't buck we usually bring them to the local sale barn.  Unfortunately, that's part of the business.  Anyways, we drove a couple hours south of us to an indoor bucking arena.  Some friends also loaded up their two young bulls on our trailer and off we went!  More back story - the two young bulls that our friends took actually used to be ours.  They bought them from a third party - small world - before we really knew them very well. 

Back to the story...one of the two bulls that we took had already been bucked earlier this year.  He did pretty good so we kept him.  The other bull we took along was a weanling and had never been bucked before.  We had no idea what to expect from him.  Both of the bulls were pretty gentle as far as bucking bulls go.  Neither of them will try to charge you and will even eat out of your hand (if you're on the other side of the fence/gate)!  The weanling is small compared to the rest of the bulls that were bucked that day, and him being white and fluffy (his winter fur) didn't help his cause either.  Everyone, us included, didn't have very high expectations for him but boy did he surprise us all!  While trying to strap the dummy on the bull, there was a guy IN the chute WITH him and another guy practically doing a HEADSTAND on top of him in order to secure the dummy and flank because the dummy was too big for him and then he put on quite the performance!  He EXPLODED out of the chute, bucking, twisting, leaping, kicking and jumping really high in the air!    I think he was one of the top five bulls that we bucked that day!  His name went from Powder Puff to Power Puff! 

The other bull we brought, Stubby, also did very well.  He did better than his first time out so we are happy with that!  He 'turned back' one jump out of the gate and got to spinning!  Our friends' bulls did pretty good too!  One of them had a lot of kick!  The other one I didn't care for but that's my opinion.  I'm not sure what they will do with him but I know they are keeping the one with kick for sure.

There were horses at this barn too - about 15 of them.  One was a beautiful grulla paint mare with a white face.  She was big and oh so sweet.  She had a filly on her side still who was a tri-color paint with a white face and one blue eye!  She was neat looking!  If we had room, I would've loaded both of them up and took them home!  Beautiful!!!  Those two really stood out but all of the horses were very friendly and good looking - even in their winter fuzzies!  The barn had about 30 stalls on one side of the arena that were getting old and needed a little TLC but definitely still nice.  I bet that place was gorgeous in its hayday!  I enjoy looking at barns/stables!  Gives me so many ideas for my own barn, ya know?  I guess the story is that the old guy built the place for his barrel racing daughter.  He passed away recently and now it barely gets used anymore so that's probably why it's getting run down now.  So much potential there!

It was another COLD day and I had a hard time getting warm after we were done.  The entire 2 hour ride home I was still cold.  After we got home, we had to feed all of the animals which made me even more cold.  I don't think I got warm until 5am...and then we were out in the barn again working.  I guess that's the way it goes when you live on a farm in the winter!

Until next time!


Quote for the day:
"The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire."

-Richard M. Nixon

Brrrr...

We are experiencing very low temps and a lot of snow right now which makes it hard to want to spend time outside.  The older I get, the less I enjoy the snow - maybe one of these days our family will move somewhere where the winters are shorter and a lot less snowy!

Anyways, due to the extreme temperatures not much has been going on in horsey land at our house.  Hubby is working like crazy to get our stalls finished up.  All that's left are the bars.  The floors are in and the walls put up.  Can't wait! 

I was feeding last night and it looks like Star might be losing some weight.  My guess is that between Tyson and Zoe she's getting pushed off her feed (she eats the slowest).  Tonight I'm gonna pull her out and feed her separately.  I usually like to feed each horse separately, especially in the winter when there isn't any pasture, but without stalls it's pretty hard.  I was making three piles (with their grain dishes) hoping that everyone would just stay at their pile but that's not working anymore.  Needless to say, those stalls couldn't get done fast enough!

In other news, middle daughter decided that she didn't want to take riding lessons where she was at anymore.  I'm not going to lie, I was upset because of selfish reasons.  I really enjoyed our Monday's at the barn!  I felt like the people at that barn were my kind of people and we really clicked!  It was a dressage and western dressage barn but they were very accepting of everyone and their different horses and backgrounds.  The way they were teaching middle daughter was very much like how I was taught to ride.  But middle daughter was tired of riding on a lunge line and was bored.  She felt like they did the same things over and over again.  I tried to explain to her the importance of repeating the same exercises (muscle memory) but she had her mind made up.  It didn't help that hubby also felt like she was moving too slow.  I tried reasoning with them that rushing through could mean that important lessons might not be learned.  But I was overruled and we ended lessons at that barn.  I hope that one day soon I will be going there again for whatever reason, like maybe western dressage lessons???  Who knows?

Until next time!



Quote for the day:
"This is what I learned:  that everybody is talented, original and has something important to say."

-Brenda Ueland