The weekend .....

Nothing much exciting from the weekend.  There was a show on Saturday but I didn't take anybody.  And I didn't even go to the barn on Sunday.  That's one of the nice things and one of the bad things about boarding.  I don't have to go if I don't want to which means that sometimes I don't go.

Today I went to the barn but didn't really do anything constructive.  I just gave all the curlies a beauty treatment.  I groomed and combed tails and treated manes and tails.  I have to say that Moon is by far the least work, lol.  Emmy's got some beautiful spirals going on.  I haven't been good about keeping up with their treatments this summer.  Hopefully we'll have some manes going on by spring. 

I groomed all 4 curlies including down and dirty brushing.  All 4 curlies and I didn't use my rescue inhaler once!!  Makes me sooooo happy!!!

Everybody looks so good!  Sailor is fat as a hog but has shed his sunburned hair.  He's all slick and shiney.  Emmy has also shed her scruffy stuff and is a beautiful dark chocolate color.  Her hair is so soft.  She's never been this soft.  I think it's the coco soya oil Denise recommended.  She's got chevron curls on her butt.  Moon has also shed and he's getting ripples on his neck and sides.  Murray is finally starting to lose his burnt hair.  All of them are fat and happy and that makes me happy, lol. 

Emmy is so funny.  We had to move Sailor to the stall next to hers because she and Sammy were fighting.  And well, Sailor was a pain in the ass being in front of the crossties.  So now Emmy and Sailor can hang their heads out together.  They get along remarkable well.  They tend to stick together anyway.  Sailor had a jolly ball in his old stall so I moved it to his new one.  They play with it quite a bit, bonking each other in the head.  There is also a chain that hangs between them.  It's for an extra set of crossties.  Emmy apparently likes to play with the chain as much as the ball, lol.  She's got one of those low key personalities.  She's sneaky though with her humor.  You expect funny things from the boys but Emmy?  Who'd guess she'd enjoy a chain like that? 

Thursday - 9/17/09

I did get to the barn last night.  Wednesday A took the chain saw to the path to KOW.  Now we can ride directly off the farm to KOW and it's miles and miles of trails!!  I'm terribly excited!!

I sort of adopted a kid last winter.  Her family doesn't have much money but she's horse crazy.  So I took her under my wing so to speak.  I gave her lessons on Dusty then later on some of A's horses.  A gave her her older mare, Misty.  Misty is an awesome babysitter but she's 26 and has had a hard life.  We've taken her to shows with Misty and she's got her own saddle and stuff.  Late this summer, Misty started going down hill.  She's just not capable of doing the things a 12 year old girl wants to do.  The other girls run barrels and stuff and Misty just can't do it.  She got a little thin so we made the girl quit riding her.  I tried and tried to get her to tell me what she wants to do.  The other girls run barrels.  A shows her walking horses.  And we all trail ride.  She said she wanted to run barrels.  So we hooked her up with one of A's horses.  He's a bit of a nut but for the most part he's good.  He scared her pretty bad and she decided she wanted to ride gaited horses.  So A let her ride Bonnie.  Bonnie is a super, super nice twh/ssh mare.  A was even talking about taking her to Shelbyville for the ssh celebration.  But it takes some effort to ride Bonnie well.  The kid really wasn't interested in that either.  Then school started.  All of a sudden, the kid had another way to get out of doing chores.  It'd been nearly a month since she'd been out.  So last night, I brought her to the barn.  One of the other girls has moved up barrel horses so Twister is currently riderless.  The kids were going to practise on barrels and we adults were going to ride out the back.  I asked the kid what she wanted to do.  She said she wanted to come with us.  So I had her ride Dusty.  That didn't suit either.  Dusty isn't smooth when you don't make him jog.  That hurt her butt so she doesn't want to ride him either.  I really don't know what to do.  She's not my kid.  I'm not going to tell her what she's going to do.  But then I might.  I may tell her that she can ride Dusty until he sells or she can ride Twister but either way she's going to have to ride and learn to ride that horse.  I'm frustrated and I don't know if maybe I'm interferring where I shouldn't. 

So A rode Bonnie, the kid rode Dusty, C rode Sammy and I rode Murray into KOW last night.  We had to ride along a couple bean fields to get there.  With all the rain we've had, the ground was very, very rough.  It's all flat, but rutted.  I was sooo proud of Murray.  My biggest fear is falling.  He was so surefooted!!  He didn't stumble even once.  He was just sauntering along.  We saw a couple deer and he barely pricked his ears at them.  Apparently Dusty spooked a couple times but Murray never did. 

We're headed to the Shawnee National Forest this weekend.  I'm nervous!!  I've only ridden there once and that was on Dusty and it scared the crap out of me.  This time I'm taking Murray.  I just worry that the steps and stuff will be too hard on him with packing me.  I may yet chicken out ....  We'll see.  I may take Dusty .....

Tuesday and Wednesday

I have class on those two nights so I don't get to the barn.

My dad was scheduled to have surgery today.  He tore a ligiment in his shoulder during the ice storm and it needs to be repaired.  It's supposed to be an easy surgery but painful since they have to put small pins into his shoulder then sew the ligiment onto it.  He was scheduled to have this surgery 5 weeks ago.  He had to have a stress test first since he has had open heart surgery.  They found a problem on his stress test so he had to have a heart cath.  During the heart cath they found 2 blockages.  Because he has kidney problems due to his diabetes medicine, they couldn't put the stints in when they did the cath so he ended up being in the hospital for 3 days and having 2 caths.  He had to be on plavix for the heart issue.  So they rescheduled his shoulder surgery until he could go off the plavix.  This morning the anethesologist called and cancelled his surgery again.  This guy wasn't comfortable doing this surgery on somebody who's just had stints put in and especially on an outpatient basis.  So .... it has to be rescheduled again.  He'll have to be admitted to have it done. 

Dad's very upset of course.  He's got so much going on with him, nothing's simple.  Because of all his other problems, he can't take alot of the anxiety/anti-depressant medications that he probably needs.  So he's incredibly depressed right now.  I have no idea when he'll get to have his surgery. 

Mom and I had totally rearranged our schedules (twice) so that somebody could be with him 24/7.  Mom was going to be there when I was at work and I was going to be there when she was at work.  Now all that's changed, again. 

The only good news here is that I will get to go to the horse show on Saturday.  I was supposed to stay with Dad but now ....  This is the same show that Sailor won the 2 and under halter class.  I haven't taken him back to that show.  We got all caught up in the barrel stuff and haven't been going early enough for the rail classes.  I think I am going to take Sailor this weekend though.  He's grown enormously since April.  I'll be excited to see what reaction he gets! 

Monday 9/14/09

Didn't do much with the ponies yesterday.  I helped A wrap a new bale of hay for Dusty.  I got a baseball net and we wrap it around the round bale before the ring is put on.  It really slows him down.  Keeps him from gorging and eating too much. 

I rearranged bridles.  Murray and Moon are now my primary riding horses so I put the halter bridles together for him.  The light oil tucker halter bridle was too tight on Moon's forehead so I switched Murray to that one and Moon go Dusty's halter bridle.  Dusty's now setup with the regular headstall that I'd been using for Murray. 

Murray was too funny when I was adjusting his bridle.  He actually went to sleep.  I had trouble getting him to release the bit so I could take it off of him.  Moon was nearly as bad. 

Sunday 9/13/09 - Weird stuff on the highway

Today was Dad's birthday.  I stayed home and did the lazy bum thing.  No horsey stuff today!

Over the past week or so, I've seen some crazy weird stuff on the interstate.  I put 100 miles of interstate driving a day on my car so I see lots of stuff.  I really wish I had pics .....

Monday on the way to Wranglers we saw a guy on a tricycle.  Not to terribly unusual.  He had the handle bars jacked to the sky but again, that's not unusual.  What was unusual was the deer head strapped to the back of the tricycle.  I guess he was moving ....

On the way back from Wranglers we saw a double decker bus.  Nope, this wasn't like what you'd see in Europe.  It was a regular bus with a *van* cut in half and welded on top of it.  Really, you'd have to see it to believe it. 

Tuesday on the way to work I saw a cow on a trailer.  A 15' cow.  It was palomino and white.  I'm not sure cows come in that color but still .... 

Saturday - 9/12/09

We did the great trail ride today.  A couple we met at Wranglers' last weekend came by to ride with us.  They were a blast and I was glad to meet them.  They have morgans and I've never really gotten to see one before.

I rode Murray, A rode Moon and C rode Sammy.  First off Sammy actually laid down on C while she was putting her boots on.  Talk about scary!  For a minute there, C was trapped under Sammy.  Sam couldn't get up because of the crossties.  C wiggled out and popped the quick release snaps on the crossties.  C was banged up but not hurt bad and went on to ride with us. 

Moon threw a fit in crossties since Blue was turned out without him.  They have a love hate thing going on.  Everybody is scared of Moon's back feet but he loves Blue and follows him around.  Blue is ok with Moon most of the time.  Moon loaded well but got wound up again while waiting for us to get Sam and Murray loaded. 

Poor Murray was all decked out like a Christmas tree.  He was wearing Moon's dark green support boots, Bonnie's red sparkly renegades and a faded blue halter.  I opted to not put the rear boots on him today.  Honestly, it was because I was running behind getting him ready.  They also rubbed him a bit last night.  I think I'm going to have to put some vet wrap on him to keep them from rubbing. 

Moon's 2ww renegades fit him perfectly.  I had to get them cut back since his foot is actually wider than it is long.  Oddly enough, they also fit Emmy and Sailor.  Maybe is a draft thing?  Or a curly thing?  Or a always been trimmed thing?  I dunno.

Moon wasn't real happy about being away from home.  He was pretty upset and sat back a bit when he was tied to the trailer.  A untied him and he settled quite a bit.  He stood to be mounted much better than yesterday.  He learns soooo fast!  He was tense for the first 20 minutes or so.  He didn't act bad at all, he was just ..... tense.  He did settle and drop his head and relax.  He looked at some things but he didn't spook at all.  He was cool with other horses trotting up behind him too.  I was so proud!!  Murray gets all silly when somebody comes up behind him.  A really, really likes him.  She's talking about doing the english thing with him next summer.  Despite having had a bad experience with a trainer, he's really willing to accept new people and new experiences.  With the french link snaffle, he collected up nice for A.  He's got such a big trot, she was able to post on him easily.  All in all, he had a wonderful day.  I think since this was a good experience for him, he'll settle quicker next time. 

There's a local lady who takes the hunter scene seriously.  Her horse is always braided perfectly.  She's super nice and always willing to talk to us rednecks about her horse and stuff.  I threatened to call her to the barn to show us how to braid Moon.  He's very bald.  I think it would be hilarious to bang his 3" of tail too.  I think the lack of mane makes him look elegant and clean but who knows what the general public will say.  

Murray was good today too.  Of course, he doesn't even look at stuff.  He's the least spooky horse I've ever met.  Ok, he's not spooky on the trail.  He still finds stuff to act silly over in the arena.  He *hates* arena work.  He got a little quick especially when somebody came up behind him.  We're going to have to work on an "easy" cue.  He thought the little palomino mare that went with us was damned fine.  He flirted the whole way, lol.  He's quite the ladies' man.  He also stayed round for me.  He can get all strung out sometimes but he did well today.  We also foxtrotted quite a bit.  He's such a pleasure to ride even when he trots because he's so smooth.  We decided that I'd ride Moon when A rides Trace (qh) and I'd ride Murray when she rides Bonnie (twh). 

Neither boy was sore either foot wise or back.  I was really, really proud of them both.  We rode about 3 hours, mostly at a walk. 

When we got back and took care of the horses we all went to lunch.  Then A and I went to a friend's house.  She's got goats, horses, sheep, pigs, donkeys, cows, chickens, guineas, quail, cats and dogs.  We went over there to see the 3 week old piglets.  OMG they are soooo cute!!  I'd never seen a hog up close.  She also had a Great Pyranese puppy that was soo sweet.  I think I'll have to have one some day.  She herded the chickens back into the barn when they strayed too far.  We got to hear the donkey bray.  I laughed so hard, I nearly passed out. 

It was an awesome day and I'm exhausted.  I'm going to do it all again tomorrow!!

Friday - 9/11/09

I did make it to the barn tonight.  I had a good ride on Murray.  I feel so much more confident with him after Saturday's trail ride.  I actually let him trot on a loose rein!  I did manage to get the epics on his back feet.  He wasn't sure that I hadn't lost my mind.  I could almost hear him saying "are you SURE those go on those feet?".  He walked funny for a couple steps but got over it and did just fine with them.  I'm gonna ride him tomorrow in all 4 boots and see how it goes.

A rode Moon.  He was worried about her getting on.  Of course, that's my fault.  He did really good for her.  He was tense but relaxed more and more as they rode.  He's got an absolutely beautiful trot.  I'd only seen him really move out in the round pen.  He looked soooo good undersaddle!  He did throw in a little buck.  He just did it once and we couldn't figure out anything that could have caused it.  Maybe he was feeling her out?  All in all, it was a good ride.  I think she's going to take him trail riding tomorrow!!  Just imagine .... *2* curlies on a trail ride!!

Moon, Emmy and Sailor have all completely shed their summer hair.  They are all back to the darkness they started with this spring.  Emmy's starting to get the waves back on her butt.  She'd about lost her waves before this last shed.  After a full 6 months of proper feeding, they all look fabulous!  Emmy is finally at the weight I want her.  Sailor is plum fat.  Poor boy's been on the fat boy diet for a month or so.  Murray is pleasantly plump but he gets ridden regularly.  Moon was a bit lean when he got here but he's looking good now.  I think his weirdness when he got here was dehydration.  Took me forever to figure out he wouldn't drink out of the little trough!  Sailor is black and sleek and shiny.  I think it's pretty obvious they eat well!  Moon has lost almost all of his mane since he's been here.  I really haven't put much effort into keeping it though.  The others manes are looking good.  Murray's kept more hair this year than he ever has. 

So tomorrow's the big trail ride.  I'll update then!!

Thursday - 9/10/09

Nothing major.  I doctored Moon's leg.  I'm not sure what happened.  It's not sore and he's not favoring it.  It's just swollen.  I may end up clipping it to see if maybe there's a puncture wound.  He's good about letting me fool with it.  I don't know him well enough to know if it really doesn't hurt or if he's just being stoic.  A's planning on taking him to KOW tomorrow.  She hasn't really made up her mind though.  A prospective client of hers is meeting us there so she doesn't know if she wants to ride Moon for that or not.  We'll see. 

I plan to ride Murray tomorrow.  If A rides Bonnie instead of Moon, I'll have to take Murray because there's no way Dusty can keep up with the walking horses.  I'm not interested in posting for a couple hours!  I need to take Murray anyway.  If I sell Dusty, Murray and Moon will have to be my trail horses.  I just have to wean myself away from Dusty and accept the fact that I have rideable curlies!

The epics didn't fit Murray's back feet.  I think maybe with some work I can make them work but not before tomorrow.  I don't think he'll have much trouble in KOW since the gravel is smaller.  And if he has problems, I can always ride in the grass. 

I took the fly sheets off of everybody.  Moon and Murray have been naked for about a week and Dusty has been since Monday.  I'm tired of not seeing my horses!  Besides keeping the flies and sun off the horses, the sheets have stopped all small bumps from playing.  But now that the flies are less, I'm ready to be rid of them.  I did get Murray a new one last weekend with an attached neck guard.  It'll have to be modified but I can do that this winter.  His sunburn is completely healed.  The hair's grown back in.  I still put sunscreen on him every couple days though.  It was funny when we rode on Saturday, I put sunscreen on him but forgot to put it on me!

Labor Day Weekend

So labor day weekend was last weekend. It was filled with horsey activities!!

Friday I was off work. I spent the day at the barn. I worked with Moon a bit. I wanted to ride him in the roundpen since our last adventure in the arena wasn't so good. Since his back is a bit different than the others, I thought I'd try Dusty's skito pad on him. That was a disaster. I couldn't get on!! Not even with the ladder. Every time I put my weight in the stirrup, the saddle would roll. It was plenty tight. I guess maybe the way the material gives makes it less stable? I don't know. So I took him back to the barn and switched to the 5-star pad. Still couldn't get on. This time it was more Moon. I don't blame him at all for not wanting to stand still after I'd hanged off of him twice before. So we just worked on getting him to stand to be mounted. When i was done, I was dripping sweat and totally pissed. I needed to trim Murray and see if I could get the size 1 easyboots on him since we were to ride at Wranglers on Saturday. I did get him trimmed and I did finally get the damned boots on. Only problem? I couldn't get the left one off. And in the process of getting the right one on, I busted out the screws. A helped trying to fix the stupid boots but we decided they were a lost cause. So I took up Moon's size 2WW Renegades for Murray. I just sold Murray's regular size 2 renegades because they were too big (I thought) thinking that he could wear the size 1 epics. WRONG.

So after the horrible Friday, I was a bit reluctant to go trail riding Saturday. This was to be my first real trail ride on Murray. A has taken him several times and I've ridden him at shows and around the farm but no real trail rides. I did finally get up and go to the barn though I was an hour and a half late. I really was hoping they'd leave without me. So we packed up the trailer and the horses and off we went. Murray was really good. I knew he would be but couldn't help stressing over it. I took extra meds :D. I'm terrified of hills but he was good and took them at my pace. C and Sammy had a harder time of it. This was Sammy's first time at Wranglers and she acted a fool. Sorta kept me from worrying over Murray any more than necessary. Since his boots were big, I was concerned about getting rocks in them. Sure enough, when we stopped the first time, he had a small rock in his boot. I cleaned it out and he was fine. We all cantered (!!) up a long hill. I'd never cantered Murray before and it was awesome! When we stopped for lunch at the blue hole, we met several people. They asked about Murray's curls. He was wet with sweat so they couldn't see his body waves and his mane is short but curly. I explained about the allergy thing. One lady has a friend who's allergic. Hopefully she'll make it out to the farm to meet the curlies. Also met another barefooter. She and her husband have Morgans!! They've promised to let me come ride with them. I love morgans but have never ridden one. Murray got a little quick coming back but really was good. He was tender on the gravel with his back feet. It never occured to me that he'd need boots on his back feet. Hopefully the 1's will fit!

Sunday C and I went to the craft fair and I laid around the house. Nothing exciting.

Monday A called early to ask if I wanted to go back to Wranglers. Of course, I said yes! I decided to take Dusty this time since Murray's rear feet were a bit sore. It's a good thing I did. The lady who rode with us was on a bugnuts crazy racking horse. He was horrible! T rode the same horse she rode on Saturday and had to go back because his feet were tender. Lesson learned, if we want to ride for more than a couple hours on gravel, rear boots are needed. Dusty did fine. Murray is soooo much smoother though!! Dusty really hurt my back. He's fun to ride but not as fun or as comfortable as Murray.

So that was the weekend!! I haven't been to the barn since Monday. I'm having withdrawels but I'm headed back there tonight.

Intros

Ok, here're the intros:

Dusty:
14 year old belgian cross. I have no idea what he's crossed with. The lady I got him from said it was saddlebred but he doesn't look saddlebred-y to me. He was lame last year but has been sound since January. He's barefoot and I trim him myself. He's my steady-eddy trail horse. I've also taken him to some local shows to play with the barrels. He's for sale.

Murray:
4 year old curly. He's a outcrossed curly. His dam is a spotted draft (paint x perch) and his sire is a "purebred" curly. He was started undersaddle in April of this year. He's going well and is slowly taking over the main trail horse position.

Emmy:
3 year old curly. She's also an outcross. Her dam is a belgian/quarter cross and her sire is a purebred curly. She's absolutely freaking huge!! She's also my fav of my horses. She has some ground training and I've been on her once. She was sooo good.

Sailor:
2 year old curly. Again, he's an outcross. His dam was a percheron and his sire is a purebred curly. He's had some ground training and has been saddled. He is a total sweetheart. Last winter he was kicked by a pony at the barn where we were boarding. The result was a green stick fracture of his elbow. He's perfectly sound now but man, that was scary! I took him to several shows this spring. He even won his first class ever!

And last but not least.... Moon:

5 year old curly gelding. He's my only baby from a curly to curly cross. He joined the family just recently. He's had extensive ground training and has been started undersaddle. I've ridden him a couple times. He's got some work ahead of him but he's a very good boy. He's an extreme curly so he's a bit bald. He has the softest coat and skin!! It's a good thing he likes having his nose rubbed!!

And now to the dogs:

Sam:

6 year old red/white pembroke welsh corgi. This is the love of my life. I just love him to bits.

Jester:

5 year old black headed tri pembroke welsh corgi. He's a total mess and has earned his name over and over.

He's got keritoconjuncivitis in his left eye.  He will eventually lose that eye. 

First Post

I created this blog to chronicle my day to day progress with my horses and dogs. I'll post introductions shortly.