spring/summer 2011

Wow, it's been awhile, I really don't know where to start.

Well I guess I can start with the horses, training began in the spring after the ice melted in the riding ring, the horse hadn't been ridden all winter. When the trainer showed up they where perfect little girls...As the trainer backed Dakota everyone held their breathes but Dakota walked on like an old pro, the trainer even added pressure to the sides and mouth, Dakota was having a ball.. I really do think she likes to work. When I got on Penny she was also a perfect little angel, all went well with the training :).

Friday May 13 ...came along and I had been riding all morning with the trainer... again the horses where angels and all went well, we hosed them down and turned them out in the back to munch on grass. The trainer left and my husband preceded to get ready to go to work ... just another typical day, he was gone for about 25 minutes and I decided I was going to move patio stones and start the front walkway. I was out back and found a nest of red ants ...yikes "where is the raid" I walked up onto the deck and in the house to get the raid, coming out of the patio door as I was trying to keep the cat and dog in the house, I walked backwards a few steps as I turned around I caught the edge of the step and fell...I heard a crack and thought I broke the deck... As I lay there on my back .... I wondered how I was going to get back in the house and call someone. I lay there for a few minutes because I felt like I was going to pass out. I finally got up and tried to walk on my foot but..... nope didn't happen I couldn't put any weight on my foot and my wrist hurt like heck. I finally got up and hopped up the stairs and into the house and called my husband ( who was on his way to work) he says "what's up" all I said was "I fell" and he turned the car around and was back home in about 25 minutes.....we spent allllll the rest of the day in emerg only to be told you have a sprained wrist and a severly sprained ankle....go home and put it up and put ice on it. They gave me crutches and sent me home.

This was on a friday and I was to be alone all weekend as my husband had to work. Friends of ours brought me a wheelchair so I could have my hands free to feed the animals and cook dinner, and most important to bring my coffee to the computer :) My husband was amazing through all this .. he switched his schedule so he could be home to bring the horses in and take care of me :) Monday morning (4 days after the accident) I called my own Dr and told them the story and wanted to see her, they put me on a cancellation list and would call me as soon as they could. I just got off the phone and the Emergency department called and said I needed to come back in...the radioligist saw something "weird" on my extray... so off we went again ...9 hours in emerg. They told me a chipped the inside of my heel, and pulled all the tendons and muscles in my foot, I left there with a half cast and an appointment with a orthopedic surgeon the next day.

By this time my foot is fat, swollen and oh so bruised everywhere...top, bottom, sole, heel, toes, ankle. He put me in a full fibre glass cast and wore that for 3 weeks. After the 3 weeks I saw him again and he put me in an air cast for 4 weeks.After the air cast my foot is still swollen and some bruising,In the span of 2 months I went from a wheelchair to crutches, to a cane and now the cast is off finally, I'm still limping and have started physio.

No riding for 8-10 weeks :( . Hay came this week and I had to put my cast on for that... 418 bales....whew glad that's over with lol.

Having the broken ankle made me realize alot of things.... I'm alone, other than my husband who is amazing....I had help for the first 4 days of the accident and then no one, we had to hire a young girl to come and do chores and "babysit me". I couldn't even feed the horses. The worst part is having to ask for help. Everything happens for a reason and I guess this happened to show my you can't count on anyone but yourself and your family. Unfortunetly my family all live soooo far away :( I could only count on Don to be there for me

We're getting back on track and have slowly caught up on everything that had to be done around the house, training is back on but I'll have to sit and watch. I have a wonderfull young girl who will come with my trainer and exercise Penny, my physio therepist is very strick and I'm kind of afraid of her lol, so I think I'll listen to her and stay off the horse for awhile.

I will try and get some pictures up on the next post of the girls riding

sorry this one was a bit long, thanks for reading and have a great day :)

Amazed at how many crooked "horse" people there are

Well it's been awhile, but I'm back. We have been having problems with the new horses eye, and today again the vet just left. Penny our new little girl, has UVitis again. this is the third time and we are getting worried. The vet never said it was cronic Uvitis, but it looks pretty cronic to me. We just have to watch her and treat it as soon as we see her eye contracting. We bought Penny a little over a year ago and have had problems ever since. You know , now that I really think about it, I should have seen it back then at the other barn, she looked very sleepy, either she was drugged or it was her eyes bothering her. I came right out and asked if she was drugged and the person said no.

We have been around horses for around 8 years, I know not very long but in that short period of time we have been screwed and lied to sooooo many times that, I have come to the conclussion that alot of "horsey" people are not very nice people at all. They all seem to just want money and don't care how they get it. I understand that money makes the world go round and all that crap but , to lie and cheat to get it, I just don't understand.
Why can't people just be honest. Penny is such a sweet little horse that I probably would have still bought her even if they had told us about the eye problem. At least I would have had a heads up on it and could have watched out for it.

When we sold Joey, I was completely up front with her and told her everything about him. I wanted him to go to a good home. That's another thing that happened (Sorry kind of off topic) , I was sure we found a good home for Joey, they were perfect together. Well come to find out that she abandon him at a barn and the barn owner had to sell him for board. I lost contact with him because girl that bought him from me stopped answering my emails. I also found out that she was bouncing checks and not paying farriers or vets. I had to track him down myself, and finally found him again. I have talked to the new owner and she sounds really nice and it does sound like Joe has found a good home. His new name if Yoshi and I am pretty happy about that.

Well guess that's all for now
talk to you all next time

wow

first person to back Dakota .... Me :) of course I just sat ready to bail lol me and Penny

Wow, it sure has been awhile since I've been on here. I guess lots has happened since. Penny and I have been getting along great, I even tried a lope with her the other day. Since I've been on last I found yet another trainer, the last one kind of got too busy with traveling and putting on clinics, so I was slowly dropped. I have to admit that after that trainer, I gave up. I was about to put both horses up for sale and pack er in. I scanned the internet for trainers but wasn't too interested, I think I was sucked in too many times and was afraid to try it again.. but then I stumbled onto this web page called a thinking horse, it sounded pretty good but then again so did all the other ones. It took me a few weeks to finally email the trainer and ask some questions, well, she actually turned out to be really great.. I've had her over once a week since June and we're doing great , she is breaking my 7 year old ( Dakota had issues with her back feet and couldn't be broke up until this year). Kim (new trainer) has got me back in the saddle again and she is now riding Dakota. So happy with her and the progress she has made with both horses. I think Kim has restored my faith in "horsey people".

Feels so good to be riding again

Sunday night started a bit rough, Penny was fussing when I tried to saddle her up, but once the saddle was on we were good to go. I started out being led by my husband once around the ring then I asked him to unhook me and step back. Penny and I had a great ride, just walk trot but I rode. I was so happy to be on a horse again. The next day I sure did feel it, every muscle in my body hurt... guess I'm a bit out of shape. :) I think I finally found my horse.

Meet Penny :)

Well here are a few pictures of the new little mare Penny, she is a 9 year old quarter horse mare. Penny is such a sweet little mare and a pleasure to ride. I am taking baby steps since my fall. I'm still riding attached to the lead line but I have trotted around by my self on her. I'm still getting to know her.

Giving in :(

Well , I'm finally doing it.... Joey is for sale. I just can't handle anymore. Working with Joe has completely taken away my confidence. He's too much of a horse for me to handle and it's time I face the music. We contacted the owner of his father and they are not interested in taking him .... figures, they don't want to take him and they train horses and riders...... hmmmm, they would rather see an inexperience person try and handle him. They don't want him back but they also don't want to sign papers so I can get him registered as an arabian. This is the same people who convinced us Joey was a good horse for me.... ya ok. Just my luck with farms around here. Don and I bought a sweet little mare a few weeks ago and I think she is just what I need, there is not a mean bone in her body. I've been riding her without my trainer and things are going good. I can't really concentrate on her because I'm too worried about Joe, I think once he is sold I'll be able to concentrate on riding again. I found a great trainer who is a certified John Lyons trainer, we'll see how she works out. If you have been following my blog, you know that I have had no luck with boarding "facilities" , trainers and horse people in general. So many times I've wanted to give up, we have put so much money into the horses and the new barn that it seems a shame to give up, not sure how much more I can handle.

Starting over with Joe....again

'Well it's been 11 days since my fall off Joe, I'm still a little sore but nothing I can't work through. This week hasn't been that great, lots of stress and worry and yesterday I hadn't stopped all day and was tired, I think my state of mind had alot to do with the lousy ride. yesterday was the first time up on Joey since my fall and it didn't go so well. I walked him out of the barn and almost had a panic attack and I wasn't even on him yet. Kelly rode him around for awhile and he was fine but by the time I was ready to get on him the mosquito's where out in full force. I got up first try, he stood nice for me. I sat on him for a while trying to breath, then I noticed the hook on my boot was stuck on the stirrup and I paniced ($100.00 boots are going in the garbage). Any way we got through that and the trainer walked me around a bit, and I was done. He was doing alot of fussing because of the mosquito's and it made me more nervous. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to ride him again. We are going to start all over again and I'll keep trying.

An Interesting month

Well I found a new trainer and she is working out great, she is focussing right now on keeping Joey happy which is a good thing. When she first started she wasn't really making him work, just feeling him out. She noticed that he didn't like his mouth pulled or any leg and if you did he would get mad and she didn't want to make him angry she just wanted a happy horse. Well he's been doing excellent, when she first started as soon as you put your legs on him he would buck, so she is trying to get him to respond to voice command and it's working great, she just says walk on and he goes, to get him to trott it's Joey wanna trott and away he goes at a nice little trot. She cantered him yesterday but I warned her he bucks and kicks at the canter, not mean but he does it anyway. Sure enough as soon as she started bringing her leg back he kicked out and bucked a little , they are not high bucks but you can tell he doesn't want to do it. She finally got him to take 3 steps at the canter with no bucks so she was happy. He really doesn't look mean he looks more playfull when he's doing it, he just doesn't know how to do it with a rider on him.

So on that good note I can tell everyone about how he has been treating me. Two weeks ago he decided that he did not want me to get up on him, and he started cow kicking at me with his ears pinned, it got so bad that I couldn't even stand in the right position to mount and it made if more difficult. I know that I am nervous around him and that's probably why. I never was able to get up on him that day, so Kelly worked just on mounting and dismounting and getting him to stand, when she was done it was time for me to take the saddle off, well the minute I put my hand on the cinch he cow kicked and it was pretty close to my arm, I'm not quick enough to smack , I don't really believe in hitting a horse but that was really dangerous and it had to be fixed. Kelly stood behind me and her husband held the reigns, again as soon as I grabbed the cinch he cow kicked and kelly smacked him in the ass with the crop and he never did it again. So we fixed that problem. The next ride he stood quietly when I saddled him up and when I rode him, my husband watched the video and he said he looked like an old school horse and so happy , listening to everything and just doing what I asked.

My ride this week, ummmm not so good. Kelly rode him and he was just like the old school horse again, just doing what was asked of him and he was quit happy, When I got up on him, again he stood quietly and was just happy being ridden, we were working on voice commands and stopping and going, really light work. I trotted a little and we were fine I was relaxed, he was relaxed. In one corner of the riding ring about 10 feet away from the corner there is a hydro post and for some reason he seems to not want to go near that corner , that day he spooked a little for Kelly as she came around to the corner so she walked him into it , ever since we started riding him that corner is bad , so she makes it a point of going into the corner and showing him. there is nothing there that he should be afraid of. When we let him loose with no saddle and no bridle in there he'll go in the corner no problem but when there is a rider on him he's a little nervous. Well anyway, I finishes my trott and stopped to talk to kelly, his butt was facing the corner he doesn't like but we were no where near it when we stopped, so I was just talking to Kelly like I always do, loose reign, no leg everyone was relaxed including Joe , then all hell broke loose, he snorted swung around and Jumped all 4 feet off the ground about 3 times by that time we had reached the fence, but by this time I was sideways on the saddle, I saw the fence coming and we didn't think he was going to stop so I pulled the left reign to turn him , well he put the brakes on and turned left , that's when I flew off, It happened so fast , there was no time to react. After I came off I looked at Joe and he looked so concerned you could just see it in his eyes, What ever happened was not mean. Kelly thinks that it was either a bee or some kind of electric charge from the post , is it possible for Hydro posts to have a short and give off a charge that a horse can feel? I know that they are very sensitive and I think Joey is overly sensitive. I tape all my lessons but this happened just out of camera range so I wasn't able to see it but I do have the audio. I know that Joey really didn't want to hurt me because while I was down he was really careful not to step on me. I did get back up on him after about 20 minutes but I was scared to tears. Kelly walked me around and walked me back where I came off and Joey was fine, it was almost like he didn't want to move in case I fell off again. So now I had my first fall and it was a doozy, no broken bones but a sprained ankle, Dr said I might have had a slight concussion but my helmet saved me there, my butt, is really sore, my shoulder and a few bruises here and there, I survived the fall. Hopefully I can ride Joey again , but I think we are going to have to start all over again. I won't be riding again for at least 2 weeks but Kelly will keep riding him until I'm able again.
Wish me luck

Joey's training

Well my husband found someone to train Joey. She really impressed my husband when he was talking to her, but it was me she had to prove herself too. Well prove herself she did. She came over a couple of Saturdays ago to meet him and try him out. We had about a half hour befor the farrier came and I figured there was no way she was going to ride him, it would take at least 15 minutes to put the saddle on, I sure was surprised to see how quick she was and Joey was fine, except when we put the mounting block beside him and she stepped up.... well up come the front feet , I thought he was going right over on his back, she tried and tried and everytime she stepped up he would just move away. So the next thing I knew she moved the mounting block out of her way and up she got, Joey just stood there. I was so amazed.. she walked trotted with little protest from Joey. She tried to get a canter out of him but he wouldn't and we ran out of time as the farrier was waiting.
So needless to say we hired her. Last weekend we worked on me, She wants me to get comfortable with him first because she says Joey is fine, just a little bull headed, he's gotten away with scaring everyone and to him it's just a big joke. She actually went into his stall and picked up his feet without anyone holding him and he just stood there. That almost floored me because it always took two people to do his feet, hmmm well not anymore. I have been trying to brush him with out the lead rope or him being tied but it's not going very well, he is nipping at me and I'm still a little nervous and he knows it. I guess only time will tell.

Vet visit

Tuesday, we had the vet out for checkups, vaccinations, teeth and wormer, I know we are a little late, but at least its done. I was so stressed out about this visit because of the floating of the teeth. Dakota got hers done last year so I wasn't worried about her, it was Joey I knew they were going to have to use that big nasty looking metal thingy they put it their mouth to keep it open and I was not looking forward to it. Well it turns out I had to be away that morning and didn't have to see it. I thought they were going to have a hard time with Joey and they would probably have to sedate him. My husband even bet the vet he would have to sedate him. Well Joey surprised everyone, no sedation and he was a good boy and didn't try to kill anyone.
So all and all the vet visit went really smooth. Hmmmmm imagine that :)

Horses in the riding ring for the first time.

Well monday morning was quit a morning. We decided to try and get the horses use to being in the riding ring and I'm happy to say every thing went well. There was alot of snorting and running for the first 10 minutes and then they where fine. They were still a little jumpy but all they wanted to do was eat. I worried for nothing......again. We left them in for a couple of hours and then put them on the grass at the back. They will be in the front for a few hours in the morning, hopefully everyday. Don, my husband is going to start lungeing Joey next week and then I have someone coming out to ride him twice a week until I can trust him. I trust him when we are on the ground, but when I get on his back, well that's a different story.

I took a few pictures of them in the front.

Finally a little time to myself

Sorry I haven't been posting much lately but alot has happened in the past month and I had no time. Since we brought the horses home, I have never left them, I am always around for feeding and bringing them it, this month I was away for long periods of time that of which I had no choice. My husband works long hours and he needed help so we had to rely on my neighbors and a close friend of ours. Everything worked out fine. It is so good to have friends and neighbors that you trust with your babies. I have had no time to work with them, so training is pushed back again. We were suppose to put the horses in the riding ring to get them use to it , but that hasn't happened yet. Things are finally calming down a bit so hopefully the training will start. This year it seems that there is always something going on that interferes with our plans. I guess we just have to take it one day at a time and hope everything turns out for the best. My list of things to do just keeps getting longer and longer and I can't seem to catch up. I do know one thing though, training has to start soon, because the horses are getting flabby.

Drying up nicely

Well , I guess all the hard work last summer is paying off. My riding ring has no puddles and is drying very nicely. the paddock around the barn is pretty good too none of that sticky heavy mud, so I guess I won't be falling on my butt this year lol, or getting my boots stuck and not being able to move. The horses will be happy to, they won't have those mud balls weighing their tales down. We have taken them off the big paddock , because we are getting it ready for planting more grass. They are in a very small paddock right now and I think they are pretty bored. Hopefully Joey's training will start soon. Next tuesday we are planning on putting them in the riding ring , to get them use to the traffic, so they won't be so scared of the trucks going by. I also plan on parking my truck on the highway and honking the horn, so when some idiot comes by honking it won't scare them. I can't wait to ride Joe, it's been a long time.

Nice weather finally

Well finally winter is coming to an end. I think everyone is happy about that, including the horses. We found this year to be a hard winter, with way too much snow. The snow was so high this year it reached the top of the fences in some spots. We couldn't use the riding ring this year either because of the snow. We were not expecting that much. We also had problems with the electrics through the winter (brand new barn, go figure). We dealt with frozen water buckets and a frozen water trough and frozen hoses. Well at least we are done with that now and ready to face new challenges (mud). Last summer we put tile drain in the paddocks around the barn and in the riding ring, can't wait to see what the paddocks look like when everything starts to melt. I am sure that the horses will find mud anyway, but at least they won't be standing it all the time.
Training will be starting as soon as the snow is gone, I should have some stories and pictures to post as training is always a challenge because I am so new to it.

Happy Easter

Hi Everyone, Just wanted to wish you all a Happy Easter.

Lungeing

Lungeing, an important factor in training a horse. Well I have one problem, which is a pretty big problem when you think about it. Okay , picture it, I go out to the barn and get all the equipment I need to lunge an 1100 lbs animal, catch the horse hook him up to the lunge line, the minute I push him out to start he starts galloping and bucking. After the first couple of rounds, I am having a hard time focusing because I am so dizzy. Needless to say I don't lunge my horse any more, my husband does. I have read many articles on lungeing even went to a lungeing clinic, but can't stop myself from getting dizzy. I've tried looking at the horse, I tried looking at the background, tried walking with the horse, nothing works. If any one has any ideas, I'd love to here them.

Pet Peeve

Okay, this is going to be short and sweet.
If you can't afford vet care or food for your animals, then give them away to a good home that can.
Having animals especially horses can get very expensive. Why can't people do a little more research into what is involved in caring for their animals. I think if people knew what was involved they would think twice. Animals don't just need a home they need love and care, they need regular vet visits, and good healthy food. They need to become part of your family, and treated with respect.
Too many people are going out and getting a pet only to realize this is too much work. These animals then end up on the street or in animal shelters, or worse dead.
Wake up people and please do a little research.

Colic

What a scarey thing to see your horse rolling in pain. Well it's happened to us 4 times since Dec 23. Vets don't know what the problem is. We haven't changed anything. same amount of feed, same time, same hay, same everything. Vets are thinking it is the change in temp from mild to very cold by 4 pm. we watch him very close now. I give him a syringe of medicine every night and it seems to be helping ( touch wood). He is such a good boy to take his medicine just laps it all up. He sure has come a long way, now if only I had some one to ride him.

Australian Saddles

I finally got my new saddle. It's an Australian Saddle with the horn, kind of a cross between a western saddle and an English saddle. When it arrived I took it out of the box and was a little confused... where do you attach the stirrups? I went online and looked it up, There are two metal hooks on the top of the saddle, the stirrups just hang on the hooks. If you fall off the horse and you get your foot caught the stirrups are made to fall off, which I think is a very good safety feature. The next day it was time to try it on the horse, well let me tell you, lol How hard is it to attach a girth to a saddle. We get the saddle to the barn and the horse is all set for the saddle, but between the 4 of us we couldn't figure out how to attach the girth. We finally gave up and used the English for my lesson, half way through my lesson my husband comes back in and says he figured it out, the extra piece of leather I had was an over girth that sat on top of the saddle and attached to the girth. We had a good laugh about that. We put the saddle on the horse and up I got, it is so different from the other saddles, it had a deep seat that seems to sit high at the back and the hooks that held the stirrups where jabbing me in the legs.. every time I went to post it would hurt like @$!$#. I don't think your suppose to post in these saddles, but I figured out how to sit in it and after awhile I didn't feel the hooks. After riding in it awhile and getting used to it, I really started to like it. I think once it is broke in more it will feel a lot better. If anyone has any experience riding in one of these saddles, let me know

Colic

Well we had an interesting day,,, Joey had a bad case of Colic. He was is so much pain it was hard to watch. He was fine in the morning, so I thought. He ate his breakfast then went out and was eating his hay when we left. We were gone about an hour and when we came back he was laying in the overhang near the barn, when I went up to him he got up but was acting a little funny, he started doing circles trying to go down again, he got half way down and I saw his back legs shaking, then he got up and kicked his belly I knew right away something was wrong ,, my husband started to walk him around and wouldn't let him go down, meanwhile I got on the phone to the vet, all the vets that were close to us where out of town at least an hour away, So I called my regular vet who's office is at least an hour away from us, I thought maybe she may be in our area,, Thankful she got to us in about a half an hour. She arrived and right away took vitals,, they were okay, she gave him two needles and some anti-gas,, she said he had a lot of gas on the right side and she was afraid with so much gas that he could tie up ( which is really bad) after he got the needles he started to perk up with more life in his eyes, She stuck around and Don (my husband) walked him, the vet took his vitals again and said he was doing better we fed him a handful of hay and he ate it, for the rest of the day we had to give him anti gas 3 more times and walk him for 10 minutes every hour till 8 that evening. He also got a feed of warm bran mash with mineral oil. The next morning he was doing okay, he had his breakfast and then went right to the hay. Joey still isn't 100 % but he is doing better. I am still worried about him, he's my baby.
Two factors that may have played a role in this.... 1- change in weather- warm to cold and last week I found mold in the hay. We got all our hay for the winter from the same person, we will have check the hay more carefully when we give it the horses. Well I guess that's all for now.