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.