New Pictures (Karbo Combo/Lucy)

On August 2nd Lucy will have been on the Karbo Combo for 60 days and I will be able to lower her to the maintenance dose. I think I’ve seen a HUGE improvement in both Lu and Black but I think the pictures tell the “real” story. I probably won’t post anymore before/after pics after this unless something drastically changes (that doesn’t mean I won’t post pics).

For those of you who have decided to try the KC too I’d love to hear what you think of it.

Rear View:






Right side:




Left Side:





And just for fun! Here is the new headstall DH bought me.



Up close (can you tell she was thrilled):



Tied to the patience pole after our short bareback ride. Look at her glow!

Ready to run!

Here is the video of the Friday night performance. Sorry there is no music. I had to mute it due to the camera man forgetting that everything he said could be heard.

Karbo Combo Update

I know I never really took any "before" pictures of Black but as I was posting a picture today I saw an old picture of her in my photobucket account and I guess I didn't realize she'd made such a drastic change.

These pictures were taken May 30th. I wasn't trying to get full body pics. I was trying to get pics for a friend to show her how much Black dropped off behind the withers (muscle atrophy due to age). But I think they still give a pretty good idea of her "condition".

Can you see her ribs and lack of topline covering over her hips?



This looks like an old horse to me. She was always tucked up and "gant" in her flanks.



This was last night (Abby had to sneak in).



Look at how filled out she is in those hips and the flank! I can also tell you that her ribs are getting more and more difficult to see.

I managed to talk another drill member into trying the KC. Her horse is a TB that is always thin. She's taken him to several different vets (including ISU). She has him on daily ulcer meds and still he looks like death warmed over. She started him on the KC almost 2 weeks ago. The first week she though she saw results but like me didn't want to admit to it. The start of the second week he quit eating. She took him to the vet and his teeth had locked his jaw closed. The vet unlocked his teeth and he will go in for a float but she said the vet commented that he'd never looked better.

When I saw him last night there is no denying that the KC is helping him. It will be interesting to see how getting his teeth done helps too.

Lu is still doing well too. We have a busy few weeks ahead of us but one of these days I will get new pics. She's kind of leveled off but her movement and attitude are still improving.

A fair affair

Thank god the fair is finally over! I’m exhausted! I’d like to relax but unfortunately that isn’t going to happen.

Thursday night Black was great as she entered the arena before the drill team carrying the flag. If I didn’t know where she came from I would swear she was an ex-barrel horse. As soon as we entered the ring she immediately turned sideways and did a flying side pass down the back of the chutes (but close to the cutes, she wasn’t afraid of them).

Unfortunately I can’t say the same thing for Abby’s performance. She decided humping up and offering to buck was a good idea. Since MIL hasn’t ridden her enough she wasn’t sure what to do. I told her next time to knock the snot out of her!

Friday night as we were preparing for our practice run our drill captain mounted up and noticed her horse was very sore/lame. She asked if I felt I could fill in with Black and I said I’d give it a try but I couldn’t guarantee she could make the entire run. Typically we don’t get a practice run before a performance but we were able to get one in. Black did great! I didn’t push her because I wasn’t sure how much she had to give. After the practice run we decided to give the performance a try.

I have to say, we had a lot of things stacked against us (her age, her feet, her lack of conditioning, her dislike towards other horses, etc.) but when it came time to perform I can guarantee no one knew any of those issues existed. She was wonderful! I only had to “ask” her to speed up a few times. And even better she didn’t act stiff or sore at all afterwards! Our performance is almost 8 minutes long too!

Abby was better this time. She didn’t hump up but she did kick one of the horses during one of the maneuvers. MIL was pretty upset. I tried to explain to her that Abby has just been thrown into this and she hasn’t been eased into it like the other horses have. ALL of them kick at one point in time (including Max). The difference is, in practice you can correct them. Abby had only had 3 practices (one with MIL) and then was thrown into the two performances. I’m not trying to dismiss the kicking but at the same time I do feel MIL should cut her a little bit of slack.

I have a video I’ll post as soon as I can figure out how to edit DH’s comments.

Isn't she lovely..................

Sunday I had planned on getting a few pictures of Lu but the stormed moved so I was unable to get any. Last night I decided to try again.

These aren't quite what I was hoping for but I still thought they turned out decent so I'm going to go ahead and share them anyways. She has this AMAZING sheen to her (it doesn't really show in the pics). I wish you all could see it! I'm not sure if it is the Karbo Combo or if it is just her natural coat since last year we only had about 2 months of a nice coat between the hair loss and the "mysterious" bumps.

So what do you think?

Busy, busy, busy

Last week MIL took Sis and Cat back to her house until Sis is healed up. Saturday we loaded up the ponies and headed over to the arena to ride. I wanted Chase to get on Abby before the show on Sunday and MIL needed to practice too & for once I got to ride my own horse!

Lu was great! She was soft, she was tucking her head and she was moving great! I joked about taking her to the show on Sunday. MIL was having a blast on Abby. A friend was there and they “raced” around the arena. MIL almost fell off when Abby turned but she managed to squirm back into the saddle before slowing down. She had a smile from ear to ear and she needed that after the news about Sis.

After that Chase got on and rode her around a bit while I got on Black and worked on carrying the flag on her (we might be opening up for the drill team at the rodeo on Friday night). DH hopped on Lu and I just looked the other way. I told him to watch her because she would probably try to lay down with him (when she’s hot she wants to roll). The next thing I notice is Lu on the ground and DH kicking my saddle (next time honey, kick the horse). I really wanted to say “I told you so” but instead I gave him back Black.

Chase was having issues with Abby so MIL hopped on Lu while I worked with Chase. We worked on post to post and Chase looking where he was going vs. looking at Abby. It made a HUGE difference in Chase’s riding and Abby worked a lot better for him.

I had decided not to go to the show on Sun. so Sun. morning DH got up and loaded up. DH called me to tell me he’d thrown Lu in the trailer so Ty and I headed to the show to keep an eye on Lu. When I got there DH was riding her in the arena w/Chase (we are going to have to have a discussion about him riding my horse). I took her back to the trailer and tied her up.

We put Abby in a one handed bit for walk/trot. She’s not fond of them but I’m trying to teach Chase to follow rules. The young kids do not know how to spread out and I could see trouble brewing with one horse before the class even started. Abby would trot and then walk then trot then walk and on one occasion she went ahead and popped into a lope so I knew Chase wasn’t going to place. I know this is not Abby’s strong suite so we’ll have to work on it. When going the second direction at the trot one of the horses started bucking (bronc style) so I yelled at Chase to stop Abby. The announcer must have heard me because he then FINALLY directed the other children to stop their horses as well. Luckily no one else was hurt.

I decided with no preparation to take Lu in walk/trot. She did great for what little I’ve done with her. She wanted to have her head up but when I asked she tucked it nice and low. Her trot was a bit fast but she looked amazing in my show bridle! The arena was packed! We didn’t place but I was happy with her performance.

Chase did great in poles. He watched where he was going and placed 2nd. By the time we got to the barrels it had started to rain softly. Chase went in and did a great pattern as well. He placed 2nd again and he was happy with his “paycheck” from the show.

This week is a busy one. Tomorrow we have drill practice, Thursday & Friday we have the rodeo & Saturday Chase shows Dozer.

Tough times

Getting news that your child is ill is never easy. For a lot of us our horses are just like our children so when they are sick and don’t feel well it is just as difficult.

If you recall I posted that Sis hasn’t been feeling well. She slipped in a hole Memorial weekend and has been “off” since. MIL consulted with her vet shortly after the accident and he suggested time off with bute. After some time off she was as little better but still wasn’t “Sis” so I suggested that MIL have a chiro look at Sis to make sure she wasn’t out. The chiro was out and found lots wrong with Sis. She felt heat in the buttock area and suggested 1 mo. off as she felt Sis had a pulled/torn muscle.

After some time off Sis slowly got worse so I suggested MIL take her to her vet. Below is his diagnosis.

slight raise of the right hip at the trot. Slight stiffness and response to palpitation of loin, xrays showed-right hock-narrowing tarsametatarsal and distalintertarsal joint space. ordering surpass cream --put 5 inch ribbon along area, rub lightly can wrap or not

Basically he told MIL that Sis was getting arthritis and the treatment for it was to work her and then put the surpass cream on her hock after she was exercised. This was great news to MIL as she really didn’t want to be without Sis for a month. I had my concerns about this diagnosis since arthritis doesn’t explain heat in a muscle. MIL was so excited though that she started riding her slowly and that weekend we had our show. The following day MIL and Chase left for Utah for 2 weeks so Sis was in my care.

That Tuesday I took Sis to drill practice. I had only planned on trotting her through the routine but after warming her up I decided I wouldn’t even do that. She was so stiff that even the gal who rides her gimpy horse ever practice noticed it (her horse could be bleeding and she wouldn’t notice). When I got home I had a talk with DH and we decided to seek a second opinion. While neither one of us disagree that she might not be getting arthritis, neither one of use feels that this is due to arthritis.

It took over a week to get her into another vet. Horse vets around here (good ones that is) are few and far between. The vet we currently use is supposed to be one of the best. Since we are busy at work I was unable to join DH yesterday when he took Sis in. The results were what I expected but not necessarily what anyone wants to hear.

Sis has a pulled muscle but worse yet due to all of our pissing around this muscle is starting to ossify. If she doesn’t respond well to his treatment it could require surgery. The muscles affected are the popliteus muscle & gracilis muscles on the inside of the stifle. He injected the muscles with several different injections and did shockwave therapy on the leg. He also had his chiropractor look at her while she was there and he did find that she had popped her shoulder back out.

This was the good news. The bad news was that he thinks she has EPM again. This didn’t come as too much of a shock to me but it still wasn’t something I wanted to hear as I know treatment is very expensive. Unfortunately the meds he used on her leg will make it worse if it is EPM so I can’t try the Karbo Combo on her so DH is picking up the treatment today so we can get her started.

What I’m finding out about EPM is that it seems a lot of horses have it but it is so mild that it can/does go unnoticed and that stress, injury or an illness can cause the protozoa to become active (assuming this is the case with Sis). It sounds like cancer – everyone has the cells that make cancer but not everyone gets cancer and those who do get cancer don’t get it to the same degree (different stages). The chiro that was out said that a lot of the reiners/cutters were finding that when their horses were “off” they had EPM and after treatment they were better. With EPM the only 100% way to diagnose is through a necropsy. All a serum test does is show that the horse has built up antibodies to the protozoa. This doesn’t mean they are infected. A spinal tap can be done but it is expensive and those results aren’t 100% either so most diagnosis are based off of a clinical examination.

Off to the rodeo

With MIL gone and Sis out of commission I’ve been taking Abby to drill practice in MIL’s spot. I think it has been very good for Abby. For one thing she’s had to run & we all know how much lazy Abby likes to run. But it has also helped her get used to having horses next to her, behind her, in front of her and coming at her from all directions (this was the one thing I did like about drill).

We have been practicing in the arena that Chase shows in (the only arena Abby has been in) so I asked if we could go to a different arena last night. The team will be performing next Thursday & Friday at the rodeo so I wanted to try to get in that arena to see what Abby would do. When we first got there she was a bit nervous but not too bad. We’ve been working on vertical flexion so she had her head almost between her knees (she’s an over achiever). One of Abby’s biggest issues is that she is very aware of her footing & if she doesn’t like something on the ground she won’t move. I’ve been working on that through groundwork but there is still room for improvement.

She was very aware of her footing last night and refused to move a few times. When she did she was quickly greeted w/Mr. Crop. After that she decided it wasn’t so scary. In the arena she got tense. I wasn’t sure what she was nervous about but quickly discovered it was the stands and the noise from them. I asked a gal in the stands to make some noise while I did rollbacks on the fence and she finally decided they weren’t very scary when she had to work so we proceeded to move around the arena.

She was fine with everything else in the arena including the chutes but it will be interesting to see what she’s like next week when the stands are full, there are little kids running up and down the sides of the arena and there are bulls in the chutes. This is another reason I like drill, it gets them exposed to lots of different places/experiences that I wouldn’t be able to expose her to by myself.

One thing that keeps surprising everyone on the team is how fast little Miss Abby can go. Just because she’s a pony doesn’t mean she can’t run! She can keep up with the best of them (although the crop does help with that). MIL gets to practice with her next week prior to the rodeo so the boys and I will be making lots of noise in the stands!

My ass!

I've been wanting to do this for a long time but I either don't always have all of the horses here or something else gets in the way. Last night DH was gone but I decided to try anways and here are the results!

The line up!

Sis


Black


Lucy (can you tell she was hot?)


Abby


Cat (I promise her back leg isn't that messed up, she was kicking flies on her belly)


Nikki


The gang!


The End(s)


The end!

What’s Red & Blue?

The inside of our trailer! Why? Because MIL and Chase had a great show on Saturday! Chase started off with walk/trot. He looked great (yes I am biased)! He’s still having a hard time knowing what to do with his “free” hand but he kept it off of the reins so I was proud of him. He did a fabulous job and came out with a 1st place blue.

Next it was MIL’s turn. She looked great as well and had a nice ride. Sis was a bit fast for my liking but the judge must have liked her as she placed 2nd (1st place horse was very nice & would have been my choice as well).

Then MIL moved on to WP (Chase is still to young for that). I didn’t get to watch because I was in the class with her (on Abby lol) but they ended up winning the class so she must have had a nice ride. Abby didn’t do too badly. I figured at the beginning we’d be sitting in the middle of the ring before the class was over but the most she did was chomp at the bit. She got both leads well and while I had to push her to keep a trot she was more then happy to lope.

Next it was time for the games! Chase didn’t want to do poles because he always forgets the pattern. I told him to do them anyways and he did and won! He did the pattern perfectly and did most of it at a lope!

MIL and I took Abby in for shit and giggles and that little pony can turn! I ended up getting 5th on her which is sad because she wasn’t even trying (hmmmmm the wheels are turning – just kidding).

Next it was time for barrels. Chase got 2nd in this class but he did great! MIL and I didn’t place but we had a blast. Abby wasn’t as thrilled with it but it was good for her.

Here are a few pictures of “the man”. Doesn’t he look sharp?

Man is it hot!

I’m sure it isn’t as hot here as it is other places but it is what you are used to and for me it is hot out!

Saturday Redfield had their “Old Settler’s Days” and the saddle club was giving pony rides. Since Sis is out for the count at the moment MIL decided to use Abby in the parade. I was a bit nervous since this was Abby’s first parade and I wasn’t going to be riding to see how she did.

For the most part MIL said she did very well. She is having issues focusing on her footing. For example: It took me 5 min. to get her from the grass to the street. Once on the street any pavement that was a shade darker/lighter was an issue. Same for the grass, if there was an area that was darker/lighter she didn’t want to cross it. This is something that I’ve known we needed to work on so I guess it’s time for me to get with the program.

I thought that she looked very nice in the parade though. Here are a few pics.

She’s the very last horse/pony



Next to Anna (the youngest drill rider)



Pretty little pony



The end!

Lean on me

At night I typically put the feed for the am feeding in each horse’s stall. This way I know that they get fed what they are supposed to get fed and so that if I am feeding I don’t get dirty (I have to feed on the days DH works and I’m in my work clothes). Today was a work day for DH so I really wanted to make sure I had the feed ready to go last night.

We had to go set up a round pen for the “Old Settler’s Days” so I wasn’t able to get my am feeding put in like normal. After we were done setting up I decided to go out and get the feed put in each stall for the morning so I wouldn’t be late for work. When I arrived Lucy and Sis were head to butt stomping off the bugs. A storm was moving in and it seems the bugs are always worse before a storm. The horses were miserable so I decided to get some spray and put it on them.

My pasture is split and I have an alley that goes behind the barn and opens up into the pasture I want them to come into. When they are in the “back” pasture they know to go down the alley to come to the barn. When they are in the “front” pasture they don’t like backtracking to the alley to come to the barn so they sit and look at me with sad eyes. As I walked into the barn to get the fly spray Black started to head towards the back of the pasture so she could get to the alley (smart old gal) while the others sat there and looked at me with those big pathetic eyes.

As I come out of the barn I notice that Black has stopped by one of our little trees we planted in the pasture (there are 2) and she’s looking at me. The next thing I know she barrels her shoulder into the tree causing it to bend and then positions herself directly over the tree and rocks back and forth over the top of it to scratch her privates! OMG I was laughing so hard until I realized she was going to uproot my tree!

She finally stopped and stepped off of it so I sprayed down the three horses that were close to me and then headed towards her. I no more then start in her direction and she gets the tree down into position again and “goes to town”. This can’t be the first time she’s done this. Seems she has it down to a science by now. I drag her off of the tree and as I go to spray her she runs off. Little fart!

Movin on up!

After Thursday nights ride MIL decided that Sis was still “off” so she called the chiro. Friday the chiro came and now Sis is on a month of rest. Needless to say the poor gal had more things wrong w/her then mine combined. Her shoulder was dropped down and pushed back (hmmm, drill fall maybe) and her hip was dropped (probably from falling in the hole which was the reason for the call), multiple ribs out, back out, etc. Sis looked like she was in a coma by the time Jen got done with her. She still has heat in her butt muscle so Jen suggested a month off and then for her to come back after that time (this is the first time Jen has ever suggested coming back).

MIL was pretty upset. She is gone for 2 weeks this month so I told her to just use Abby for drill. She was very nervous about this (ummm not sure why, she is Chase’s pony) so last night I went with her to practice. If Abby was going to do anything she would try to kick. We started the pattern and LMAO ¼ of the way through I thought that poor fat pony was going to die. I could tell she was thinking about kicking so I kicked her up a notch and the thought disappeared.

When we got ½ way through she was fuddling out on me so I popped her w/the over/under and she kicked up so I popped her again. Finally she went and when we ended I think she thought she was going to die. I hopped off and let MIL jump on. Their “run” was much better but you could tell poor Abbs was tired. I think this will be good for her.

Oh and yes, the show got cancelled. At this rate we won’t have to worry about showing at all this year.

First Show of the Year

Well if it doesn’t get rained out that is. Saturday is our first show of the year so we headed over to the arena to practice last night. I want Chase to use Sis for w/t instead of Abby (he doesn’t have a chance w/Abby) so I wanted him to practice on her. With him being gone and Ty being sick he hasn’t been on Abby much either so I knew she was going to need ridden before he “ran” her barrels and poles on Sat.

It was a beautiful night. DH’s back was still bothering him so he watched Ty and I took Lu. When we got there I did some LFR w/Abby and then put Chase on and he started off w/his flexing and his ORS. After some ORS at the w/t I had him do the passenger lesson at the trot. Chase really needs to work on his balance so doing the passenger lesson is just as good for him as it is for Abby.

By this time I’d gotten Lu saddled up and into the ring to do some LFR. OMG was she full of P & V! She was trying to crow hop & buck and fart. She was really feeling good until we hit a few good hard turns and then she decided to mellow out. I bridled her up and jumped on.

I told Chase go to ahead and do some ORS at the lope and after about 5 min. of that I let him do the passenger lesson at the lope. Abby hates that. She’s becoming so slow at the lope that it isn’t even funny. She almost goes up more then she goes forward. When she finally stopped trying to be close to Sis or Lu I let him stop her and rest her. By now I was trying to do the passenger lesson w/Lu at the trot but she decided she wanted to lope instead.

Since loping is one of Lu’s issues I decided to let her lope until she was tired enough to trot. To my surprise she went for quite a while. Chase and MIL swapped horses (what a sight) and Chase practiced his w/t with Sis. We worked on passing and only using one hand on the reins.

Lucy still didn’t want to trot so we loped some more. Chase and MIL finished up and I worked on a few more things with Lu & then got off and tied her up. While she was cooling out I jumped on Abby and loped her around a bit. She’s changing so much and it is a nice change. She’s going to be a really nice pony.

Tomorrow MIL will be doing w/t and wp with Sis. Chase will be doing w/t with Sis and poles and barrels w/Abby. I won’t be showing. Lu isn’t ready and I’m afraid if I do then I will want her to do things that I haven’t asked her to do yet which isn’t fair to her.

Pretty Pony

Not much to report here but I took some pictures of Abby this weekend so I thought I’d share.





Can you see her blanket?



Does her belly look like it has the brindle lines to you?





Her little jug head is growing on me (or maybe it’s just growing)

Not enough time

It seems that as we creep further and further into summer I lose more and more time.

Last Sat. DH and MIL rode in the Van Meter parade. I was very shocked and surprised that DH wanted to ride but I was happy to give up the spot. I had planned on riding w/MIL so she didn’t have to ride alone but parades aren’t really my thing. Black was a bit nervous when we got there. I wasn’t sure if she’d ever been in a parade before but she did fine. As soon as they started moving she settled right down.

Last night was drill practice. MIL was late getting there so I rode Sis around to warm her up for her and ended up riding her the first run. One of the members who is new this year said “Are you riding Sis?” I replied telling her yes I was and asked why. She replied with “she looks like a totally different horse with you riding her”. lol Sis did look nice. She had her head tucked and was moving very well. She still needs to work on her breaks and she’s still leaning on the bit a lot but she’s not my horse to fix. ;)

After MIL showed up I hopped on Lu and rode around with them while they cooled down between runs. My saddle was on Sis so I rode bareback. Lucy will teach me balance! She is so small that she is harder to stay on bareback. She was very good though & after some time I felt my body relax and we were moving more in sync. Not much else is going on. The weather has been on/off raining and it seems like when it rains it pours.

Goofy Lucy

Not much to report. Ty has been sick so I haven’t really had a chance to do much with the horses.

Saturday I did meet up w/a friend from the JL board. We road the gravel road (we were supposed to go on a trail ride but they were too muddy) and had a nice chat. It was nice meeting her. We learned that Black has a bit of a “hitch” in her giddy up. We knew she had a stifle issue (it pops) but never gave it much of a second thought since we hadn’t had any issues. Well she has some issues with it going down hills. I’m glad we learned about it on the road vs. on a steep trail hill. I think she’ll be fine once we get muscle on her and we can strengthen that joint.

After the ride I decided to see if I could give Black a bath. I was preparing myself for a long battle. To my surprise she was wonderful! Stood perfectly still even to do her mane and tail. God only knows she needed it.

While giving Black her bath I heard a funny noise. I couldn’t figure out what it was until I looked up and this is what I saw.



I think it started out as her trying to “mouth” the water that was coming out of the hose but even after I shut the water off she continued to do it.





Check out that tongue! Lol



She absolutely cracks me up!

Memorial Weekend 2009

Friday night we hauled over to MIL’s (Lucy, Black and Dozer). It was fairly late by the time we arrived so we pretty much unloaded ponies and headed for the house.

Saturday we decided we didn’t want to go anywhere. We just wanted to be lazy and play around the house with the ponies. DH saddled up Black so he could try his new pad on her (we got her an ESP Bio Fit pad) and it worked great! It is specially designed for older horses with atrophy behind the shoulders or for high withered horses. This was the first time she had a solid sweat pattern on her back.

MIL got Sis out and Sis managed to drop her back leg in a hole in the yard (where an old fence post had been dug up) but seemed ok so she hopped on to ride. She asked me a question about moving her over so I hopped on to explain. That turned into about 2 hours worth of riding. I started to get a bit frustrated with Sis and then stopped and moved back to a solid working point and cooled her down. I tend to forget that a lot of steps have been skipped w/her so I can’t expect as much w/her as I do with my own. She was very good though.

That afternoon we got a chuckle out of watching Lucy chase Dozer. Put a rider on her and she would have looked like a roping horse for sure! I didn’t ride her and later that night we noticed that Sis wasn’t acting right. We think she pulled a muscle when she fell in the hole and then my working her for 2 hours didn’t help. We buted her and kept an eye on her and she seemed to improve a little but not much.

Sunday was another lazy day. I hopped on Lu bareback for a little bit but not for long (I still can’t balance on her well enough to ride her bareback). MIL hopped on her too and did better then I did at the walk but when she trotted she immediately gripped w/her legs and Lu went faster. lol

Monday MIL and I decided to go for a trail ride. Sis wasn’t 100% but she wasn’t bad either so we figured we’d take it easy. Yeah right! The trails started off nice but then turned to mud! Deep mud too and it was mixed with clay so it just sucked them in. Lucy was great. I really have no complaints w/her since I rarely ever really ride her and when I do we do little training.

Lu was very good to set back and go slowly down the hills (charging hills is a pet peeve of mine) and she did well with the water crossings as well. We met up with a group & they asked us if we’d like to ride with them. MIL wanted to so I went along. NOT my style of riding! Run up hill, run downhill and basically just go with no consideration to the safety of the horse (or the rider).

We got to a creek where the drop was straight down into deep mud and then into the water and then up. Lucy was first and she patiently waited for me to tell her what to do. The drop was straight down so I gave her my reins and held on to the back of the saddle. She went through like an old pro! Other then Lucy and Sis, the other horses charged the crossing or jumped it. By then we’d decided to head back to the trailer so that we didn’t push it with Sis. It had sprinkled a bit and we didn’t really want to be caught out in a storm either. It was perfect timing too because as soon as we loaded it started to come down.

All-in-all we had a very lovely and relaxing weekend. I’m glad we decided to stay home vs. trying to ride when the trails were packed.

What a beautiful day!

Tuesday night MIL and I went to drill. I took Black but don’t worry, it was just to ride around while they were warming up/cooling down so I could get her in with other horses. She did a pretty good job too. Not much ear pinning and when she does do it she seems to get over it faster. We walked, trotted, and even loped some. Boy does she have a nice stop! MIL wasn’t very happy that she stopped better then Sis. I told her it was just because Black would rather stop vs. lope.

On Wednesday we had another beautiful day & Chase wanted to ride. What he didn’t know was that we’d sent Abby home w/MIL so we could go trail riding this weekend so we improvised.



All-in-all Lucy was very good with him although he got yelled at quite a few times for being a little quick with his hands. She learned quickly she could grass snatch with him so after that she was happy. He did get along with her fairly well which pleased me since I can’t even remember the last time I rode her.

Shari could ride all day but she was having issues since the grass was as tall as Nikki.



Lucy coming to chase Ty and I on the 4 wheeler



DH even got on for a little bit but I told him he had to walk!



Old girl isn’t looking too bad is she?



We have a new pad ordered for her so I hope it helps make her back feel better since she’s lost so much muscling across her top line. She is filling out but like everything it is a slow process.

(Can you see the kids in the back messing around?)



Man doesn’t lll look good all slicked out?



I hope you all have a good weekend!

Worry over dead cattle

Hopefully this works.

Shopping, roping, and cows

Things have been busy at work (this is a good thing for me) so I’ve been lacking the time to post and honestly I don’t think everyone cares to read my day-by-day/play-by-play post so I haven’t posted in a while.

Since I’ve last posted we’ve been to see a few horses for DH. What we run into is that they are either out of our price range or they are in our price range and they are not what we are looking for. One weekend we headed to MO to look at 3. Here was the run down.

Nice 5 yr. old roan gelding. Very nice presentation. He was a little down hill but not horrible but he was out of our price range. Not UTD on shots, dental or hoofcare.

Next horse was a 9 yr. old APHA solid gelding. HUGE scars on his back legs and very small build. Guy admitted that he rarely rode him. He was goosey and wide eyed. Not UTD on shots, dental, or trimming (owned by a farrier).

Last horse – 16 yr. old AHQH gelding. Said he was a roper & beginner safe. They were trying to dicker the price w/us before we even looked at him. Caught him w/a bucket of corn. Feet were WAY overgrown & he was very ouchy on gravel. He traveled weird in his back end so I asked about arthritis. The guy said no and again offered to take less for him & claimed someone was coming the next day to buy him. I said even if we did like him we’d vet him. Guy says “he’s already been vetted”. Really? When? “Two years ago”. Ok this is starting to feel very wrong. I jump on and OMG you can feel how bad he travels. He didn’t want to stay in a trot going clockwise as I’m sure his hocks were very sore. When I e-mailed the guy to tell him we weren’t interested he said it was ok because he sold him “and at the full asking price”. Really? Then why haven’t you listed him as sold on your ad?

So needless to say we are still looking but not as hard. DH took Black roping and she did well and OMG can she move when she wants to. I think he had fun on her but then his back was feeling it (and still is) so he’s decided that yes maybe he does need to slow down.

Saturday our horse show was cancelled so MIL and I decided to go for a road ride. It was a bit breezy and cool but not too bad. Sis was a little “excited” so I decided to take Black. We decided to head down to the river. It is a nice ride but there are horses along one stretch of the road that are in a pasture covered with trees. Typically they see our horses and come running and it freaks my horses out because they can hear something coming towards them but they can’t see what it is.

I wasn’t too worried about Black & MIL was up for it so we headed out. The horses didn’t come running so ours didn’t get too excited. When we got to the river I wanted to see what Black thought of the bridge and the railroad tracks so we crossed the bridge. She wasn’t any too confident on the bridge and refused to get too close to the side. Of course ¾ of the way across a truck comes down the road. Luckily he was nice and slowed down for us.

Our path down to the sandbar was now closed off by rip rap so we decided to head back home. On the way up the hill I told MIL to lope as I wanted to see if Black would “chase” her. She did and we ended up in a race with Black coming on strong. Both MIL and I were laughing like little school girls and I think the horses enjoyed it too.

Chase got his bottle calf for 4-H on Sat. He’s an ornery little stinker but he’s a nice looking little bull calf. We showed him to the horses and here were their reactions:

Sis – OMG WTF is that and why is it coming towards me! Get me out of here now before it eats me!

Black – if you come one step closer to me I’m going to eat you!

Nikki – well if Black doesn’t like it then I’m not going to like it.

Lucy – what’s in that bottle? Are you going to drink it all? Can I please have some? Please?

So here are the pictures of little Dozer (short for “bull” dozer).



We need some leading lessons!

The long road home

Yesterday the decision was made to take TP back. DH had taken her out for a ride down the road to get to the field (on my recommendation). I told him if a car came down the road to get off (she was a little nervous Monday when cars passed so figured better safe then sorry). He said a car was approaching so he took her into the ditch to dismount. She went up towards the fence line (by this time the car had passed) so he turned her to go back up the ditch and onto the road. He said when she got to the bottom of the ditch again she jumped straight up and started bucking. As soon as he was off she hauled ass out into the field.

I wasn’t there so I’m sure there is more to the story & I’m sure there are things he could have done to have prevented it but at the same time I really don’t care. DH was trying to come up with excuses as to why she might have bucked like “there was a pop bottle in the ditch, maybe she stepped on it” but again, I really don’t care why she did it. We were looking for a broke horse and to me a broke horse doesn’t even consider bucking. Spooking is one thing but bucking is another.

DH said he did catch her and rode her back to the house and she was ok. I think his pride was hurt more then anything else (although his face is pretty bashed up). It’s been a while since he’s come off. He wanted to give her more time but I didn’t think that was a good idea (I don’t have time nor do I have the desire to play with his ponies anymore). I told him it was his choice but if I wanted to “train” something I’d go to the sale barn and spend $500 on a horse to train. I also told him he needed to consider his safety. He is already on light duty at work because of his back (although he was told he could ride at his appt. on Monday) so we don’t need him getting injured and being unable to work.

Needless to say it was a long, quiet trip taking her back.

Hi-ho Silver and away!

Last night I took TP to drill practice with MIL. I wanted to see how she was going to do in a new environment and with all of the other horses.

Our first issue came with loading. I was already aware that she had an issue pressure behind the poll (doesn’t always tie well) and it showed. Since I wanted to get to the arena before everyone showed up I thought I’d walk in the trailer first (normally I don’t) so as not to fight with her. Well she wasn’t going in! So we did a little bit of LFR and finally she jumped in first. Once she was in you could tell she was a bit nervous.

Make a note: work on trailer loading skills

Once we got there we unloaded and I did some LFR to see what she’d do. She was pretty calm. No tail in the air, no nickering and she looked relaxed so we headed to the trailer to tack up. Once saddled, I walked her around the inside of the arena and over the flour that was poured out (from the keyhole race at the show this past weekend) and she could have cared less so I hopped on.

We walked around the arena on a loose rein. She felt even better tonight then what she felt last night (each night seems to get a bit better). We walk/trot/cantered both directions on a loose rein, did some bending and some trotting on a lighter contact rein and she did great. She still needs to work on her stop but everything else felt great.

By this time most of the team was there and riding in the arena with us. She didn’t have a care in the world that they were in there with us. Terry’s back has been bothering her so she asked me if I would feel comfortable going in for her so she could go home. I was happy to so I could see how TP would do.

We just walked the pattern since there were two new horses and one rider that was back that was still having back pain so it was a great opportunity to try her out. She was fabulous! She didn’t care about the horses coming at her, towards her, behind her, etc. She never once pinned her ears in close quarters or offered to kick. Sis was awful pinny so I had TP push into her and move her over.

When we stopped she stood very well (an issue we had on the trail). She is getting a little duller the more I ride her but still the more I ride her the more I like her. Besides we need her a little dull for DH.

Going home she loaded just fine. It is raining here today (of course) but DH was going to try to jump on and go for a short ride so he can start getting the feel of her. I’m hoping we don’t get too much rain. I’d like to see how she does on cattle. If she does well I have a feeling she’ll be a keeper. Heck even if she doesn’t I have a feeling she’ll be a keeper. DH is already starting to get attached.

TP

Last night I tested out TP (temporary pony) to see what her “glitches” really are. We worked in the RP w/the rope and she did very well with that. She was really keeping an eye on the kids. I don’t think she’s ever seen so many before. lol

Once I did that I did a little bit of LFR with her. I’m already aware that we have some issues with her coming off of pressure and she wants to crowd a little bit. She did well for her first lesson. No swishy tail when I whacked her she just didn’t really understand.

After that I saddled her up and jumped on her in the RP. She was pretty quiet compared to what she’s been the last few times I’ve ridden her so I decided to see how she’d do on a short road ride. MIL saddled up Sis and off we went.

She was booking it! She was on a mission to get somewhere fast! Sis was full of it too. She’s pretty lucky MIL was riding her because we probably would have needed to have a meeting. The first few cars that passed we stopped. I could feel her tense but she just stayed still (he said she hadn’t been on the road in about a year since they are on pavement). When we got past the neighbors house we noticed a big coon running down the field and then into the ditch and then it disappeared behind the culvert. Sis didn’t want to continue forward and I told MIL I felt like we needed to trust her instincts on this one so we headed back.

As we walked past the neighbor’s garbage TP looked at it & acted like she was a bit nervous but when I asked her to turn and face she did and she was calm. We decided to head down the short trail behind my parent’s house. There are a few nice water crossings there and I wanted to see how she’d do. She got a bit more excited on the trail but she never felt out of control. She just felt like a ball of energy. She crossed the water well but she had to “test” the bottom first to make sure it was solid before she would cross.

After the creek I wanted to rest for a few minutes. Standing still doesn’t seem to be one of her strong points at the moment. We flexed, then she’d walk off so we’d flex, then she’d walk off. When I got her to stand for 30 seconds I finally asked her to walk on (we’ll fix that issue if we keep her).

When we got back home I had DH pull out the roping dummy and hand me my rope. I threw a few off of her and she did well (much better then the first time we tried her out). I even drug it backwards a little bit with her and she did very well. I had a problem with my bit sticking in her mouth so I got off to take it off. By this time DH decided he wanted to get on her (his back is still bothering him so he can’t push it too much).

We put a different bit in her and he walked her around. He said he felt much more comfortable on her then he did the first time he rode her. I gave him a few pointers and then gave him a “mini” lesson on where some of her buttons were. Not once did he get frustrated with me. I think he’s learning that there is a lot he doesn’t know but he’s decided even if she isn’t the horse for him he needs to know it.

I helped him get her into a slow spin and the shit eating grin on his face was priceless. I think he’s already falling for her.

He’s at work today so I’m going to take her to drill practice tonight to see what she does. I think she’ll be fine but I want to do as much as possible in the next 2-4 weeks so we can make an educated decision when we decide what to do with her. And for those of you wondering no, I’m not going to ride her all of the time. I just want to make sure that she will be able to power down her engine for DH. I don’t need him getting hurt anymore then what he already is.

The Dr. did tell him he could ride though and I told DH I would “help” him with her but I wouldn’t train her for him. I said if he needed me to I would teach her the concept and then he could go from there. Mainly though from what I see now she just needs some time doing ORS & the passenger lesson. She also needs to learn to whoa from the word and we need to do a little bit of desensitizing from the ground. Other then that her shoulder button could be refined but her rib and hip button are pretty nice. Her back is awesome and she tucks and flexes well both vertically and laterally.

We have a visitor

Sunday morning DH and I headed out to look at another horse for him. This horse was drop dead gorgeous! Jet black with just a bit of white on her head and a hip to die for! The guy talked about Parelli so I got really exited hoping she would be just what we needed.

When the son got on she started to walk off. DH lets his horses do that but it drives me nuts. He had her in a medium shanked snaffle and when he’d put pressure on the bit she would chomp and gnaw at it and crunch it between her teeth but she did flex well at the poll.

He walked her around (we were in their indoor) and then trotted some. You could tell she needed refinement on her neck reining but didn’t look too bad. She didn’t want to stay in the lope. You could tell he had to keep nagging her to stay in it.

DH got on and she kept trying to bring him back to the chute area (by the stalls). He didn’t trot much because of his back so he loped and then got off and I got on. She was a prime example of a lazy horse! She had no buttons (I like my buttons) and she ignored your legs completely. When you stopped her head went straight up and I think Nikki the pony could back faster then her.

She didn’t want to go to the far end of the arena (where the cows were) which bothered me since a) we were in a location she was familiar with and b) she is supposed to be a cow horse. There was no drive at all from her back end at the lope and you had to push to just stay in it.

I hopped off and asked the gentleman who owned her to rope his hot heels w/her to see how she’d do. That is when the real horse came out. Head up and braced on the bit.

When we left DH asked me what I thought. I didn’t want him to follow my lead so I said “I don’t know, what did you think?” He of course liked her. When I started listing out all of the reasons I didn’t like her he agreed with every one of them and even added a few more of his own. He admitted that he liked her because she was lazy. I listed off all of the things *I* would fix if she was my horse and the list was quite long. Long enough to not justify spending that kind of money on her and DH agreed.

On the way home I could tell he was thinking. I asked him what he was thinking about and he said the little Truro mare (the one we first tried out). He really liked how she handled for me but questioned if he would ever be able to change his style enough to ride her. I think horses are pretty adaptable to their riders and she was a very willing mare so I think with time and patience they’d be fine together. I told him maybe he should go take another look at her. So that’s exactly what we did.

This time when we went I rode her in a snaffle. I was amazed! She was actually softer, lighter and more responsive then what she was in the shanked bit. She was more relaxed then she was the last time I rode but just as responsive as ever. Her rollbacks were wonderful, her turn arounds were great and her trot was amazing. At the lope I waited to see how long it would take before she would downshift. You could tell she wanted to but she kept going (I like that she’s thinking of slowing down).

When I moved her laterally over to the fence DH decided that was it that he wanted her. Luckily I had talked to him prior to going over and we are taking her on a trail basis. I still want to see how well she works on cattle since that was DH’s main complaint about Max. She also has a big motor and she’s very responsive (not hot but responsive). DH doesn’t realize how much leg he uses to ride (that shouldn’t be used) so he will have to adjust his riding quite a bit in order to ride her but I think it would be great to see him improve himself & I think she’ll dull down to an extent.

DH brought her home today and of course MIL and I plan on playing with her tonight. He’s so excited and so am I. She really does seem to be a nice horse. Nothing fancy, no fancy bloodlines but she’s got an awesome foundation (she’s only 5).

This is the only pic so far (from seller). It isn’t great but I will put more up when I get them.