Silly Pony

Went out to brush Lucas tonight as Im still recovering from yesterday. Nothing really joint related today just muscle sore today. I always let Lucas have a few minutes on his own without his winter blanket on right after I take it off and a few min after I put him in his stall. Just to let him scratch or shake or whatever.

Anyways tonight when I went to put his blanket on he was acting like a little kid. He was waiting at his stall door when I got his blanket off the rack to put it on him. But he decided that he might have some supper left that needed to be eaten first before the blanket, then he might want a drink out of bucket number one, then maybe a drink of bucket number 2 then maybe some hay... just completly ignoring me waiting with his blanket. Evently he just sighed and came over and stuck his head out for the blanket.

Thoughts and Confessions

So Ive been re-evaluating how I view/understand horses. Up until about 2007 horses were a tool, an object that you train and use to mold into what you want them to do. (This was after I was done training/teaching but I still thought that way) I thought communicators and the people that use them were nuts. If your horse didn't want to do the job you wanted it to do you sold it and bought one that would work, or put it in training until it learned the job. By any means necessary........

And then the CW incident that rocked the WP world... I looked at the photos and was horrified. I truly wondered how someone who was with horses every day could do something like that to another living being.

And then I started thinking about it. How was I any different? Ive tied horses around so hard they've popped ribs out of place. Ive ripped the side out of a 2 year olds face until she was bleeding, just to get her to round better. Ive ridden a 3yo with cinch galls so bad they didn't heal for the entire month that I had him in training, and I kept riding him. Ive left marks on horses sides from spurs. Ive tied up horses for hours.

I went to the QH shows, and watched the spurring and jerking that went on for hours, and said nothing. In fact at one point I was the person on the rail yelling at the kids to jerk more, spur more.

It makes me sick to think of what I have done.

Alot of things have helped me change my actions, some were local, some were futher away. The 2yo that I ripped the face off of never became a pleasure horse and lives 20 min away, I cry just about every time I see her. I started reading Mugwump http://mugwumpchronicles.blogspot.com/ I kept hearing an echo of my own thoughts when she talked about giving up training. And I started thinking that maybe winning wasn't that important if you thought that the means to get there were too much.

So maybe I'm trying to make up for it by spoiling Lucas. To make sure that he enjoys being a horse, and that he gets fun stuff to do. We don't work hard very often. At shows we're the ones out eating grass on his days off from showing. I try to use my dressage rather than my pleasure back ground when I ride. Hes been a horse who's had a pampered but hard, abusive life. Maybe me helping him will make up for some of the things I've done to other horses.

Saying goodbye

Well I sold my saddle tonight. The owners of the place where I keep Lucas bought it. Today was our one year anniversary of having Lucas in the barn, so I brought gingerbread cake to the barn this afternoon. So we were all having a piece when Lucas started dancing in the cross ties. Normally he doesn't like anything people related. Candy, cookies, mints he doesn't like. Well we gave him some crumbs which he ate up. Well then we gave him 1/2 a square. He loved it! And then he licked his lips and stretched on the cross ties towards us trying to get more. Hes so funny. Although he loves carrots and apples and horse cookies He's never been interested in anything else. So another new thing conquered!

But hes not spoiled!!! :)

I actually managed to do some serious riding this afternoon, did some transition work, figure 8's and some 2 tracking. No cantering yet, our indoor is small and we are in the process of fixing the footing so were playing it safe. I'm half thinking that I should be riding in my rowel spurs. Hes getting off my leg but not as well as I think he should be. Some of this is me, and both of us being out of shape. Also just rode him in the twisted wire this time, I wish that who ever ruined his mouth would never ride another horse. Hopefully I'll show it just it next summer after the first show or so. Hes still getting 'stuck' for the first couple of circles, I'm not sure if its me or him....

So Im a country girl, and...

I love music about 'real' farming, and rural life. I was hauling hay and petting cows not long after I could walk. My own family did not own a farm, however my Grandfather (my Moms dad) did. He was also a vet. I spent many weekends on that farm (it was only 10 min from my house) and the clinic, learned about life, the good and the bad, before I even went to school. The day I got my vacines to go to school, I fell in the parking lot of my Grandfathers clinic. My Dad ran me back in and one of the Vets doctored me up. I still have the mark, a small slit on my knee about 1/2 inch long.

Anyways my Dad was also the local artifical inseminator for cattle in the area (in fact at one point he was one of the only non DVM able to preform embro collection and implantation for cattle in eastern Canada) so alot of weekends were spent driving around with him on calls, visiting the farms around our county.

I learned alot about people, cattle and farming that way. And made some friends that are still friends to this day. And some that I fell in love with, then fell out of love with... A Canadian band recently released this video that I found through Facebook - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUAnfxt_x6I Love it, brings back lots of memories about being 18!


Oh and the 'fixed' saddle fits GREAT! Im going to ride in it tomorrow (as long as the snow doesnt derail my plans) I lunged Lucas this moring and he was full of beans, so I let him run for a bit then set up some trot poles, which he did great, so I think we might do some under saddle next time. And he jumped! Well kind of... I put up some of our X's and made a little jump about 6" high and he trotted over it really well. I guess he really does want to jump, the Communicator was right again! I dont think I'm safe to jump, but maybe one of the kids can take him over a couple this spring. But I can incorporate some jumping and bounces into our lunge work to break up the bordome for him.

So many times this week Ive been sad because I miss working in the barn and being healthy enough to jump, and ride a whole bunch. Maybe Im starting to feel better and the new meds are starting to work. But even my new drugs cost $27,300 a year. (better than the $52,000 of the last drug!) I cant make that kind of money in any kind of barn. I may not like my job, but it does pay for my drugs, and me.

So mad I could spit!!!

So when I bought the english saddle, last Feb, I was told it had a med gullet installed. When I bought the full gullet kit this winter it was missing the med gullet (as they are usually pre-installed in the saddles)

Ive checked the fit of Lucas saddle several times with the guide several times, even when I thought it was sitting a bit funny on him I left it because the guide was always saying that he should be fitting into the med gullet, untill recently when it went into the med-wide and that leads to the rest of the story.

So I opened it up tonight to put the Med-wide gullet in due to his weight gain.

But the gullet inside the saddle was white... but the med was suposed to be black.....

Guess what color the white gullet is...?


EXTRA-WIDE

No friggen wonder his back has been sore!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG I feel so bad for my poor pony!! And Im so mad at me and the store that sold me the saddle :( Well we'll try it on him on Saturday and see how it looks.

Saddle issues

So I think that Lucas needs an ajustment to his saddle. We have a collegiate convertible close contact that up untill this point we've both liked. However now it seems to be causing him problems. It seems to be pinching just behind his withers and its pivoting there and not settling down on the rest of his back. Hes just into the MW on the template so Im going to put that gullet in for the weekend and see if that makes a difference. (Hes' got the Med in now) We'll see.

More snow...

Blah! I hate snow. Mostly because most work days my drive into work is an hour of back country roads and highways with crazy french drivers. (not that I don't love the french but they drive like they talk!) So when I get up in the morning and there is snow on the ground forgive me for not feeling excited.

Normally Id be at the barn at this time of night but I decided to stay home due to, you guessed it, snow. However the new drugs that the doctor gave me on Friday seem to be working. I have allot more energy and managed to go to bed (and get to sleep) before 10pm all weekend. I even managed to be in bed and ready to turn out the light by 9pm last night!!! I know it sounds early but I get up at 5:30am and up until Aug I always got 7-8 hours a night. The past 2 months there have been some 1am nights and its really tough to get up in only 4.5 hours.

I saw both the RA and hormone doctors on Friday. Not much new from the RA doctor. She wants us to wait until Jan before we decide to do anything else but shes encouraged by decent blood tests results. The hormone Dr thinks that I should start some small amounts of thyroid hormone. She was pleased that she could no longer feel the lump, and its no longer producing excess hormone but the rest of my thyroid hasn't caught up to regular production. Another reason why I'm feeling out of sorts and low on energy.

I personaly love how she wants me to lose weight, 'oh just walk extra, or lift weights' Yeah my somewhat fused ankle and fused wrists would love for me to do that. If only it was that easy.

Winter is here.

Well most of the horses have either there winter blankets on on have grown a decent coat so it should be no surprise that today we are getting our first decent snowfall. Right now its just enough to cover the driveways in white, but we may get enough to even cover the grass tonight.

Went and rode Lucas this morning, he was decently good. Our biggest problem is me, I'm still very stiff and I find it hard to be coordinated so were taking it slow still. I got on him and walked and trotted for about 20 min. Mostly just thinking about keeping him going correctly in the direction I wanted to go and using his hind end to drive up underneath himself. The indoor is small so I need him to stay balanced in a shorter frame, where as he would really like to stretch out where he is most comfortable.

I'm working on my sitting trot as well as I tend to drive too much with my legs with I rise, mostly from habit I think but it wont hurt me to try and develop a stronger tighter quieter leg over the winter.

Almost a year.

Well its been over a year since I first tried out Lucas, and hes come a long way in a year. I no longer have to worry about anyone handling him in the barn, he's safe to lead in and out of doors. You can turn him out with lots of different horses (except for one mare that he's in love with we keep them seperated!) and he LOVES going outside now.

He still can be a little spooky in some situations. And he has some querks that I would not feel comfortable letting a rank beginger on him.. well let me change that, I think he would be ok with a beginner... not so great with someone who had a little bit of experence who thought they knew it all. I mean I just got on him last week after him having almost 2 months of no riding, and he was very good. Stoping his feet I can handle!

He loves to show, and is always better in the show ring than he is at home. I think he would be happy to be only ridden at shows, just too bad it doesnt always work that way. I ride him in a way more milder bit at shows than at home, hes always a bit of a jerk in it at home so we usualy save it.

At our first show I was crying all day because he was so bad, and we didnt even get all 3 gaits. At our last fun show we won our stake class with 20 horses in it.

We've been fooling around in the indoor, once Im done lunging him, I turn him loose and let him get some buckes out. Lately hes been showing me how well he can extend when hes not in a HUS frame. It should be intresting to try some more dressage work with him this winter. I do ride him in a higher frame when doing most of our 'work' but really only because his HUS frame is so easy that I need to keep him light. He wasnt fit enough last year until almost Aug to even think about true collection/extension. I dont know what he was doing at the last place but it must have been just about nothing.

Starting more drugs as well, a mild anti-depresent for the sleeping issues, and more than likely some Thyroid hormone as well. Hopefully it will give me some more energy if I could get a good nights sleep.

Finaly got to ride!

Yippie!!! I finaly got ot ride today! Only for about 10 min but it felt much better to get that first ride under my belt. I lunged him for about 15 min then managed to get on without too much trouble. Hes still a pain when I try to get on. Steping backwords when ever Im just about ready to get on. So I walked him a couple of trips around then tried to get him to trot but he was being a brat. He just kept doing his stop and stomp his feet routine, so I took a minute and relaxed then just walked a few more circles then managed to get him to trot when I finaly relaxed.

So we troted a couple of circles each direction and then I got off. Im a bit sore and tired but not too bad. Hopefully Ill get to ride him again this weekend for a bit.

Troy Green might be coming to a friends barn in Feb so Id like to be good to ride for an hour by then. Lucas should be fine its me Im worried about.

Year end awards.

We had our year end awards night last night. Lucas won a cooler for high point preformance halter. We also got back our professional photos and Im putting a few on this post.


I love this one:

Standing up for halter at the last show:

Troting:

And Lucas in his new cooler:

Were also dealing with ALOT of rain. Its kinda crazy here. Mainstreet in the city that I work in is flooded. Roads are closed and alot of accidents due to the water sitting on the roads.