Now for Snow!

Wow, it is coming down HARD out there. It looks to me like several inches before the storm is done. I guess this will be a four or five meal day for the horses. I try to save bran mashes for days like this, so I'll probably do a nice hot bran mash in mid afternoon. I guess I'll also be going through some rags drying them off - Just now as I was looking out the window getting pictures of the snow I noticed that they were both standing under a tree (which gives about three inches total of shelter) and had quite a bit of snow on their rumps. Well, if that's what you prefer!

By the way, Anatolian is almost back to being sound on asphalt. He's such a weird horse! I'm not going to try to exercise him for a few days though, I don't have the "worry energy" right now.

Gotta go. I hope everyone is having a nice, snug day.

L

Rain, sleet, mud...

I'm very grateful for all the rain in the last few days. It is much needed and I was really hoping for a good rain. Of course, I had just given Andolu a bath with shampoo right before it rained. Below: His tail then and his tail now - that is about the cleanest part of him, as he keeps rolling. I took more photos of him today, but he's too muddy even after getting some of it off to ride. Sorry, I'll get cleaner pictures of his whole self soon!

I did ride him today since the rain cleared up long enough to go out. It is rather frustrating though, because lately he has been off again on the left front. He is somewhat tender anyway with being barefoot again, but on wet, slightly soft sand his left front still was not happy. I have wondered about his knees ever since I got him and I am wondering even more now. So I hardly rode at all today, basically just enough to say, Yup, he's not sound. Mira was happy to be out, though - as usual. She kept (politely) asking my brother who was holding her to let her run. After a bit I handed him Andolu and took Mira running up and down a bit. She has always been so sound around the legs that if it weren't for her arthritic back I'd still be able to ride her. It is fun to watch her trot really big. Of course, when they lope together she is like a dainty toy next to Anatolian's big motor. :-) Anatolian was snorting and "getting big" as he usually does when watching her run, but he didn't try to pull my brother in order to follow. So yeah, he's not comfortable. If I thought shoes would help I would have him reshod, but it does NOT seem like a foot issue other than a bit of tenderness on harder ground.

The other frustrating thing is that after all this time he still really hates his boots. I have not been able to get him used to them at all, really. He tolerates them but does not like them or go well in them.

Oh well. Mira is happy and he at least is healthy, if not earning his keep. One of these days I'm sure I'll get Andolu's knees and fetlocks x-rayed to see what exactly is going on. Hopefully he'll snap out of this and be better soon, though.

And I am really, really hoping to start taking lessons in March so I can ride whether or not he is sound at the moment.

A few days ago I went out after dark, I believe to let Mira out after eating, and it had temporarily stopped pouring rain. I could see dimly that Andolu was lying down in the (COLD - why is that better than dry pea gravel?) mud and I had to go past him to get to Mira. I talked to him a bit as usual and he moved his head as I went by, but didn't bother getting up. After letting Mira loose I came back past him and said good night and he just looked at me. When I was almost to the house I heard him get up and mosey over to check to see if Mira had left anything, but he didn't bother to move until then. It was nice to see that he doesn't feel the need to jump up when I come by :-)

L

Mira Today

Here is a photo of The Spoiled One. I picked a bunch of grass today so they had fun chowing down on that. While they were doing that I used the new camera to take what is seriously the best ever head-on picture I have gotten of her. I have GOT to clean her up really good and try this a bunch more times now. With the right grooming, pose, and background it would look fabulous. I love her ears, and Andolu's too. Does anyone else just love seeing their horses perk their ears as they watch you come over? I do!

L

Fencing photos

Here are some photos of the finally finished fencing project. It SOO nice to be done with it. There are a few little details left, of course, but it's done! I suppose a fencing professional would cringe, as it is definitely not perfect, but it should be strong enough and safe enough to do its job, so I consider it a good job.

I am discovering a downside to my wonderful new camera - everytime I take pictures of the horses I always cringe later at how much dust you can seen on them! I hate to immortalize bad pictures of them; on the other I probably shouldn't get so perfectionistic that I'll only post pictures right after a bath and thorough grooming and before they've been able to roll...

Meanwhile, they are doing well, although a few days ago when I went out to feed we had a little incident. Ever since it got dry and sunny I drastically cut back Andolu's feed amounts from when it was cold, in order to help him lose a little weight. He has gotten somewhat grumpy with "only" getting about 15 pounds a day. Anyway, they saw me come out and came running over to the fence, but Andolu, for whatever reason, suddenly double-barreled Mira. I saw it happen and saw her stagger but I was too far away to throw anything at him, so I yelled at him and then went into the house for a couple minutes (bad behavior = no food). I got some first aid stuff and went out again. By the time he was settled eating and I could tend to her, she had already developed a larger-than-my fist bruise right behind her right front leg and there a bleeding wound on her shoulder. Argh! The wound was already clotting but I put alum on it to help the clotting and then iced all the bruised areas for 20 minutes 3 times a day for the next day and a half. After that I did heat for a couple of days, and now I'm just watching it. She was definitely stiff the first few days, but seems back to normal now. I'm really glad it didn't require a vet visit!

The grass around here is growing really nicely so far. I've been taking some to the horses and I hope to start doing some rotation grazing soon.

L

A Whole Year!

Wow, it has been exactly one whole year today since I got Anatolian! I can hardly believe it has already been that long. He's such a smart guy and I'm so happy to be able to ride him again... Phew! I'm working on building his fitness up carefully again.

One of my favorite things about the Racehorse Dude is that he enjoys laughs and will work to get them. Thus, he taught himself how to do various things like his lip flapping trick because everyone always laughs when he does it. He likes to test his boundaries a lot, but the longer he's here the smaller the "tests" get - which is good, because I didn't like it when he used to try to nip! He kind of rules Mira too thoroughly (and she's too timid), but it has been very good for her to have him around, in a lot of ways.

He's a good boy, and as he is only 6.5 years old I hope to enjoy many more anniversaries with him.

L

Sunday

Nothin' much to say. Things actually went smoothly this last week, even yesterday (usually Saturdays are the days I get the really, really hard doctor dictating)... It's nice getting to relax!

Here are the horses hanging out this afternoon.

L

Post # 202

The last few days have been pretty nice. It cooled down again from highs in the 110s, so that is a relief. Andolu is so weird. In the middle of the day he'll stand out in the sun like it is nighttime. He loves getting hosed off, but to keep him in the shade I have to feed him there. Oh well. I think I mentioned I have been working on training him to back up from a hand signal. He has always been really reluctant/grumpy/stiff when backing. Since I'm pretty sure he has stiffness somewhere in his back end, I never got on his case too much. But now, every time I feed him I ask him to back at least one step before he gets his food. Soon I am going to ask for two steps each time, and work up. Anyway, he is picking it up fast. One thing I do notice is that at first I had to stop using my voice to say "back" and just use body language. He picked up what I meant quicker that way. Eventually I hope he'll be able to respond to just the voice command, too. Now, when he's especially anxious for his food, he doesn't just dance around forward, he'll back up too as I'm coming over. His backup looks a lot smoother now with all the practice.

I was comparing pictures of Mira's coat last summer with this summer's, and I can really tell a difference in the quality. Last summer we had a great spring with tons of grass, and this year... not. It was depressingly obvious. I really hope this winter we get lots of rain! I hope I have time tonight to catch up on Olympic coverage. I've hardly seen any of the horse footage...


L

Better Pictures

Here are some better pictures of The Spoiled One from after her bath. Now I am just trying to get some pictures of Andolu playing with his toys - he won't do it when I'm around because he's too busy asking for more food!

L

Some pics from the last week

Here are a couple pics of Mira shortly after I finished her once-yearly all-over bath with soap. I don't do her all over with soap very often as she hates it so much. So, she usually gets a whole body bath or two in the summer, usually around the "anniversary." Spot cleaning and spraying with just water work most of the time, but it is fun to see the sparkle when she is really clean! Unfortunately, the lighting was not as good as I thought when I got these photos right after she was dry, so in these ones she looks way more yellow than she is. I'll post more photos as I have the time to get them up.

L

2 Whole Years!

Wow, it has already been two years exactly since I bought Mira! I can hardly believe it has both been such a long time and been such a short time! She has definitely been a blessing to me (and to my family) with her truly sweet nature. The way she loves being around people and loves new things always makes my day brighter. It's hard to say enough good things about her personality and how much fun she is, even though she is retired now. I am giving her extra peaches today, and a good long grooming. I won't have time to post more pictures until later tonight or tomorrow morning, but I am trying to spoil her today. :-D

The photo above is me unloading her the day we brought her home. Yes, I did sort of break my picture rule, for once...

L

Photos and an update

Well, Andolu is still not any better. He actually seems to be generally sore to me, so I guess I'll have to ask for ultrasounds or x-rays. There is still absolutely nothing I can point to. He could have started to roll and done something to himself then, but that's kind of a wild guess. I am feeling guilty about the fact that we live in such a hilly area. They do have a sloping pasture, with several wide flat areas, but Mira doesn't seem to mind it. Neither do the other horses that live around here in the same terrain. I keep wondering if going up and down our steep road did something to him... Sometimes it seems to aggravate Mira's hip arthritis. Below is the section of road right above their pasture. A few hundred feet after that it levels out and turns into dirt road with various hard, weedy places you can explore off the road. That is pretty typical for our area. This is a place with a LOT of horses, too, but maybe it is hard on them? I don't know what to think.


My main worry in this whole thing is that he might have just been truly wrecked by the racing. I knew it was quite possible that he would not be sound for riding when I got him, and I took the risk that he would have to be a pasture pet. But it is a different matter altogether for him to not even be able to tolerate exercise being led - that sort of unsoundness is not a good thing at all. We'll see how this turns out over the next few days.

L

The Racehorse Dude is limping...

And I have no idea why. He has not been exercised for three days, but yesterday he started acting sore on his front legs. It is the left more than the right, but it is definitely both. He stands square, which is good, but occasionally he will point one of the front legs for a few seconds. He is reluctant to move, but is still a pig as far as feeding time. I have not been able to get any tenderness/reaction on the bottom of his feet, which means it isn't something "simple" like a stone bruise or an abscess. Definitely nothing going on with the tendons, and even though I keep imagining his fronts are warmer than his back legs, I can't really convince myself they are. I have been hosing his legs, and I'll use the ice boots tomorrow too, but this is really a mystery. He has a couple bug bites, as usual, but nothing that could possibly be causing the soreness. He has had something like this once before, on his right front. That was months ago after he somehow managed to bend one of the metal pipes in the fence and understandably was sore afterward for a few days. There is nothing bent this time and no signs of a struggle.

The best I can describe it is he looks like I do when I'm "bone sore" if you know what I mean. Like having the flu; all your joints ache, you have a headache, and you really do not want to jar anything so you walk very carefully. I'm afraid it could be his knees. I have mentioned before that I think they are a bit back at the knees, which makes them weaker, and having been a racehorse does predispose him to problems there. It is really upsetting though, because I haven't even started riding him yet - so did just taking him on one mile walks cause this? ( I borrowed some hoof boots from the tack shop for his back feet, and have been waiting until my order comes in to start riding him.) I sure hope this wasn't by caused by light leading exercise! Anyway, if he's not much better soon then we'll see what the vet says. Humph. I like my vet, but only in social situations...

Oh well, here's hoping tomorrow he feels a lot better and is chasing Mira around again like normal. I did take some pictures today - here is one. Tomorrow I'll put the rest up.

L

Alfalfa Patch: 1

The beginnings of the alfalfa patch. There are lots of little sprouts, but they are practically impossible to photograph as of yet. This used to be our grandparents' lawn - they have not been able to keep it up lately and starting to grow forage plants here is a good way to get a green spot for them to look at without wasting the horrendous amounts of water to sustain a lawn. Also, being close to the house it is easier to take care of and harder for wild animals to raid.

This patch is only about 6' x 15', but I fully intend to plant more. My goal is to try to plant enough in the next few months to produce 1% of the horses' yearly needs. More on this later on. The way I figured it out is, with Mira on a mostly concentrate diet, I use roughly 6 tons of hay a year. In this area, with decent soil amendments and LOTS of water, a person might be able to harvest a couple tons per acre. Say I would need two acres. One acre is 43,560 feet, or (squared) about 208.7 feet x 208.7 feet. One percent of two acres is 870 feet, or 20' x 43.5' patch. So far I have 90' planted. I will keep you guys updated on this project's progress!

L

A Blogger at the Western States Horse Expo 2008: 3

I always love watching the Magnificent 7 competition. It's so much fun to watch these horses, the best of the best, doing 4 events in one night.

I have learned quite a bit by watching all these years and I know a lot more about how to tell different levels of quality in a sliding stop or a spin or flying lead change, etc.

One thing I have noticed lately is the different amounts of applause for different riders when they are introduced. The "new" riders always get less applause, which is logical. Bob Avila, who won twice in a row AND one year got 1st and 2nd place, is understandably very popular.

He, more than any of the other yearly contestants, is well known for consistently exhibiting high quality horses with high quality maneuvers. You can pretty much count on a certain high level of performance and professionalism. As usual, he did a great job that evening. However, Russell Dilday got a score of 147 in the last event of the night, the herd work. This event is where the horse chases the cow up and down a fenceline, demonstrating he can keep the cow there. Then, he takes the cow off the fence and runs it in circles and figure eights. It is a very exciting event! Russell was brilliant in it that night. One of the best performances I've ever seen - he was totally in charge of that cow, which was a fast one! Everyone in the stands was really excited and clapping more than at almost any other time that night. He was now within a point or two of the frontrunner, Bob Avila.

When Bob Avila came out a couple horses later, he did OK. There were a couple of bobbles and he was not totally in control of the cow, but it was decent. Then the score was announced - 147! That score meant that he won. I am not the only one who felt that it was unfair. For the first time at the Expo, there was booing from a large part of the crowd. So yes, Bob Avila made history by getting three Mag 7 wins in a row, but I'm sure he has mixed feelings about it, as it should not really have been his trophy this time. I am glad for him, as he is a good trainer, but I really hope Russell Dilday does great next year and wins!

The whole issue was a good example of some of the failings of human nature. Judges are human, and when they see someone time and again, especially someone who always does a good job, and usually a great job, they can start to expect great things from that person and, rather than examine them as closely as they would a stranger, just give them credit they might not deserve. It was disappointing. Hopefully that will not happen again.

On the good side, there were several improvements in the organization, such as the speed at which the arena was dragged between events. Rather than taking 10+ minutes, it only took a couple of minutes this year - phew!

And just look at these gorgeous horses! Drool...




























Those horses are so amazing to watch. :-D


L

A Blogger at the Western States Horse Expo 2008: 2

More Breed Demo photos:

Two of the horses are from the Arab Demo, and the buckskin one is a PMU horse.

I unfortunately do not seem to have any good pictures of the mounted shooting demo, but oh well. It was interesting to watch, and the shooters were very fast and accurate. It's not that hard to hit a balloon from 15 feet away with spreading powder, but it is hard from a galloping horse, doing it in a certain order.

One thing we did this year was collect more free samples than I usually do in the shopping areas. I got quite a lot of feed samples, and the horses have really been enjoying having something a little different.

I don't have time right now, but next time I'll do a post entirely about the Magnificent 7 competition. I have some thoughts to share about it... and some good pictures, too!


L

A blogger at the Western States Horse Expo 2008: 1

I just returned from a fun vacation at the Expo. This is, I believe, my fifth year in a row there. This time we only went on Friday, as that was the day with most of what we wanted to see. My sister and I arrived shortly after the gates opened, and after walking around a bit we headed over to watch part of the Mustang Challenge, the in-hand competition. This event is based on the Extreme Mustang Makeover which was such a huge success. The horses in the Mustang Challenge were taken off the range and given totally wild to the trainers, who had 90 days before the show to train them.

We did not see more than 6 or 7 of the horses, but there was one trainer and horse who really stood out to me. I hope she won. The horse was VERY attentive and precise. In the trailer loading, it did exactly as requested, down to stepping out one foot at a time, waiting on her cues. It was already trained to ground tie, and she demonstrated that. If I were the type of person who didn't like training my own horses and I had a young horse to send out, she would be on my list of trainers. I believe her name was Jamie Thomas, according to the program.

Ray Ariss (and Hail Yeah, the mustang from last year that brought $50,000 after the Makeover) was there and did a demonstration and talk. We also saw more trainers from the Makeover later and I cannot remember who said it, but I loved this line: "The difference between training mustangs and domestic horses is, with mustangs you get to be a trainer. With domestic horses, you get to be a psychiatrist."

I can't remember who the picture above is of, though, I'm afraid. Sorry!

While we were watching the trainers later on, guess who sat down about four rows in front of us. He is publisher of Western Horseman magazine, and among other things, takes the official photos of the Magnificent 7 winners every year. Yes, Darrell Dodds. The sad thing is I've probably sat very close to many other famous horse people and not even realized it, as I do not frequent shows... Oh well!

Later we went over to the Toyota Arena and spent quite a while watching the Breed Demos and the Mounted Shooting Demo. During that time, my sister and I spotted a really gorgeous black Arabian stallion. I don't believe in breeding horse for color only, of course, but everyone likes a truly correct and gorgeous black stallion. So, of course we went over to pet him and take pictures!

He happens to be a son of Bey Shah, and his name is TC Bey Cedar. You may have seen him in Hidalgo. His owner was really nice, and it was fun meeting the stud. He was very well behaved, but you could tell he was a stallion by how he kept moving his muzzle around and lipping at the air. Not nippy at people, just doing stallion stuff. At the end of the Arabian Breed Demo, he came in and did various tricks, including rearing, which you could tell he heartily enjoys being allowed to do! He was very light to cues and counted out his age for us, as well as other tricks.

The last photo is right as he came down after a rear.

Anyway, after we finished petting him, we climbed back up to our seats in the stands to find that my aunt and brother had just sat down right below where we were, without realizing we were around! They had come over after we did, and wandered around separately, and we figured we'd run into each other eventually, but hadn't made any plans. I guess Sis and I are rather predictable, though - I realized that we always sit in the far right and back of those stands!

More to come...

L

On vacation!

I'm here at the Western States Horse Expo today! I'll be taking plenty of pictures for you guys, and I'll upload them and do a couple posts when I get home. See ya later!


L

Triple Crown Races

I admit I am a fan of racing, at least the Triple Crown races. The sport has a LOT wrong with it, but I have been hoping my whole life for a Triple Crown winner. That would be so amazing to see! I actually hoped that Big Brown would NOT win the Derby due to his bad feet, but since he won both the Derby and the Preakness, I hope he wins the Belmont too. I just hope his feet are either not a genetic problem, or he turns out not to be very fertile in the breeding shed. The racing world doesn't need his particular genes enough to have a thousands of offspring who need their hooves glued together with plastic constantly. It would be too much to hope that if his feet are that bad genetically, that breeders would be gutsy enough to only breed him to mares with excellent feet.

Oh, speaking of breeding, I was tickled to hear that he will be standing at Three Chimneys Farm, where Andolu's sire stands!

I wish somebody with a few million in the racing world would endow a race for older horses, preferably unraced ones, that was worth as much as the Triple Crown races. I am not sure why nobody has done that before, but if you can spend a few million a year on a couple prospect foals and the huge expenses of training, you can afford to set up a race with a $500,000 purse for 6-year-old maiden racehorses (for example). That would take care of SOO many problems with the race world. Breeding for early maturing, sprinting, fragile horses would start to reverse, you wouldn't need poly tracks (which I firmly believe are worse than dirt tracks) because the horses would have mature bones, you would be able to wait until a horse was fully mature to start it and so it would probably be able to race for several years and earn a lot of money before getting a bit slower and being retired SOUND, drug use would decrease due to less need, and etc. etc. All of this without changing a single law! Just imagine! I have no idea why some of the big guys haven't gotten together before to do this. There is enough money floating around out there that it would actually be quite possible for there to be several races like this - and I for one would certainly donate to help establish something like that.

I have been thinking a lot about possibly writing Barbaro's owners and Eight Belles's owners about this, and asking them if they would consider heading up an effort like this. It would be the single best way they could possibly honor their great horses' lives, in my opinion. What do you guys think? Any other ideas on who to contact, etc?

L

One of Andolu's Favorite Things

Man, it is sad when you get busy enough that you don't even visit your own blog for several days. Sheesh. Anyway, here is the promised photo of Andolu's crazy "lead rope." A plastic bag. Yes, it's weird... The way it happened was several weeks ago, when we still had nice grass, I was down at one end of the pasture, picking grass from the other side of the fence for The Dude. He did not come when I whistled for him, and seemed to be distracted. I had already dumped the grass out of the plastic bag I gathered it in, so I went over to get him. He was too focused on the alfalfa in front of him, and turning his head didn't get him started following me (usually it would). So, I had an idea, and split the plastic bag down the middle to make a long piece, which I wrapped around his neck right under his ears. I tugged at it, and being a nicely halter trained horse, he followed me down the hill to the treat.

The reason I laughed about it, and thought it might be worth posting, is that my horses would really mess with a Natural Horsemanship trainer's mind. Any of those guys who like to use plastic bags for desensitizing would be really puzzled when my horses just followed the bag everywhere! Since my feed area is pretty close to the horses, they know exactly what comes in bags. Anatolian does not care in the slightest when I do rub him with a bag or lead him with one - he just wants to see if it has anything to eat!

L

Suggestions?

Just a quick shot of the goofy boy. Sorry for the disapearing tail...

Both horses are doing well. The day before I got sick, I had washed Mira's fly mask, and during the day that I was so sick that the kids fed the horses, I forgot to ask them to put it back on her. After that one day, she got a mild case of pinkeye. Argh. What was really frustrating about it was that I had JUST started them back on the Thorvin kelp a couple days before, after them being off it for weeks due to me running out. So, it's possible that if she had been on it the whole time that she would not have gotten it. Regardless, it cleared up very quickly with terramycin. Of course, she only had it in her right eye, which caused me some worry about if I had the right diagnosis or not. But she was not acting in any pain at all, so I was pretty confident it was not a reinjury.

Anyway, she has always loved her fly mask, and will turn her head to help me get it on. If she doesn't have it on and you hold it up, she'll walk across the pasture to get you to put it on. Andolu, on the other hand... Well, he thinks fly masks spoil the fun and at first he kept taking his off as soon as I would put it on. I left it off for a couple weeks and then tried it again, and I think the intervening time with the flies has convinced him it really is a help, because now he will often leave it on until dark!

Sadly, however, he did manage to destroy his fly sheet. Not sure how, because I never saw him being mean to it. Oh well. I got him one first, as I was sure that whatever he did to his, he would do double to Mira's, so I guess we'll table that idea for now.

Suggestion time:

The 3-year-old boy that is riding here once a week is a very active child. He loves the horses but the newness has worn off enough that he is hard to keep occupied on one thing at a time. He'll brush the horse 4 strokes and then want to give it a treat. He'll want to ride and then get down and lead it. There is only so much pulling him back and convincing him to finish something before he'll get sour from so much correction...

I am thinking about making a chart with skills like "Leading horse up road," "Clipping lead on halter," and things like that, and giving him a sticker each time he learns something thoroughly. That way if he knows he's earning something he might be better motivated to focus. Do you guys have any suggestions? Lists of skills, other games, anything useful for toddlers? Part of the point is for him to learn that "boring" stuff can be fun, but I don't want him to think horses are all about routine. Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

L