Helmet cams not as exciting as they seem...

...and yet I still want one for my birthday (June 2, for those that may be interested in buying me one.) I used my regular camera and just held it in my hand while I rode in the gamelands today. All it is is cantering, so maybe jumping would be more exciting, but all you can see with those things are the horse's ears and grass. If I get one, I'm going to look around like crazy and put my head on upside down when I jump so you can get the full awesomeness of it.

                               Watch with the sound off! Wind + head cold do not make for good background noise.

I alternated between trotting one field and cantering the next, and so on, today. I cantered him back except for the last three fields. I walked, then trotted, then hand-galloped (Bobby's hand gallop would make him a good hunter--his ten foot long neck sticking straight up in the air would not.). My saddle slid way bak again, even though there were no hills, I made sure the girth was nice and snug, and I even put the saddle a little farther forward than it should have been to compensate! Oi.

The highest point of his withers, where his saddle started.

I'm thinking I need to rig a baling twine breastplate soon.

Got back to the barn and Fran was there giving Pick Off a bath. His leg is half the size it was yesteday and he was putting alot more weight on it--even his entire weight when he went to kick her with his good leg. I think both the sweat and the meds helped. She called a different vet/clinic, and he's coming out tomorrow to x-ray. He also gave her a bottle of SMZs for today and tomorrow.

The bandage slid down because that much swelling went down. The sweeling is big, but yesterday was even bigger.

I gave Red another curry after annoying him for awhile. He likes the attention.

I ordered the B-L Pellets from SmartPak today since I needed more U-Gard. Thanks to COTH, I got a huge discount: OMEG50OFF2 -- 50% first two months for supplements. Holler! I also ordered a full cheek snaffle for Bobby from State Line Tack and bit keepers and got $5.00 off on that order with a google search for a coupon. Aaaand....we're picking up the trailer either tonight or tomorrow morning. How do you have so much money, you ask? (like $50 for those four things is alot.) Another hay check is on the way, and our buyer thinks he might be able to get another full load out. Woo hoo!                                                            

Two day catch-up

Wednesday, the day before yesterday, I decided to put on my too-tight-from-winter-woolies big girl pants and do a serious conditioning work with Bobby. While it was sunny in Danville when I left, by the time I got up to Montgomery it was raining. (Which makes me love living in the southern tropics of my homely town; when we ent to look at the trailer in Loganton an hour northwest, it was snowing like crazy and 60 at our house.) But I have long since been prepared for rain with my way too big Walmart rainsuit. I put my vest on for the first time in....two years since I was working with an absolutely nutty, evil QH auction purchase  that was eventually put down after some complicated circumstances. I have a Casel Equi vest, and I would not recommend it to others. The shoulders on the friggin thing come up to your ears. It took some getting used to again, but once I got riding, I didn't even notice it.

I put draw reins on Bobby, not really to yank his head in, but more as a "yoo hoo!" and a reminder that he can bring his nose in and round his back a little--which he did pretty nicely. We went out to the gamelands and went the opposite direction we usually go. I don't know how to best describe our workout, so this may not come out particularly eloquent. We trotted most of the way out and back; any place there was a grassy shoulder without trees hanging over, we trotted on that. We cantered where there was grass on the road, and walked wherever there was no shoulder or just too much debris from all the washouts and flooding this winter.

At the last field we were in before I turned around, there was a felled tree (does that sound bad ass, or what?) across the path. I trotted Bobby up to it and he jumped it with no problems. I took him over it a couple more times, and he trotted, jumped, and cantered off without an ounce of hesitation. There was a nice grassy path on the otherside of the hedgerow we'd come from along the length of the fields we'd passed, so I let Bobby hand-gallop up the looong grade hill. He was working that booty, and you could tell he was a little sore walking home down the road. His saddle had also slid way back; maybe I should have just gotten the other breastplate.

I did my first ever post-cross country aftercare program. I untacked him really fast, offered him some water (which he didn't want), and hosed him down while scraping the cold water off at the same time. I put his cooler on while I was walking him out because it was damp and chilly out. I hosed him off three more times while walking him out. Once he was cooled out enough that I felt comfortable putting him in his stall, I took his cooler off because I think it was holding the heat in. I gave him a little hay to munch on while I grabbed coolant and drugs.

I used my awesome linament instead of rubbing alcohol and rubbed it on on his front legs, hocks, stifles, and along his entire top line. I gave him a dose of Conquer and lots of cookies. I was sooooo tired after, I didn't even do anything with Red. And let me tell you, the next day my calves and inner thighs were sore. Weakling. I can't believe I used to be able to gallop 3-4 horses in a couple of hours.

Yesterday, I took Bobby for a nice, brisk walk then let him graze for awhile. A bunch of the calves from the amish farm came running over to see what Bobby was and we had an audience the whole time. They even followed us the whole length of the paddock as we headed back to the barn.

Bobby was prancing down the road back to the barn, so I gave him a carrot to get him to bend his head. Dang, did he look like a nice dressage pony with his head at a gorgeous level and tucked in, and his fancy feet going. At least I know now he CAN look pretty--just dangle food in front of him. I gave Red another thorough curry and shed out another ten pounds of grizzly bear hair.

Once more, I forgot to measure the ponies for the trailer, so I suckered Hubby into coming with me after he got home from work. Fran was there when we arrived, and not with good news. Her OTTB rescue, Pick Off, was in rough shape. He had a nasty cut on his LH when he came in and she's done an good job keeping it clean and getting to close up. It's still a good inch wide and long, though not very deep. It's nice and pink and clean, so not infected, but his entire leg from his pastern to his hock had exploded and was burning hot--like, his cannon area was as thick as my aching calf. She'd had the vet out twice already, and he gave her banamine paste and told her to wrap it with DMSO (which she didn't know what it was). The Vet told her he didn't think he needed antibiotics, but that she should be concerned about laminitis (which she called lamiGitis.)

She had just wrapped the swollen leg with a quilt and polo, which she told me kept sliding down. So I told her I had a few things that might help and had her put Pick on cross ties. I did a sweat wrap with my standing wraps, then used her linament on the other leg and, of course, wrapped that one as well. I rubbed his hock with some linament, too, and gave him the last of my Conquer. I told her to call the vet's office first thing this morning to see if she could get the other vet out for a second opinion, and maybe she could get it x-rayed. His feet weren't hot at all, but he wasn't able to put ANY weight on that leg and he kept lying down. I'd definitely be worried about laminitis occuring in the other foot, or him laying down and not being able to get back up. At least now, she knows to wrap both legs and how to do a sweat wrap, if nothing else. I also gave her a new bottle of corn oil that I had bought for Bobby, then decided to just buy my own grain.

I'll try to grab a pic of his leg today. Hopefully he's doing better. He's a mean, ugly asshole, but he is a TB so I have to root for him anyway.

Horse trailer!

Ok, it's not totally official, but.....we bought a horse trailer!!!! Hubby was out on a run to one of his client's who is also one of his friend's, and they have a horse trailer parked in their yard (it's a dairy farm, with some of the cutest brown swiss ever seen). So Hubby asked about it and Aaron (the friend who runs/owns the farm) said it was his dad's and they really want to get rid of it. So Hubby took a look at it and called me to see if it was somethind I'd be interested in. Well, duh! Hubby called Aaron back and he said his dad would sell it for.....$275! Hell yes!

We went down to look at it last night. It a 2 horse straight load bumper pull step up which is exactly what I wanted. It needs work. It needs a new wood floor (should be fairly easy and cheap, and it has some decent mats in it), and clip or something besides a ratchet strap to keep the back door closed (also should be easy and cheap--just some hardware screwed in. The hinges are in great shape on it.), some metal replaced around the blue panel (see picture. We'll probably back it with wood on the inside of the trailer, then put metal flashing on the outside and paint it--both cheap things.), and some rust grinded off for new paint (actually not alot of rust and paint for it will be the last thing. We'll probably use spray paint.).

It sounds like alot of work, but for so cheap, we'll be able to make some really solid repairs to it with the extra money we were going to put aside for it, as opposed to an $800 trailer that we would only have $100-ish dollars to put towards it.

Overall, though, it's registered, has a title, and is inspected through July. They had it on the road last September and all the lights worked on it. It is kind of narrow (only 5'3" wide), but I won't be hauling Red and Bobby together anyway. If we do, it will only be a short distance to take them trail riding or if we ever move to a new barn. I'm going to measure Bobby today height-wise, just to double check he fits before we commit, and I'll also measure Red and Bobby's booties to see if they even would fit in together.

Here it is:

I'll take before and after pictures if we end up with it!

Still more rain!

We actually got a little bit of a crazy thunderstorm last night. This morning, it wasn't raining too bad, but the wind was still blowing like crazy. I headed out early to get the wraps of Bobby's legs, but I shouldn't have bothered. Both his wraps were outside his stall when I got there and when I shook all the shavings and poop out, they were shredded. Now, I pride myself in being a pretty phenomenal wrapper, so I know they weren't too tight to be uncomfortable, and I know I didn't put them on so loose that the slipped down. Apparently, he didn't think he was hurt enough that he had to wear them. Jerk.

I spent a good five minutes kneeling beside him, running my hand down one leg and then the other, and then both at once. Then I felt his feet, thinking maybe he had an abcess coming or something, but they were cool. His legs, however, felt like they were both hot and it was driving me crazy. I went to Red and felt his legs in comparison and they felt warm too, but Red lets you know when he's ouchy and he could have cared less with me poking and prodding his weak spots. So I decided I'd come back to Bobby in a few minutes; maybe my hands were just cold.

I gave Red a killer curry and got a TON of hair off. That bath really loosened all his winter woolies. His tail was gorgeous after the conditioning yesterday. Red has a killer tail--it hits the floor, but I keep it banged to his fetlocks, and it really thick. I gave him lots of cookies and just generally bothered him for awhile. He's such a good pony.

Gave Bobby a good grooming, too, then made the plunge and felt his legs again. Nothing. They were just fine. I think I'm going crazy. I rubbed some stolen linament on them anyway and left them open, then rubbed his stifles down again. He was grouchy, grouchy, grouchy with his R stifle, but didn't even notice on his left. I might have to order that joint supplement sooner rather than later. I gave him another dose of Conquer since that really seems to help. I'll probably take him out tomorrow for a good and easy canter in the gamelands. I love the footing out there when it rains. It lets the horse kind of cut in, but it doesn't churn all up like the sandy/clay-ey arena.

I washed all my saddle pads today, too. It was waaay overdue. But they all look seriously fabulous now. amd went back to their plump, fluffy selves. Can't wait to throw one on a pony without the rain pouring down.

Broken Bobby and Clean Red

I dropped Hubby's little bro off halfway to NY this morning. Amazingly, his mom was there on time, but we were almost an hour late. Yeah, Hubs, Williamsport may be an hour from Mansfield, but we don't live in Williamsport! We live forty minutes away. Plus, it was ridiculously windy out this morning and the car was blwoing all over the road so we were taking it slow anyway. But it went smoothly with the exception of being so late.

Went down to the barn on the way home, debating whether or not to get on one of the ponies. I was going to give Bobby a bath and ride Red, but since it had rained last night I figured the gameland's footing would be relatively forgiving and I could take Bobby out there for an easy work before I passed out from sleep deprivation. So I gave Red a quick cold water bath. The barn does have hot water, but it was either turned off or something because it was fuh-reezing! Fortunately, it was 55 in the barn and around the same outside. I know some people won't give baths without hot water unless it's at least 60, but I don't think it makes much of a difference. He had a cooler on, he was in a closed up barn with no drafts coming in, and he had a ton of hay. I got a ton of dirt and loose hair off of him, scrubbed his stripe so it was shiny white, and conditioned his tail.

Took Bobby out and put him on crossties. I gave him a killer grooming and got a lot more hair off of him, then checked his legs and found a teeny-tiny bit of heat in his LF ankle. This is the first leg haet he's had since I've gotten him, even with some strong works. He might have just tweaked it a little in the bad footing yesterday. Having dealt with Red's multiple broken legs, I whisked Bobby off to the wash stall for some serious cold hosing. He stood there totally calm with the leadrope over his neck getting hosed down; clearly, he's used to having his injuries babied. I found some Absorbine linament buried behind the hundred bottles of shampoo in the washstall and made off with it. It was almost gone anyway, and it was covered in grime; I figured I'd put it to good use so it didn't feel forgotten. I rubbed it into Bobby's stifles really well, then wrapped his front legs with rubbing alcohol. There wasn't any heat or swelling after 15 minutes of hosing, so I think he'll be fine for some easy work tomorrow and back to schedule Wednesday--which is also Red's birthday!

Driving home, my hands were nice and cool and tingly from the liniment. It's definitely something I'll finish off and either buy a new bottle of or get some Green Jelly for his stifles. Also, once the Biotin Plus is done with, I'm going to switch him over to B-L Joint Formula. It's cheap, and it got great reviews on SmartPak. I don't see the Biotin doing much and he's been on it of four months now. If he's going to have to get shoes anyway, I'll just have to maintain his feet with good farrier work instead of a maybe-working supplement.

I got an email from Victory Canter yesterday saying their Camelot breastplates are out of stock and it will be two weeks until they'll be able to send me one. They offered to ship a Kincade breastplate instead, but the Kincade doesn't come in black, so I told them I would wait. I've gone this long without one, I can wait a little longer.

I also put an ad up on craigslist looking for a trailer in my very tiny price range. I had a woman email me from the MD/PA border with a 1990 Shoop 2 horse trailer BP for $800. It needs a title, new floor, and some paint work (nothing crazy, just a little cosmetic rust on black paint). Definitely interested and if the hay check comes this week, we'll probably drive down to check it out. Today, I also got an email from someone much closer to us with a 2 horse BP that needs a spring fixed on the ramp, but is otherwise good. It's $900, but the woman said it was a little small, so I asked her if she thought it would accomodate 17hh Bobby, and if she thought so, to send some pictures. Things is looking up!

Jumping

Jumped Bobby while Hubby and little bro rode Red. He did not want to go over anything so I had Hubby go and get the whip and, miraculously, he went over just fine after that. I don't know what his problem was--bad footing, a little sore, or just being a brat? Personally, I think he was just trying to see what he could get away with. He went around just fine warming up, and once he realized I had the whip, he jumped great.

ass. hole.

Hubby's little bro tried trotting Red, but Red started cantering and went loping around the arena as he pleased as little bro pulled back and was yelling, "Whoa! Whoa!" He finally trotted over to Hubby and stopped. Red likes being naughty and getting away with it.

I did the line a couple times at the canter with Bobby and he's starting to jump at the canter much better. After the last jump though, when we get to the end of the arena, he careens around the corned bent the wrong way. If the friggin arena ever gets dragged, we're going to do a month straight of flat work and really nail his canter down.

Lazy spa day

Well, maybe the title isn't totally appopriate. Red is still dirty from his arena roll, but Bobby got very well taken care of. Hubby's youngest brother, who's 12, is out for the weekend. We took him out to fish at the gamelands but were catching nothing, so I left Hubby and little bro out to fish while I took Bobby for a gallop. Met them out there and let Bobby graze for a little bit, then threw little bro up to play around with him.

what a good pony!

He galloped out pretty good and strong on the way out, and on the way back to the barn, he took off with me in the last field! I brought him back pretty quickly and he was fine the rest of the way, but he was rolling! Gave him a good rub down, packed his feet, and gave him a dose of Conquer since the ground was pretty hard and he went along at a really good clip. Loaded his stall with hay up to his ears, gave Red just as much, and gave them both lots of cookies.