Day 34

Soooo nice outside yesterday. 60 and sunny with no wind to make it chilly.

Went out around 1:30 with plans on having Hubby walk and lightly trot Red around the arena while I worked Bobby, but crazy lady and her friend with both their daughters were there. They were lunging the arabian with another baby in the arena when we first got there. I gave Bobby his lunch and both horses some hay while waiting to see what the fuck they were going to do. Crazy lady's friend's daughter got on arabian (Horse is 6 and still green, daughter is 13 and they ride her every time in draw reins. Which is not ok by me.) and crazy lady put her baby in the "holding pen" between arena and barn. Great use of space guys. Really. That just pisses me off beyond reason. Maybe because I already don't like them. So Hubby and I took the dogs to the gamelands for half and hour in hopes that by the time we came back, they'd be done monopolizing the entire fucking barn. Again.

No such luck. This time they had crazy lady's 2 babies in the holding area, arabian was still being ridden, and crazy lady's friend's other baby was being "lunged". These women are clueless. I mean, I understand that they're new to horses and everything, and they have a trainer for their horses, but they're the type of people that the more they try to do and the more they try to learn, the worse they come off as.

But I am an elitist when it comes to horses, and a large part of my personality is enjoying people looking bad--especially when it makes me look better--and being very.....protective? selfish? of the things I do well, and not wanting others to go anywhere near those things. At least not when they're not my friends. And while not a great personality to have, I'm not ashamed in the slightest.

Anyway, back to ponies getting ridden. We decided to go for a trail ride since it was so gorgeous outside. We went they way we don't usually go since there's a fallen tree across the path, but we walked by it with the dogs and decided the horses had enough room to sneak by. A fisherman came out of the woods right next to Bobby and he had a little snort at that, but he was far more concerned with the screeching child walking with her mom. Fortunately, the mom got the kid to shut up (I'm not much of a kid person) as we passed, so no one spooked and got trampled.

We walked the whole way until we got to a really long, but not really steep hill that I trotted Bobby down while Red walked. I had a spaz when a woodchuck went blasting through the woods next to Bobby and I on the way back, though Bobby was hardly concerned, and Red didn't even seem to notice it.

Their clips look better under saddle.

I made Bobby canter up the hill, and he was like, "neeehhhhh", but I gave him a kick and he picked it up strongly, then cantered back well.

You see now where the straightness work is always coming into play.

Really fun ride all together once we got away from the barn. When we got back, the crazy lady posse was gone and Shiraz (a ridiculously cute paint across from Red who's always mooching for treats and who never gets enough attention.) was out being ridden with a pile of treats and general pony goodies outside his stall. Doped up Bobby on Conquer for the last time until he goes cross country schooling (hopefully sometime early to mid April).

Day 33

Borrowed clippers from one of Hubby's friends. He said they were livestock clippers he's used on cows and horses and that they quiet, but Holy Hades were they loud. But all three of us made do. I haven't clipped in a few years so it took some getting used to, and Bobby definitely came out crooked. Oh, well.

Bobby wasn't too excited about it, and I'm not sure he's been clipped since two. He was stupid ticklish on his belly and armpits, so I'll have to take my trimmers to him tomorrow for some touch ups, but I cleaned him off pretty good. I did a trace clip, only much higher up than usual; he had belly hair like a yeti.



Looking for an escape route.

Not pretty, but at least he won't get too hot.

I gave Red his customary shoulder and chest clip and was done with him in twenty minutes max. His leg was still a smidgen puffy, just barely noticable, and I probably could have left it open, but I wrapped it with alcohol for one more night. I might get on him and walk him around a little tomorrow.

Day 32

Red's lunch diet was short lived as I stopped feeding him noon-time grain since he's just sitting there with his little hurt leg. It did seem less swollen today and not quite as warm, but I kept his walk short again with lots of pausing for grazing and staring at the Belgains across the field.

Cold hosed him again, but of course no hose should ever be turned on without getting Red's face wet, so we played in that for awhile.

I swear he loves it.

Let him eat his hay with no wrap on so I could feel it again when I was done with Bobby.

Speaking of Bobby, I groomed and tacked him up in his stall hoping we wouldn't have a repeat of the girth fiasco of yesterday. Aaaandd....we didn't! So I may stick to that for awhile.

(As a non-pony sidenote, whenever my house phone rings, my grey kitten comes running from wherever she's been doing something naughty, jumps onto the shelf it's on, and stares it down. Oooooh, ringing phone! Sooooo exciting! She's sitting there with her head on sideways right now.)

Put the flash on so he wouldn't be fighting with me quite so much, and brought the whip out again since no spurs. He was walking like he was a hiar off again, so I got off and took a look at his feet to see if there was a rock in there, but saw nothing. Took his boots off and checked his legs (it felt like the LF when I was on him), but besides being warm from the boots, nothing there either. But I kept the boots off and when I got back on he was fine. The boots must not fit him well, or he just doesn't like them. I usually ride in splint boots, but these were open-front jump boots.

Wake up, Bobby! Time for work!

Lots and lots of work at the walk working on keeping him straight. He tilts his nose to the R and falls into the L with his body, no matter what direction we're going in. I think I just need to keep working on keeping him straight since I can't afford a chiro. I wonder if I sit a little crooked from my L knee being previously wrecked. I have to ride with that stirrup a little shorter because I can't carry my leg quite as well as my R. I'll have to force Hubby into video duty if I can get the arena without the crazy lady posse.

Moved on to the trot and worked on keeping him straight still and worked over the ground poles. Definitely harder to keep from falling in when circling at the trot. I feel like I should wear a spur just on my left boot. Bleh. Did get one good straight trot on the long side.

Went over the x-rails singly twice each time to the left. I had to tell both him and myself outloud "Straight approach!", but once I got him straight to each one, he jumped great. Also had to go forward! No more lollygagging about towards fences! He is not Red. He will not canter to them, or even trot with a ten thousand foot long stride! Anyway. Trotted the line to the left and made sure to stay straight and forward. And he landed the second fence in a canter on the correct lead, so I let him have at it to go around again. "Straight approach!!" I reminded us both, and TAAAAHHHHDAHHHH!!!!! He jumped both at the canter on the left lead, STRAIGHT, and he was soooo good! So of course I left it at that and fed him lots of cookies.

Wrapped Red's legs hopefully for the last time with alcohol. Rubbed Bobby's front legs, hocks, and stifles down with alcohol, too. Also gave him his first of for-now 3 doses of Conquer.

"Hi, Red!!"
"Hand over your hay."
"But it's my hay! In my stall! Nooo, wait! Don't bite me! Take it!"

Day...31?

Fed Bobby his U-Gard by hand to ensure he doesn't dribble any on the floor and miss some when he tries to clean up. Checked on Red's bum leg and lo-and-behold, it's warmer than yesterday and poofy. Took him for a short, slow walk around the field so his hind legs won't stock up, then cold hosed (making sure to spray him in the face in the process--not torture, his favorite part of bath time), poulticed and wrapped it up again.

All wrapped up with no place to go.

Took Bobby out to get ready for an easy w/t ride finally since the arena--where not churned into disguisting-ness--was actually pretty good. We had a pretty serious battle about girthing up, which he's been getting worse with. Come on, U-Gard! Finally relented and dropped the other side a hole and cranked it to get it on the first hole. Dick. Put the draw reins on, strapped on the spurs, and stuck the whip in the back pocket.

Relatively good w/t ride with lots of circles and leg yields and working on straightness. He was getting kind of ticked at me getting kind of ticked at him and starting leaning on the bit, so I stopped with all the circles and put him over baby x-rails one time a piece, then trotted him over the line. Wasn't exactly perfect because of lack of impulsion and forwardness so he jumped pretty flat, knocking over one of the poles, but he cantered off on the correct lead. I let him leave it at that since I didn't want to go crazy first day. Back. As long as the weather stays good, we're going to stay in the arena and get some serious schooling done.

Aaaaand, miracle of miracles, my Conquer came today so I can drug Bobby tomorrow! Yay!

And again...

New keyboard and we're back in business! Luckily it happened with just one month left on the warranty, so besides paying to get the hard drive backed up, it was free. I like free things. Not free things: the Equine Affaire. I decided not to go; it would just be way to expensive to ship out there since I don't have my own trailer. On one side, I'm really disappointed I won't get to go because I really, really wanted to, but at the same time, I'm glad the pressure of trying to find the money and figure everything out is off. Also not free things: cross country schooling. I still am absolutely 130 percent determined to get down there to do it early next month, but same thing with the Equine Affaire: logistics. At least two and a half hours away is more do-able than six. As long as Bobby gets sound and I get a friggin' arena to start working on jumping in. Pull out the drag, BO! Do something right!

Monday 3/14:
Started giving Bobby corn oil with his lunch until I figure out if we can afford to buy a different grain for him. Also started to give Red a little grain with his lunchtime hay since he's ribby too, and starting to get into more work. Groped Bobby and he seemed better than before, so I considered doing some light w/t work with him in the arena. But after Red's ride, I left him alone.

Took Red out to the arena and worked really hard on his leg yields at w/t since he's been getting lazy with them. Once more, the key to really good ones was staying off his face. Helloooo. Why did none of my instructors ever tell me this with him? He's so much better with everything when I just stop playing with the bit. Not rocket science, clearly, but I'm glad I'm doing it now. Did a few flying changes across the arena, and with spurs he was really nailing them without rushing too much.

Started some jumping exercises by circling in on the bigger x-rail. First six strides out, then knocking one off with each turn until we were down to two going to the right. It was a big, wide turn to get to it from that way, so it was pretty easy for him to get. The fence was much closer to the rail going to left, like a really tight roll back to get to it. But turning is Red's speciality, so I wasn't concerned. Cantered to the L over the 4 canter poles, came around the short stride, seven strides down longside to roll back to 3 strides to x-rail, landed on R lead, cantered R, made a 15m circle. Beast. He was like, "Finally! Something interesting!" Did that exercise about 3 times, and let him go back to his precious food.

Tuesday 3/15:
Forced Red to the gamelands for a gallop. Screaming his head off the whole way out there, but he went willingly enough. Trotted him halfway out, then cantered rest of way. Really strong gallop on the way back, and when I pulled him up, he wasn't even breathing hard, let alone sweating, even with 50 degrees and four inches of bear fur. Went out with much shorter stirrups than I usually ride with on Bobby, and I wasn't nearly as tired. Also rode in my CC saddle instead of AP, which might have attributed to it. I'll have to try it with Bobby next time I take him out there, once I switch out the stirrup irons; I love my bendy, heavily padded AP saddle irons. Poulticed both Red's front legs and wrapped him up.

Took Bobby out to the round pen and lunged him w/t. I don't know if it's because I haven't watched him from the ground in awhile, but his hind leg action still looks off. It's like because his stifles hurt, he over-uses his hocks, which I can just see leading to hock pain sooner if not later. Get here soon, Conquer! I let him loose to goof off a little and he cantered a bit, then got scared by noisy geese.



Beware the Bobby eating geese!

Took him out to go back to the arena and he was nutty. Had to give him several good smacks to stop bolting in front of me. Oooh, scary geese! Retard. Once he was inside, he was fine.

Wednesday 3/16:
Pretty overcast and muggy out, so I wasn't planning on doing much today. Considered waiting around to see if my Dover order with the U-Gard would show up, but I didn't want to sit around until 2:30 for the mail on the chance that it didn't come and miss feeding the boys their lunch. Decided to pull Bobby's mane since it was looking long and gross. Took me about 10 minutes, he was a really good boy, and it actually came out looking really nice. (I am not the pro mane-puller because I don't do it pretty much ever because it's such a PIA.)



Showing Stormy his nicely pulled mane.

With serious dread, I moved on to Red. Ugggghhhhh. I don't think Red has had his mane pulled since we picked him up at Highcliff.....in 2005. I just cut it since it is unbelievably thick. Like, twice as thick as my hair. But I wanted him to look like a real TB who really does do english, and I think a pulled mane is the only way to go. So I sucked it up and started yanking. Fortunately, another wonderful thing about OTTBs is that they're using to being poked, prodded, and yanked on, so he just stood there looking a little pissed. I got halway and had to stop to take Bobby out for a little bareback walk around the arena, just to give my poor hands a break.


Are we done yet?!

 Finally finished about an hour and a half later, but was too distracted by crazy lady blabbing to take a pic. Felt his legs after his hard work yesterday and noticed a touch of heat in the delicate RF. Did an open poultice on it since I still haven't bought rubbing alcohol. Hopefully that will take care of it.

My U-Gard and paddock boots finally came! Only took a week, Dover! Tried on the boots, and way too small. Same brand and size of my tall boots which fit perfectly, and these are easily a size too small. So I'm sending them back for a different brand. Boo.

Catching Up

My fat orange cat got his head stuck in my glass of water 2 weeks ago, and when he tried to pull his head up, he knocked the glass over right into my keyboard. So off it went to Geek Squad, hopefully to return by the end of the week. In the meantime, I've scribbled down a few things for each day to stay on task.

Thursday 3/3:
Back to the gamelands since the arena is still slop, trotted out, cantered back. He plowed through one of the puddles and got strong after so I pulled him back and made him trot one field, then cantered the next. Galloped Red around the field outside the barn. He's such a beast. I really let him get rolling and he just stuck his chin to his chest and went along like a good boy. This is an amazing change since he was at Cobleskill, as he was quite fond of taking off with me. Poulticed both boys, just for a little pampering.

Friday 3/4:
Washed the polutice off, gave both a good grooming, and cleaned Red's sheath. Red is perverted, in that he loves getting his sheath cleaned. He drops right down for you and just stands there.

Sunday 3/6:
Handed out peppermints at the barn with Hubby. Bobby followed along while Red licked the stall. Groomed both of them again since it was pouring outside. Again. We went home and lost power at 5:45pm, and didn't ge tit back until 10:30 the next morning.

                                                   Bobby helping give out cookies.

Monday 3/7:
We got about 6 inches of snow. Hubby got his truck stuck in the snow when the back tires went off the road pulling out of the driveway on his way to work. What a great way to start the day after still having no power by that point. Finally got it shoveled out just as his boss showed up to pull him out. Shoveled the Saturn out to get to the barn that afternoon. I love my little car. It's a mauler in bad weather.

Took Bobby to the gamelands since the snow was drifted pretty deep in the arena. Melting snow kept falling on his head which would make him throw it up every time it happened. He also had a baby spook when a huge load slid down the trunk of the tree he was passing. Got to the halfway point of the path to get to the real road part of the gamelands, and a tree had fallen over from the weight of the snow. Got off Bobby to assess the situation, decided if it was tall enough for me to duck under, it was tall enough for him. He agreed and walked right under it. I'm not sure if he's brave, or just not smart enough to realize that bad things can happen to good ponies. Which is just fine with me! Actual path  wasn't too bad since most of the snow had already melted back there so we did the routine trot out canter back. Went up the steep little path to get back so I wouldn't have to get off again.

                                          Under the tree he goes!

Tuesday 3/8:
Forgot about the fallen tree until I was already almost to it so I got off again and led him through again. Cantered him out this time instead of trotting, and while he took it in stride, my legs were waving the white flag. Alternated between trotting and cantering back, hand galloped the final field.

Waited around for the vet since she was supposed to come "early afternoon". Of course, with a vet, that could be anywhere between noon and 4. Took the dogs out for a run, went to grab a Snapple at the gas station, and came back to find that vet had called BO and told him she's be there after 5 (it was 2:30 by this point), and BO drove to the barn to tell Fran, who was the only one there, instead of calling ME. So I drove home, got in the shower, and as soon as I got out, crazy woman called me, not the BO again, to tell me vet had called her to say she'd be there in 45 minutes. Well, it takes me 45 minutes to get to the barn, so I threw some clothes on and went back out.

Waited around for about 45 minutes while crazy woman's pony got gelded and coggins/shots done. Coggins and Rabies for Red, Coggins, Rabies, and 4-way for Bobby. I was ready to pound my head against the stall when vet was done explaining shots to crazy woman and her friend. A) She thought horses got shingles instead of stangles, B) she had no idea what 4-way or 5-way entailed, C) she thought that because her friend's horse had a cold last year, it was Rhino. Vet was amazingly good at not laughing at everything that came out of this woman's mouth. I mean, really. You own horses, you own baby horses no less, do some frigging research instead of relying on your vet for everything!

Wednesday 3/9:
Ordered new paddock boots finally (Saxon brand for $30. I love cheap boots, not going to lie. I love my Saxon tall boots), and U-Gard for Bobby which I'm going to give him myself with his lunch. I'm also going to start giving him oil with his lunch. He needs to gain some serious weight because of the sucky feeding arrangements.

Today was Bobby's birthday!

                                                    Happy Birthday, Bobby!

Gave him some carrots that he had to share with the rest of the barn. It was the first time I've seen Knotty (an OTSB across from Red who's mostly blind) look alive. Apparently, he's a carrot whore. Groomed Bobs and let him have the day off with lots of hay. Worked Red in the round pen w/t/c. I had to chase him down to get him to canter. He was like, "There is hay in my stall and it's cold and rainy out here. Canter around in a cricle yourself."

                                         Bobby as a weanling! Now you can tell how
                                         he almost got the name Beatwithuglystick.

Thursday 3/10:
Raining like crazy, so I put on the newly purchased $20 rainsuit from Walmart and headed out on Bobby. I thought he sounded a tenny, tiny sliver off walking down the road, but he wasn't moving differently and didn't seem uncomfortable in any way. Trotted out through literal lakes on the path from so much rain and snow melt. Turned him around to trot back and he automatically picked up the canter. That lasted all of 5 strides before he pulled himselg back up to the trot. It was too slippery for cantering. Wrapped him up in his cooler when we got back and dried him off really good.

He was stomping his RH in his stall as he was eating his hay, so I groped him a little. No serious reaction, except for some ear pinning, but I was "getting awfully close to [his] shaft!" (The Hangover) Gave him a good rub down over his hips and stifles with rubbing alcohol anyway. On a plus note, when I first bought him in December, you could run your fingers down his back and he would literally sit down he was so sore. Now, you do the same thing and he dips a teeny bit on the right side, but already so much better and stronger.

                                          Fair Hill is going to look like a puddle by the time we get there.
Friday 3/11:
Arena semi-ok to ride in so I took Red out finally. W/t/c both ways, had a minor beat-down when he kept trying to spook at a pile of snow on the other side of the fence. Had 2 x-rails set up for the 7 stride line to try to do with Bobby later, so I put Red over them a couple of times off a circle, trying to knock down as many strides as we could before the fence. Back in his prime before I sold him, he was down to 3 strides in front of a 2'9" fence. Now, he's at about 4 with a 2'3" fence. But he'll get back to it.

Worked on canter mostly with Bobby, but he's really crooked down his back and neck. I need a chiropractor for him. Riiiiight. Do you take checks? Post dated checks? Just another thing to work slowly through myself and do what I can with what I can. I can't wait for no more rain so I can really use the arena again! He needs alot of flat work. Tried him over the x-rails a couple times, but he kept taking them down, so I ended when I got one time over the line with nothing down, incredibly crooked and disorganized as it was.

Checked out his stifles again, and still same half-assed response. Mixed him up a heavy alcohol/cold water bath and soaked his back end.

Saturday 3/12:
Today was my kelpie's birthday! Two years old. She got some icecream for McDonalds and was subjected to wearing the birthday tiara.

                                                    Happy birthday, Darcy!

Went down to the barn with Hubby. It was packed with people I would prefer not to have it packed with. Crazy lady and her friend, plus both their kids, their trainer, and their trainer's kid. They had recently gelded pony and crazy lady's other pony out in the arena, then turned out the other baby out there too. Then they just stood there as the horses stood there. Good use of the arena, guys! So I decided to hop on Red bareback and walk him down the road a little, but crazy lady's friend had her arab on the crossties in front of the doors, so I led him out the doors towards the arena where there's another gate out to the road--but you don't go near actually going in the arena to do so. So I walk out and crazy lady's like, "Are you putting him out here?" Uhhhhhh, am I RETARDED? No, no I am not. (Not retarded, not putting him out with your stupid babies.)

Hubby and I fucked around with Red for a little bit, and when they brought their horses in, we went to the arena and fucked around a little bit more. Took Red over one of the x-rails, which he amazingly deigned to pick his feet up over. Put him away when crazy lady's friend brought her arab out for her daughter to lunge and the horse was going crazy. Red was unconcerned, but I wanted nothing to do with it. Gave him his 4-way, with his only reaction being annoyance that he couldn't have his head buried in his hay.

Checked on Bobby's butt, and his stifles did seem a little warm and more tender today. Another alcohol bath, and I ordered some Conquer paste in hopes it works like bute. Because $15 is better than $50. Hopefully that gets here soon, since Dover has been sucky about getting their orders here lately. I'm still waiting on my U-Gard and boots.

                                          Fancy bareback dressage pony.

Day 18

So nice out today! I brought the ponies out to the arena with me while I set up canter ground poles and they were loving the nice weather. Both rolled (which made for horrible grooming later) and Bobby got some serious crazies out: bucking and farting around the arena and trying to get Red to play with him. Red, for his part, ran for awhile when chased with the whip, but really was not interested in anything but getting back to his stall to eat.

Put the draw reins on Bobby with the elevator bit and had a great w/t warm up with him. Made him do some 10-15 meter circles at the trot and he was bending really well both ways. Got a semi-good canter circle in each direction, just kind of lazy picking it up to the right and I lost my stirrup trying to get him into it so I was a little unbalanced. Took him to the canter poles and had a GREAT canter on the long side--really balanced for how sloppy the arena was. The poles themselves were a little....silly? He tried to bail at the first pole (there were 4) the first time up, and ended up jumping it and going back on the rail. Took him around again, and he went over the first, got a little sticky over the second, and back to the rail. Brought him back down to the trot and he went over fine, so picked up the canter again and while still a little silly, he went over all 4. Tried once from the other way and he went over fine, so I left them at that. Cantered 3 full times on the circle to the left to finish off. Pretty happy with the whole ride overall.

Considered doing the same thing with Red, but I didn't want to get bored, so I threw the western saddle on him, grabbed the rope, and went out. I put the reins around the horn to navigate the rope (Hubby is much better at this than I am) and steered him with my legs. I roped the standard twice and missed twice. I really shouldn't have missed at all since Red knew exactly what this game was and walked me right up to it. I could just see the thoughts running threw his head as I tried to figure out what I was doing: "Really? That was my leg you just roped, you moron." "Do you need me to get the rope off the standard for you?! No? Then hurry up all ready!" "I just backed up ten steps. Figure out how to loop the rope instead of asking me to pull it taut for you." Ohhh, Red. Did a few roll backs to the canter--sorry, the lope--then let him go careening around the arena at the canter in each direction for awhile. Opened both gates off his back and had a kick-tug-kick-tug-KICKKICKKICK pissing match to walk the length of the amish's cow pasture down the road.

Talked to Fran about how BO isn't feeding our horses at noon anymore, and hasn't been for at least a week. She said BO told her earlier that her horse wasn't eating all his grain at afternoon feed, which she told him was because he was coming for "noon" feed at 1:30, giving him 2qts, and then feeding him his afternoon feed with everyone else at 3:30. He was probably full! Frustrating. Fortunately, as far as I know, Bobby cleans up his grain. He also annhilated his mineral block I bought him a week ago. Literally nothing left. Whoops. Should have gotten him one sooner! I'll grab him another one tonight or tomorrow.

The Equine Affaire is looking farther and farther away....and looking less and less likely like I'll be able to go. Just too much money to ship him out there. Might be able to rent BO's trailer, but have to convince Hubby that we can use his company truck to haul it, which I'm not sure he's down with. Bummer. Serious bummer. I really want to go.