Tragic

My heart goes out to the family members of the two men who died, and the owners of the 43 horses that were burned alive in a fairgrounds barn fire in Ohio yesterday. They were harness racing horses, from what I understand.

I cannot imagine loosing my horses in this way.

This is terrible, and tragic.


Please, don't smoke or allow any kind of space heaters in your horse barns..... especially where hay is stored. I do not know if this is what caused the fire, but I think we can all assume it had something to do with heaters, this time of the year.
I have a wall heater in my tack room and bathroom, and I don't even feel comfortable leaving them on when I am not right there at the barn. It scares me so bad.
I have a brother who was a firefighter, so fire prevention and safety is a strong point with me.

Ok. O think I will run to the barn and love on my horses for a bit, and just relish the fact that I have them safe and sound.

Living the Dream

 

I confess, I have been a little down in the dumps when it comes to my horses recently. We have had soooo much grody, wet weather; and I have been so consumed with work, remodeling, Thanksgiving, etc. etc.

I think it boils down to the fact that I just generally hate this time of the year; period. I know there is obviously nothing I can do about it; it just is.

After working, there is little or no daylight left for me to ride. Or it is raining cats and dogs. Or, everything is muddy and messy. So I feel like all I do is feed the horses, and get a little bit of brushing done, and a few barn chores.
When I was instructing all the time, my students helped me out with a lot of the brushing and horse care things. Now that I am not teaching, I don't have that luxury.

So anyway, this past week before Thanksgiving, I was just completely down in the dumps about it. Every day, I found myself at the barn after work, feeding, mucking, blanketing, etc. etc. all by myself, in the dark, and cold rain, and mud, and I was just vexed about it.

"All I ever get to do is the work," I complained to myself while I wheeled yet another load of stall mess out to the ever growing muck pile. "I never get to do the fun parts - like riding!!!!"
"Is is EVER going to clear up so I can ride at least one day this week?"

And then when I discovered two broken fence rails in the paddock, I was really annoyed, and complained dome more.
"All I do is fix things and then you guys just break it again! Come on, guys. Can we NOT break anything tonight?"

And then it struck me; at some point, when I was trudging hay bales through the mud to a dry spot in the turnout paddock for my freshet two OTTTBs that are struggling with their weight.

This is what I have always wanted. This was my childhood dream. This is what I swore I would do if my parents just let me have a pony. This is it.

That realisation suddenly put it all into perspective for me. It's what I tell people - students; kids; all the time. If you get a horse, it is not all going to be frolicking in the meadow and going to horse shows and peaches and cream.

And I realised how spoiled I have become; yeah, spoiled. Me. Here I am, with this palatial 6 stall barn from heaven, straight out of a horse magazine. I have a kitchen in my barn nicer than the one in my house, for Pete's sake. I have everything I ever wanted in a barn. And I am complaining?!

Ever since I first took a hunter jumper lesson on a 17 hand OTTTB when I was 15, I was hooked on TBs, and dreamed of getting one one day for my own. Yes, I had horses all my life; mostly QH schooling horses as I was an instructor and needed steady ones. But I always put off getting my dream gelding - off the track - young - training him myself - and now I have FOUR?! (I have four otttbs. I have 12 horses all together.) And more if I want them? And I am complaining?!

So I am ashamed of myself. I am resolved to stop my complaining. I may hate this time of year and not be able to ride as much a I would like to; but I am going to stop complaining about it.

OH and the photo above? That's me at 8 years old, next to the first horse I ever loved, Red's, mom Cookie. This was before braces. (LOL) This was when I started my love affair with horses and dreaming this dream that I am now living.....

Checking In

I know I haven't been posting lately. Not that I have so many readers to disappoint, though. :)
The past weeks have just not been so great in my neck of the woods.

I have had no time to ride. At all. I feel terrible. I need to be working with Major over jumps and with his cantering issues. Instead, I have been fighting "little fires" all over the place. Just a note, though: My sister Naomi took Major out with her friend Ted, on a trail. She asked major to canter, and he took off running. She was able to collect him and put him into a lovely, amazing canter, from what she told me. She said it was incredible. So that is a good thing.

The little fires have been our two newest TBs on what I call the "Slippery Slope." Sudden, unexplained weight loss, depression, dull coat, uninterested. It freaks me out. This time it was Jazz, followed by Montana. In two weeks Jazz dropped 50-75 lbs, her coat was dull, she has rain rot, she got cut in the fence when it broke one night, etc. etc. I went into "emergency" mode with her and she is much better. This is what I think happened:

1. I switched feed on her. I went from Purina Omeline 200 and Equi Jewel Rice bran and corn oil to Purina Strategy Pellets, no rice bran, and less corn oil. BAD IDEA!
I decided from now on, when I figure out what works for these OTTTBs, not to change it to a "Fat Quarter Horse Maintenance" plan! They're back on Omeline and Equi Jewel.

2. I am CONVINCED that OTTTBs have a problem with parasite infestations in the extreme. On the track they don't graze, or eat hay. So when we get them and turn them out onto pasture, the parasites have a heyday. So while my "regulars" I deworm on a 4-6 times per year basis and they never have a problem, I am starting to think I need to deworm the OTTTBS twice as much in the first year.
I dewormed Jazz, and everyone else, (again) and within 10 days I saw improvement in coat, etc. So I am convinced. More deworming.

Both she and Montana are stabilized and doing better. I have had no problems anymore with Montana and biting; I simply have been loving on him and rewarding him with affection when he behaves; and when I halter him, turn him out, etc. etc. I think Spencer was a huge problem for him as well, and since Spencer went to his owner's, The problem has improved as well.

Major's barefoot experiment is working beautifully; no lameness or anything. Yay!

Gunny went to his new home last week. In the few days following, I found myself mistakenly putting feed in his feeder and filling his water bucket in his stall out of habit. It was a little sad to see his stripped out stall empty and bare. I went to see him and he had a little attitude - still adjusting to his new people and home, I think.

And what is with all this RAIN?! FOUR days of it! I kept the horses in for the first two days, but decided I had to let them out for the afternoon today. When I got back to feed, they were damp, and miserable. They were picking at one another, and pawing and kicking in their stalls impatiently; Major kicked out at me then I went to remove his blanket. I think they are all fed up with the miserable weather. I can't blame them, as I feel the same way!

I am hoping for better weather this next week and maybe I can finally get some riding in, now that most of my "little fires" are all put out. For the time being.

Bye Bye, Gunny

 

Kevin and I have recently been discussing plans for our horses, mainly, our Thoroughbreds. Going through our list of 10 now at the farm, and making plans about who is going to winter where. We simply cannot keep them all; and besides, we got them for the sole purpose of finding homes for them.
At the same time we are doing this, one of my 4-Hers/student's Grandmother had built a barn and had asked me to start looking for a horse for her Granddaughter.
One day an idea occurred to me, and I spoke to Kevin about it, and that weekend, I had arranged to sell our OTTTB Gunny to Libby as her fist horse.

 

It was a bittersweet arrangement; I love Gunny and hate to see him leave my barn; but at the same time, he is going to an excellent home with a girl who adores him to pieces. He will be local, and I can see them both and help them if need be. She has been taking lessons on Gunny already, and I knew she can handle him, as her riding skills are blooming right before my eyes. Gunny likes her, and they get along great. What more could I ask for?

 

I had this idea that all my OTTTBs offered for sale would go on to be hunter-jumpers, dressage horses, showing, eventing, being "great" and have awesome careers. Gunny might end up at some 4-H events, but I don't think Libby plans on doing a great many shows. I have to let that idea go. It doesn't matter what the horse will be doing; what matters is that they are in good, permanent homes where their people love them, and care bout them. That is number one, and that is where Gunny is going.

I will probably cry and blubber when we deliver him there next week, but I know he is only about 20 minutes away and I can always go see him. It's hard; as this is my first one I have let go.
I've been through a lot with Gunny; with his aloof attitude it was hard at first to connect with him. Then with his terrible illness this spring, he finally connected, and allowed us "in." Now that he is all well, and I find myself attached, it just makes it hard.

On a similar note; I advertised our mare Jazz for sale on a equine website. A few weeks later I got a very interested person a few hours away. I thought, ok maybe this is "the one" for Jazz! Then suddenly in the past few weeks her weight has dropped, she got rain rot, and thrush - and then when we had work done on out high tensile fence, a strand broke one night, and wouldn't you know but she got her hind legs in it?! Luckily the strand had no tension on it, otherwise she would have had lacerations. As it was broken, she only suffered a lot of small cuts and scratches. Still, she was bloody, and sore, swollen, and miserable. This, coupled with her weight loss, made me decide to contact the interested party, and let her know I was taking Jazz off the market. I deleted the ad also.
I sinply can't sell a horse in this condition, and jazz needs us right now. It was disappointing but I will try again to find her a home in the winter or the spring.

So this is sort of a goodbye, Gunny. But it is the beginning of a whole new bright future for him! For that, I am happy.

In Peace....

 

In peace will I both lie down and sleep, for You, oh Lord, make me to dwell in safety." Psalm 4:8

(This is my horse Red, on the day he was born in 1987. My Dad took the photo, and may others just like it, of the extremely laid-back little foal he was then.)

Blog GIveaway!

Ok this is not really about horses, but anyway. On my other blog, Happily Ever After, I am giving away a "fairy stone" necklace to celebrate the opening of my Etsy shop, Carolina Roses.
Make sure to go over there and get in on the giveaway!
Fairy Stones are found in Virginia, in the Fairy Stone State Park. They are geological mysteries. You can just walk along and pick them up off the ground in many cases.
Many are polished and prepared for the jewelery trade as good luck charms.
I wear one all the time. Although, it has never brought me much luck - I have been wearing it every time I have had a fall, or other mishap, with horses. Including when I was kicked in the face. So, I pretty much think they don't help my luck at all, but they're cute as heck! Go win it today!!! Good luck!

 

Oh-oh. What do I do now?

Well. I am a bit stumped.
My sister went over to the barn last night to ride with a friend. I wasn't there. My sister is a great horse person, and knows how to handle horses and the things they do.
She called me up later in the evening and told me something that really disturbed me.

It was the first time she had seen the two new TBs, Montana and Spencer (who has still not gone to his actual home; we have just had no time to make the trip with him yet.)
She said after she and her friend got done riding Jett and Major, who were wonderful little dolls, she went into the paddock with Montana and Spencer to love on them a little bit. Then she dropped a bomb on me:

"Montana bit my face," she said.
"WHAT?!!!!!!!!!!"
"The big chestnut? That's Montana, right? He BIT my FACE."

Of course, my first concern was for my sister's beautiful face. She already had plastic surgery to repair a pet rabbit bite to her face, but a HORSE BITE?

She said it was sore and that the inside of her mouth bled from where she clamped down her jaw as he bit her.

My next concern was what she did about it. I usually punish my horses for biting. She was so stunned she didn't have time and he immediately backed off.

She went back to the tack room and got a jumping bat (just in case) and came back to the paddock, haltered him, and began petting him again to see if he'd repeat an attempt. He didn't; but her was clearly annoyed with the petting around his face.

Kevin said Montana had nipped at him when he was putting out the hay in the paddock the other day.

And thinking about a 4-H meeting recently, I remembered the kids hanging on the fence, trying to pet Spencer and Montana, and as I watched, I saw him getting really annoyed and had to ask the kids to step back away from him. I emailed a friend, jokingly, that he looked like he "....wanted to rip their face off........"

After last night this has obviously become an issue I will have to deal with.
Was he mistreated on the track? Was he hit around the head and neck area as a youngster? Is he just going to be "mean"? Should I just get rid of him now?

I guess I need to do some of John Lyon's "head shy" lessons with him and see how he responds. Teach him to drop his head kind of stuff. As I said, I usually punish a horse for intentional, mean biting. But I don't know if that is the right course of action here...... if he bites me and I smack him and yell at him, it might make the problem even worse, and he'll learn to hate me instead! How do I lovingly, but firmly, discipline a horse like this, who more than likely is this way because people were mean to him and made him so? I do not believe it is in his nature to be nasty. He's just continuing some kind of defensive reactionary mode held over from the track or something.
We've never had a mean OTTTB before. They've all been so sweet. Till now. Golly-Gee-Whiz. These OTTTBs are just not like other horses, mentally.
Darn it!