Another post about Higher Standards Leather Care products!

I'm not even going to say anything, just post the pictures.


Before:

After soap:

After balm:

Speaks for itself.  Love my magic cleaning products!

Get it before it's gone!

Totally meant to post this a couple weeks ago...

Higher Standards Leather Care has a limited edition scent for the month of August (so only a few days left)...  Vanilla Mint.  OMG YUM.  It's like cleaning your tack with candy canes.

Order here!!!!

Princess!

I rode last night!

Finished with barn chores, thought "I should refill The Mare's supplement thing", then was like "if I don't ride right now, I'm not going to ride."  So I rode.

I put out a tiny elevated pole... a cavaletti on the lowest side.  It's the scary cavaletti that grabbed his foot and wrestled him to the ground back in March (details at this post), so I handwalked him over it before getting on, just to make sure he was okay, and he was.

We didn't really work on anything in particular, just the usual walk/trot, transitions, etc.  We trotted the pole a bunch of times.  He jumped it every time.  So darn cute!  It wasn't an  "I'm scared of this evil cavaletti" jump, it was a "oooh, fun!" jump.

I'm debating....  In just under a month, there's a horse trial at the same place as the last show we went to..  Do I enter him in the horse trial or just do dressage?  I've never schooled him xc or even hacked him outside.  Well, at our old barn I walked him around the property and he was totally fine, but it's been over a  year.  Sometimes the show allows schooling the night before..  Yes, sometimes you can school the actual competition xc course.  It's a very relaxed schooling show which is also a fundraiser for cancer research.  You can also finish even if you get eliminated, like what happened to me last year (although I had someone else ride the old guy xc).

Meh.  I don't know.  Although I might not even have to figure it out; my car problems might very well end up taking all my money anyway.


Oh, The Mare has a friend... kind of.  Yesterday I put another horse in with her.. They ignored each other for a minute, then they squealed, backed into each other, and bucked/kicked a couple times.  Having established that they're both witches, they settled down to eat and ignore each other.  *shrug*  BO sent me a picture of them today, happily eating together.  What?

The Mare apparently told the other mare about her boyfriend.  TOM's stall is next to the crossties.  When I got Riv out to ride last night, TOM loudly whinnied and got VERY excited at having River right next to her.  I'm like, WTF?  You don't even know him!  Same thing after I rode and put him on crossties to untack.  I can only assume that The Mare told TOM about her beloved boyfriend and TOM is smitten with him (or is trying to steal him from The Mare, which wouldn't be difficult because he doesn't love The Mare... Not that that stops The Mare from her obsessive love).

Who knows what will happen in the next episode of As The Pasture Turns?

Oh, and The Mare's supplement things... I took everything home to refill, and I was thinking.. what if I got pulled over and a cop saw all this?  Let's see, I've got a bottle of pills; a jar of a white, crystalline substance; a jar of tan granules/powder; and a tub of green powder.  I swear, it's not illegal drugs!  It's for my horse!

Screw you, Volkswagen.

Well, it's official. Volkswagen is the worst car maker in the world. They refuse to stand behind their product. It's more important that they grab on to every last cent than to take responsibility for their inability to manufacture a decent car. 

I just got off the phone with someone from vw in response to my letter. She made it very clear that Volkswagen felt no responsibility to fix this problem. They hide behind the warranty and will not step up and admit fault. 

They insist they they do care about their customers; why else would they have called me in response to my letter?  It's quite apparent that they did not call out of concern, they called so they could have the sheer pleasure of telling me they would do nothing.  

So now, I get to lose a whole lot of money so I can get rid of the piece of shit. 

Ironically, the woman I spoke to implied that if I were more loyal to vw, they might have been more willing to help. Apparently the facts that this was my first vw, and that I did not start getting angry with vw until AFTER they refused to help went unnoticed. Why would I be loyal to a brand when my first experience with it has been so bad?  Do they expect car owners to behave like battered women, loving the one who hurts them in spite of the abuse?

Please pass the message on to everyone you know. I've gotten screwed by this car and this brand. That doesn't mean anyone else has to. 

VW Sucks

Visit my new domain, VWSucks.net!

Back in action!

Princess is back!

We didn't do a whole lot, just walked a while, trotted, and did a few walk-trot-walk transitions.  He hasn't been ridden in a while, I need to water the indoor, and one of his shoes is holding on for dear life..

As you can see, he was pretty wild.  Those darn OTTBs, give them a couple-three weeks off and they're out of control..

I'll start riding him for real soon.  I'll get the indoor done in the next day or two, and he's getting his feet done on Saturday.

Volkswagen Sucks.

I got to the barn tonight to do chores... POS car wouldn't turn off.  I ended up driving it home, parking it, and borrowing my parents' spare vehicle.  Car is sitting in the driveway waiting to run out of gas because it WON'T TURN OFF.

I hate it.  I hate it I hate it I hate it.  VW sucks.  VW is terrible awful no good rotten very very very bad useless garbage.

I haven't forgotten who this blog is about.

So here's a picture if River from this morning.

Volkswagen is terrible. Hell hath no fury.

My car is a moving warning against Volkswagen.

The bottom left says "BUYER BEWARE" with QR codes to my blog post on why VW sucks.  Bottom right says "Ask me why I hate this car! / (It's a piece of crap.) / VW sucks.  Don't buy one."

I hate VW, but I love OTTBs!

 And a closeup of the top two...

Yup.

It might not be the classiest looking thing, but it gets the point across.  I took the dealership stickers off the license plate frame so as not to insult them... not the dealership's fault that VW makes terrible cars.

Like I told VW in my email, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned by the manufacturer of her lemon car.

More Mare!

My poor Mare.  I'm pretty sure she's very angry with her boyfriend.. he is getting over a health issue, so now she has to earn her keep.  This is not right!  Beautiful red mares should not have to work like common dumb geldings!

I rode her last night in the outdoor (first time I've ridden her out there), then we went for a walk down the laneway between pastures and all the way around the newest pastures, and finished up by going up the driveway and walking down the road a little way.  (At which point BO stuck her head out the window and asked if I was sick, lol.)

I groomed her, making sure to get all the itchy spots.

(Sadly I could not get a picture that fully captured the silly, rapturous expression on her face.)

I even put training braids in her mane!
 

I also discovered a chunk of tail she'd somehow managed to suck up her butt, but there's no picture of that.  (You're welcome.)


 And I rode her today!  I wasn't sure how she'd be outside because Princess' turnout and the outdoor ring share a fence, so I was prepared for her to be pathetic, lovesick twit.  She was very good, even when Princess was making fun of her for having to work when he doesn't.  Seriously, he was.  He cantered up and down the fence and then took a loooooong, luxurious roll on one side, slowly got up, and had a nice roll on the other side.  His usual order of business is to roll first thing when he goes out, so he'd already rolled once.  He just had to do it in front of her.

The Mare was a good girl and wasn't any bitchier than normal, so that was good.

We rode in the ring for a bit....




Then we went out back again.  This time we walked around the new pastures several times... I like it because we have to go down a hill and back up a hill, and hills are fun.


 The horse I ride the least has the nicest bridle..

(Actually, she has the TWO best bridles I own.  This one, and a Five Star Tack bridle plus a custom browband, which has been used once..  The Wellfleet is about a $250 bridle, but I got it on clearance, yay!  But to be fair, River has the reins from this bridle and River's reins are on The Mare's...  I like rubber reins on Riv and regular laced reins on The Mare.)

I stopped her by her pasture, untacked her, and turned her out, then came back after putting my tack away to groom her.  She does love a good hard curry on her topline and having her face brushed.  She used to hate being groomed, especially on her belly, but I guess her ulcer medicine plus lots of hay and a low-stress environment have done her good!  When I let myself out of the pasture, she was nickering at me!  It's almost like she doesn't hate me!  (I know she really wanted to go inside and get grain, but I'm going to pretend she wanted me.)

Riv will probably get back to work in a couple days, so then The Mare can go back to doing nothing.

The Mare

Just wanted to share a few pictures of The Mare because she's so beautiful...

(I showed my mom this picture.  "Is that River?"  ........ Really, Mom?!?)

She and Princess are dealing with being separated very well!  She calls to him when he goes out, but she doesn't flip out about it.

Princess is doing great--no blood, no swelling--but he'd like to kill me for torturing him with medicine.  Too darn bad.  You're the genius who thought that getting a bloody nose and running up what will undoubtedly be an ungodly vet bill would be a good idea, so you can just deal with it.

River is okay!

Thursday the track vet came out to try to scope Riv...  Operative word being "try".

Twitch?  No.
Twitch + tranq?  No.
Twitch + tranq + ear twitch?  No.

Vet pulled the plug on it.  He had a $$$ scope destroyed by a bad horse a few years ago, and he could see it happening again with Riv.  I totally understand and don't blame him in the least.. he was doing me a favor by coming out at all; no reason for him to put himself or his equipment in unnecessary danger!  He said he does anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 scopes a year, and Riv was one of the worst he's had in years.

(Track vet is amazing.  I met him over 4 years ago when we took Wilson, my dearly departed gelding, to him for xrays.  Vet took one look at him and said "oh, this horse is screwed."  I mentioned it to him, and he remembered.  And when we were waiting for the tranq to kick in, he glanced at River for literally about two seconds, looked away, and goes "he's got a problem with his left knee."  Me:  "....."  Him:  "Inside, high."  Me:  "......"  Him:  "Here *points*."  Then he said that Riv's off the track and you'd have a hard time finding an ex-racer who doesn't have something.  So I'm not worried about it.  Just like, holy crap, he barely even looked at him and saw something!)

So track vet left and I had a meltdown.  Not because TV was mean, because he wasn't, but because I was so stressed and scared and frustrated.  Once I more or less stopped crying, I called my vet, who'd just gotten off the phone with TV.  She was ready with a new game plan and reassurances.  I also told her I had just noticed swelling on his face and that it felt kind of squishy/crinkly.

My vet came out Friday morning.  She tranq'd him (different drug than TV used) and did radiographs of his head.

Yeah.  Apparently it's normal.  *shrug*

Then we tried the scope...  Success!  Apparently the different drug did the trick!  He still did not appreciate it, but she was able to get it done.  She let me look a couple times, which was really cool.  If you've been lucky enough to never need a horse scoped, you haven't seen the amazingness of it.  It's so clear and bright and just cool.

Well, the scope showed nothing significant.  Just a little blood on the floor of his nasal cavity and a little blood clot.  She didn't go into his guttural pouches, but she did get him to swallow and nothing came out.  The most likely conclusion was just trauma.  So bute for a couple days and antibiotics for a week.

Friday morning, he had almost no blood.  He has had absolutely no blood since Friday evening!  The swelling on his face has gone down as well.

He's been on stall rest since Wednesday, and today he finally got to go out!  But we were mean.... since he and The Mare haven't been together in a while, we decided to put them in separate turnouts.  The Mare went in a new paddock with lots of grass quite a ways away.  Apparently she was pacing and calling when she first went out, but by the time I got to the barn to give Riv his antibiotics and turn him out, she was fine... unfortunately, she heard the gate clang as I was putting River out, so she started fussing again.  *eyeroll*  Riv couldn't decide if he wanted to eat or roll or spaz out or stare longingly at The Mare.  I had to leave for work, so I couldn't stay to watch..  dorks.

Have you seen How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days?  (If not, you are missing out.  Hilarious.)  You know Andi's friend Michelle, who has terrible luck in relationships because she get so clingy?  Yeah, that's The Mare.

Still need prayers!

I texted someone at the barn asking her to check on River.  She responded that it was mostly dried blood, but when he tossed his head blood started trickling again, and took a picture...  I texted the picture to my vet with an explanation of what was going on.  She called me back within about 5 minutes.. she'd checked with another vet who does a lot of track stuff, so he does tons of scopes..  I'm going to call him first thing in the morning and he can stop by to scope Riv.  If it gets any worse, my vet will come out, but she doesn't do as many scopes and she'll be less likely to get into the guttural pouches (which is what I'm really worried about).

Trying to figure out how to pay for surgery if it comes to that..

Panic!  Panic!  Panic!

Prayers for River, I'm kind of freaking out.

Riv has a bloody nose.  A trickle from one nostril.  I called the vet.. most likely cause is trauma, which wouldn't be a surprise... he has lumps on his head from whacking his face on things.

Worst case?  An infection in his guttural pouches, which would require scoping to find and then possibly surgery at Cornell.  The vet wasn't sure how much surgery would be, but probably at least a couple grand.  In which case... anyone wanna buy a kidney?  (I looked into donating/selling plasma a couple years ago, but you have to be Rh negative and I'm Rh positive.  But if anyone in WNY is Rh negative and wants to do it, there's a place in Williamsville.)

For now, he's staying in his stall and keeping quiet.  If it's not better in a day or two, we'll get him scoped and see where the blood is coming from.  If it gets any worse, I'll call to get him looked at ASAP.

I'm pretty much terrified.  If he does need surgery... I don't know.  He's the perfect horse for me and I know I'll never find a horse like him again, but I don't know if I can spend upwards of $2k, especially if the outcome is uncertain.  I don't even want to think about it.. which means it's going to be playing in my head in an endless loop until my nerves are completely shot and I start screaming and/or crying at the drop of a hat.

Prayers/thoughts/jingles/good vibes for River, please!

Riding and stuff.

First, I updated my VW Sucks post--basically, they've been trying since yesterday to find out what's wrong with it, and so far no luck.


Back to River....

I rode on Tuesday.  I decided to try a different bit, so I grabbed my old guy's bridle when I was at his barn.  His bit is a Sprenger aurigan double-jointed d-ring.  I used the whole bridle because changing bits is just too much trouble.  I just took the noseband off Riv's bridle and used it with old guy's bridle.  (I don't ride old guy in a noseband--my feeling is that if he's opening his mouth, it's because I'm doing something wrong, and I want to know so I can fix it... Riv, on the other hand, is green and I don't want him learning bad habits, so he does get a noseband.)

Modeling the bridle.....

Yes, old guy is ridden in a purple nylon headstall with hearts on it.  You got a problem with that?

Riding.. holy crap.  FORWARD.  I had to drop my whip.  It wasn't a super productive ride.. he hadn't been ridden in a week and he was all go-go-go.  So we pretty much just worked on paying attention and that sort of thing.  Probably won't be able to ride again until Tuesday, unless I get really ambitious on Sunday, which isn't likely.

He's looking so good!

He has a topline!!