Oh dear.

Princess got longed in side reins yesterday so we could practice cantering.

He's gotten better about longeing.

Which is not to say that he's gotten good about longeing.  He's just less bad.

He's starting to understand that he must go FORWARD.  Stopping to face me and backing up are not acceptable responses.  On the bright side, he got a good butt workout when he did decide to back up... he'd backbackback, and then when I cracked the whip good and made him go, he'd spring off his hindquarters and move smoothly forward.  Or he'd spring off his hindquarters and buck to let me know he doesn't appreciate having a whip cracked at his rump.  I did end up closing the sliding door back into the barn so he couldn't see in.. otherwise he gets too distracted and hopes he can quit and go home.

Going to the left, he ended up being pretty good about going around and not stopping.  Asking to canter was tricky..  I don't think he really knows what "canter" means, so we'll work on that. 

The right wasn't so good.  Partly because he's an OTTB, partly I think because we spent a while going to the left and he was tired.  But he was a reasonably good boy.

I wrote on my friend's wall, the one who is willing to canter River...

Me:  So, cantering River this weekend probably won't work... we practiced cantering on the longe and there was lots of running around and bucking..

Her:  Let me know if he is still stupid later this week 
Me:  Just to clarify... you want me to let you know if my horse who injured himself bucking me off and has lumps of bone on his head from repeatedly walking into walls is still stupid in a few days.  Right. Will do

Tuesday morning is my AM chores day... walking my guys out to their turnout:

 Princess in his new halter.  Stupid weirdly sized head.  I suppose the horse size would have worked after all, but his previous horse sized halter was too big, so I went with cob. 

My 100th post!

Too bad it's not really exciting enough for such a momentous occasion....

I rode him Friday and Saturday.  It takes a while to get him figuring out contact and giving, but he was better the second day.

Saturday was pretty entertaining...  there was a lesson going on when I rode.  A western lesson.  The type of western where the horse moves as slooowwwllllyyyyyy as possible, and then a little bit slower.  Meanwhile, I had to dismount and ask the instructor to hold River so I could go get my whip because Princess was not moving forward or off my leg.  So you've got Mr. Slow Poke western horse jogging... and then me and River, probably looking like we were careening wildly out of control in comparison.  And me clucking and growling and smacking Riv to make him go MORE!  It's not a very big indoor, so it went like this:  Start trotting around, circle at A to avoid running up on western horse, trot on, circle at C to avoid running up on western horse, trot on, circle at A......

It was the first time I've ridden him with another horse since we moved and he was a very good boy.  At the end, I let him walk around and we practiced not stopping at the gate going back into the barn.  He really likes to stall there, apparently hoping I'll get the hint and put him away.  The first time he stopped, I popped him with my whip a couple times, and he tried to kick out!  Which got him a good kick back from me.  We circled past the gate a few times, with me carefully not touching him so he would be free to stop if he wanted to, but he was smart and didn't try to stop again.


Hanging out in the aisle waiting to go back in his stall:

Unicorn boy!

His enormous stall:

The pictures don't adequately show it, but this stall is huge.

Oh, and good news!  I have a volunteer to canter him for the first time!  Which means I'll have to longe him a few times and work on canter departs...

Hmm

I haven't posted in a few days, so I can't remember what's happened..

I rode at some point this week.  Tuesday, I think?  He was pretty good.  He's getting better about moving off leg.  We even attempted a leg yield at the trot.  It looked more like a drunken elephant trying to dance, but hey, he tried.  Not every horse can be smart or graceful..  Unfortunately, at the end of the ride, he turned up lame.  Not horribly lame, I think he just tweaked something being a silly clod.  Last night I took him out in the indoor to see him move and he was fine, so apparently whatever he did was no big deal.  He was trotting so nice and forward... he really has a lovely trot.

The ponies have actually worn clothes a couple times!  Just sheets so they don't get wet if it rains.  I'm almost looking forward to it getting cold so I can stop checking the forecast to see when the weather will call for clothes and when I'll be able to stop out and get them dressed.  They'll just have clothes on all the time, and that'll be that.  Much simpler.

Yesterday afternoon I stopped by quickly to say hi.

My poor, abused, overworked horses.

I ended up going to Tractor Supply and picking up some things, so they'll be getting an extra meal most nights.  I got beet pulp pellets, alfalfa pellets, and a cheap version of Omega Horseshine.  I have baggies made up...  1 cup each of beep and falf, and about a half cup of Horseshine.  Then I just have to dump the baggie into a little bucket, add hot water, and wait.  When it's ready, I add in about 2 cups of BOSS and a bunch of the extra grain I have in my car (Purina Omolene 500...  yeah yeah, NSC!!!  But it's 12% protein and 8% fat... they'll live).  Mix it all together, add in a generous splash or two of oil, and you have a yummy meal!  Well, yummy if you're a horse...  Last night I made one baggie and split it between them.  Princess can be a picky eater and I didn't want him overwhelmed with new(ish) food.  I may increase the amount of beep and falf they get, I haven't decided yet.  Hopefully a month or two of this will help get their weight where I want it and then we can go back to a maintenance level.  By the way, I have the hardest time spelling "maintenance".  I never get it right.

Also, my mare is a disgusting pig in her stall.  By morning, it looks like her stall was bedded down with nothing but poop and urine.  It's nasty.  I contacted the BO earlier in the week to see if I could put up a hay net--the mare isn't crazy about being stalled, so she fusses and paces and makes a mess.  I was thinking a hay net might slow down her eating and give her less time to be upset about being stalled.  My main concern wasn't really for her happiness, I just don't want the BO getting annoyed that my horse is a slob and is wasting bedding.... yeah, I'm not very nice.  BO responded that they'd noticed it too and were thinking about switching stalls, which is totally fine with me.  So now the mare is in River's previous stall, right next to a wee pony.  River is across the aisle in the biggest stall in the barn... seriously, it's got to be like 12 x 18 or something ridiculous like that.  They seem pretty happy.

So that's about it, I think..

I did trim a horse on Wednesday... Yikes.  It's going to take a few trims to get her feet in order.  I have to wonder if the farrier who's been doing her is purposely doing the worst possible job.  I'm not sure how it's possible to get feet so out of balance without really trying to do it..

Here are a couple before/afters.

Left front:

Right front:

That's all for now!

The Horrors of Blanket Washing

Yesterday, the package containing Princess' new winter blanket and a bottle of blanket wash arrived.

First, the new blanket is hot pink.  I mean HOT.  PINK.  I might need sunglasses to look at him.  I should feel bad.... but I don't.  At all.  I was at the feed store talking to a girl who works at the barn, and she said she was so confused for a while about River/Princess and Irish and trying to figure out which is the mare and which is the gelding.  She feels bad for Riv's pink blanket.  Oh well.  Besides, we're at a mostly-western barn where silver and bling and crystals and bright colors are normal.

Now on to the main portion of today's post...

I know I'd talked about going to a laundromat to wash blankets.  I gave it up and decided I wasn't going to make it there, so yesterday I washed the light stuff.

Sheet One:  River's Rambo Wug.  Found a dead bug in the washer.  Ewwww.

Sheet Three:  Irish's 100g Rambo.  Nothing scary here.

Now for the gross one...

Sheet Two:  Irish's Schneider's sheet.  Found a dead caterpillar in a cocoon, with its head and big eyes sticking out of the top.  I know it doesn't really sound all that icky, but trust me.  It was that icky.   *shudder*

I still have a sheet that's MIA, and frankly if it does turn up I may well be too afraid to touch it.  (BO who didn't feed my horses borrowed it and never returned it.  Gr.)

Blankets remaining to be washed:  Irish's heavyweight Rambo (which cost me $75 brand new!!!!  Deal of the century!) and Striker's midweight Schneider's.

Haven't seen Princess or the mare since Tuesday morning.  Pretty sure they're still alive.  I did see my baby Tuesday.. she's alive and well.  I'm almost looking forward to winter.. she's gotten fat on grass.  Not horribly obese, but too fat for a yearling.  Hopefully the cold and hay will slim her down a little..  she hasn't had grain in about 3 months!

Busy :(

Riv has been ignored for a while. 

Friday I worked all day, then did night chores at Riv's barn and went to bed.

Saturday I worked until noon, chilled out at home for a little while, went to the barn to water the ring (which took a good 2 hours), then went to my old guy's barn.  I trimmed two wee ponies' feet and did my stall.  Contemplated doing something useful, but decided to go to bed instead.  Here's one pony with one foot not done and one foot done:

Sunday I worked until 1 or so, took a nap (oops), went to a friend's house to get petsitting instructions, went to Riv's barn to do chores (stalls and feeding), went to the old guy's barn, cleaned 14 stalls, went home and went to bed.

Monday I got up at 3:30 in the morning.  Eeeeek!!!!!!  Took aforementioned friend to the airport, got home around 5:30, went back to bed for a couple hours, got up, went to old guy's barn, got 5 stalls done, went to work, got out of work, finished stalls and fed dinner, ran errands, took care of dogs and cats, went to bed.

This morning I got up, took care of the critters, did morning chores at Riv's barn (grain the few horses who get AM grain, put everyone out and throw hay), now I'm at work.  I need to do my old guy's stall.  I need to visit my baby.  I haven't seen her in over a week (!!!!!) and should probably verify that she is still alive.  I also have one more wee pony to trim.  Then petsitting duties.  I have no idea if I'll have time to ride today..

Tomorrow is going to be a long day at work.  Thursday and Saturday I'm working 6am to 2pm.  Ew.

I hate being too busy to do anything!!  Oh, and did I mention that my part-time job is going to SUCK for the next few weeks because the store is being converted into something else and the construction is ridiculous?  Yeah.  Gonna be super fun.

And it's starting to get cold.  I finally ordered blanket wash, so at some point I need to find time to go to a laundromat to wash all my horse blankets.  Anyone know how much pay washing machines cost?  I'll probably need a roll of quarters....

On the bright side, I ordered Princess a new winter blanket!  He has a purple Rambo Wug sheet, and soon he'll have a hot pink midweight turnout from Schneider's!  I also have a couple liners/underlayers, so I can adjust warmth as needed.  I'll err on the side of more warm, as he's still needing to gain weight and I don't want him burning calories to stay warm.  The mare will need her clothes, too..

So that's the story.  Sadly, not at all exciting...  just busy with stupid stuff.

Yeah!!!

We did it!  River actually went correctly last night!  Okay, it was only in one direction and it took about 15 minutes to get him there, but we did it!  AND at the end of the ride I did a couple halts and backs, then figured I should have him trot forward before we finished so he ends on a forward note..  As soon as he picked up the trot, he reached right for the bit on his own and went nice and round.  He's figuring it out!

I also rode my mare for the first time in almost a month.  I've waffled on posting this, but I've decided to put it out there.

This is the mare when we moved:

This is the mare one month later:

Yeah, it's pretty appalling.  I didn't realize at first how bad she looked, it was a pretty big shock when I realized how grossly underweight she'd gotten.

I was so disappointed when my old BO announced she was leaving.  I had been perfectly happy.  Yeah, River was ribby, but he was getting lots of grain and getting better.  Irish was a little thin, but she wasn't on any grain, so okay, no big deal.  We were there for two weeks after BO told me she was leaving.  In that time, the boarders' horses went from being a little ribby to very ribby.  

Looking back, it's obvious our horses weren't getting fed like they were supposed to.  I was paying almost $150/month for River's grain (6 bags of Ultium).  Another horse was supposed to be getting Ultium as well.  River was supposed to be on 10 pounds of Ultium a day.  Now he gets probably about 3 pounds a day--2 bags a month.  He's gained a significant amount of weight.  Irish gets probably about 2 or 3 pounds of senior feed a day.  As you can see, she's gained a LOT.

I'm so upset with myself.  How did I not notice how bad her condition had gotten?  I think it came down to trust.  I trusted my BO to take care of my horses.  It never occurred to me that she might be either pocketing the money I paid for my horse's grain, or giving my grain to her own horses, but that's likely what happened.

Moral of the story:  Don't be too quick to trust.  If what you're being told doesn't match up with what you're seeing, investigate further.  Don't be blinded by your faith in someone else.

I neglected to tell you that I'd be neglecting you.

My apologies.  You and River have been pretty much ignored for the past few days.

I took my old guy to a show on Saturday.  It was...  um.  I survived!  That's really the best that can be said.  We did an Intro horse trial.  Dressage was decent (35.0 penalties).  Stadium was ugly and then I fell off with two fences left.  It's very much a schooling show, so they let you complete it even if you get disqualified.  I was going to ride xc, but I was just too afraid*.  He can go from being wonderful to being nuts in a second, and when that switch is flipped, you can't stop**.  The last time I rode in a field, I broke my leg.  I am understandably nervous at the idea of a repeat.

So I had someone else ride him for me.  She rides much more than I do, and is braver and stickier, and therefore much less likely to die.  He was reasonably behaved...  he jumped everything without stopping and wasn't too out of control.

*Once upon a time, I'd rather have died than admit to being afraid of my horse or a jump.  Now, I'll shout it from the rooftops, I don't care.  Yes, I get scared.  I get scared about a crossrail or a 12" vertical.  I know what can happen and I have a great deal of respect for the dangers of horseback riding.  I try to push myself enough that I'm not stagnating, but not so much that fear will interfere with my ability to ride well enough to get the job done.

**Contrary to how it sounds, my old guy isn't crazy and dangerous.  Not really, anyway.  He just gets excited about jumping and sometimes his brain turns off.  He's perfect and wonderful and I love him more than anything... but his show name is Suicide Run for a reason.

Some xc pictures... the only ones I have because I was riding the other phases and obviously couldn't take pictures.

Isn't he ADORABLE???  Even when the rider is pulling with all her might to slow him down and he completely ignores it and keeps going...  Love my boy so so much <3.

Anywho, now that the show is over I'll be able to pay attention to River again.