We tried longeing for the first time today. Oh em gee. Let me illustrate: Shuttup, I never pretended to be artistic.
Going to the left, he figured it out pretty well and was more or less able to walk in circles around me. At one point I tried getting him to trot, but he wasn't interested in moving faster than an amble.
The right, however... oh dear. I had to give him a couple feet of line, stand at his hindquarters, with a hand on him to keep him moving and away from me. Next time: Long lining and a helper.
Here's a little video of our pathetic longeing. (Don't worry, I do have a pink saddle pad.)
The eaten out middle of the round bale makes a good grain bucket holder.
I've mentioned my dearly departed gelding but haven't gone into detail... well, now you get more details than you wanted. If you want, you can skip to the bottom of this post and just watch the video, it pretty well sums things up.
Feb '07 - Barn owner (not River's barn owner) got a call from a local trainer about a young Thoroughbred he'd gotten off the track. The horse was a bit off and the trainer wasn't interested in coddling him. Barn owner mentioned it to me and said the horse would be free, I said heck yes get him! I was there when he arrived, my first words upon seeing him were "ooooh, I like him!" Horse was Imafavoritetrick, a 2001 OTTB. He didn't have a barn name, I came up with "Wilson" (after the character from the TV show House) and fought tooth and nail for it for about two weeks before the barn owner (and his owner) gave up and let me name him Wilson. He had a big knee and was lame on it, but perfectly happy.
April/May '07 - We took Wilson for x-rays. We took him off the trailer, and the vet took one look at him and said "oh, this horse is screwed." (Yes, that's a direct quote.) He did x-rays and his verdict was, well, it wasn't the worst knee he'd ever seen--the implication of course being that it was darn close. Vet said go ahead and turn him out, nothing you do is going to make him any worse. So he got turned out and I even rode him a bit.
Toward the end of the summer, he was doing well. On his good days, he was nearly sound. I kept hope that the vet would be wrong and he'd get better.
(He was a shooting star for Halloween.)
Feb/March '08 - New vet, new x-rays. This one's diagnosis was Wilson would have to be put down fairly soon and should be kept in a stall with as little movement as possible to avoid aggravating the knee and making it worse. After a few days of crushing disappointment, we basically decided to ignore that vet. If his life is going to be dramatically shortened, then he was going to enjoy his life. Wilson was already my spoiled little baby boy, so he got even more spoiled.
July '09 - Long story, I bought Wilson for $1. He moved to another barn for a few months and then moved in with my mare (not where she is currently).
Fall '09 - New vet, new x-rays. Showed him the old ones, he asked if I really wanted to bother getting new ones. As expected, the knee is terrible, lots of arthritis and stuff. Keep him on bute to keep him comfortable, be prepared to make a decision in the foreseeable future.
Fall '10 - Same vet, new x-rays, this is bad, he's going to need to be put down soon. Keep him on bute and hope for the best, be careful in the winter.
He got to spend quality time with the cows.
Spring '11 - Mare had her baby, Wilson was having fits about not being able to be with her and see the baby. Developed an abscess in his good front foot, horribly lame. Got it drained, abscess in a hind. At this point, it's not looking good. Treating the abscesses is a nightmare because he can't bear extra weight on his bad leg, the pain was too bad.
June '11 - Set up a vet appointment to see what's going on with these abscesses. I know he won't last a lot longer, but hoping we can keep him going through the summer and put him down before winter. Finally decide he can't keep doing this.
June 3, 2011 - My baby boy is gone.
Why does all this matter? Wilson was the first recently off the track TB I'd ever met. He was my baby from the moment he stepped off the trailer. He came from the same track as River. He was sweet and wonderful and a jerk to other horses. He was the first horse I named, the first horse I owned, the first horse I put down. So much goes back to him. I don't know what things would be like if I'd never had him. I don't think I'd have ever gotten River if I hadn't had Wilson.
Yes, I've been negligent in posting. I didn't get out to the barn for a couple days, so there wasn't much to say. Let's see....
Now that Christmas is over, candy canes are 50% off. I didn't have a cart or basket, so I only got 6 boxes. But since I also have 6 or 7 bags of individually wrapped mints, we're probably okay for a while. The funny thing was the checker. She asked if all the candy was about gone, and I explained that I just wanted candy canes because my horses like them. "Excuse me, ma'am, did you say horses?!" The woman had never heard of horse eating candy canes. We chatted for a few minutes about horses and the things they eat. This remind me of a friend's recent Facebook status... her horse was off and looking to be brewing an abscess, so she went to get supplies. Her status was wondering what the checker thought about her purchase of diapers, duct tape, and candy.
Thanks to our lovely cold weather, the ground is frozen and yucky again. Riv is doing okay, though. One of his legs is a bit swollen, no doubt from navigating the ground.... knowing him, he was trying to chase someone off his food. I really wish we would get some good snow, we need a layer of cushion to make the ground easier to handle. I was going to try longeing him today, but with his leg we had to postpone. And by "longeing" I mean "putting him on a long lead and ask him to walk and maybe trot three steps to see if he understands the idea."
They recently got a fresh round bale and they've already just about demolished it. Well, at least they're not peeing on it.
Awwww, he really is cute. This is after he was mugging me for treats, and then had the nerve to spit out the candy cane and try to interfere with me feeding the Mare. Excuse me, mister, if you don't want the treat I give you, then you'll do without. Or, one of my favorite sayings, "you'll get nothing and like it!"
Guys, it's River Mountain Rd. You can call me River, the crazy lady does, even though I never gave her my perms..perim.. permish... oh road apples, I never told her she could. I need help. This is really really bad. Look what she's making me wear: See? It's awful. I'm so sad I can't even pick my head up.
Please don't look at me...
PINK FLOWERS. That whacko lady is making me wear PINK. FLOWERS. Hey stupid lady, I'M A BOY!
I'm trying to be strong. I don't want her to know how much this upsets me. But.... pink flowers??? I can't do this. I can't. I heard her talking to the Hay Lady today. Do you know what she wants to make me wear? A PINK BLANKET. PINK. BLANKET. The stupid halter is bad enough. Do you know what the mares will do to me if I have a pink blanket? Stupid wimpy Gryffin is going to look like a total stud next to me in a pink blanket. Hear that? They're laughing at me. The girls are laughing.
But you know what, Crazy Lady? You want to ride me. Heh heh heh. You might want to reconsider making me wear pink... you might have a more wild ride than you are expecting...
River!
What have I told you about using my computer? Stop being such a drama queen. Real men wear pink. The mares think it's cute. News flash: You might be a boy, but you're a gelding. A nutless wonder. Trust me, the girls were laughing at you long before the pink flower halter. And if you even think about being naughty when I ride you, your suffering will increase a hundred times. If you think the halter and possible blanket are bad, you don't even want to guess what other horrors are in store.
My sister got me a $50 SmartPak gift certificate for Christmas. River could use something fun, I just don't know what. He's good on halters and leads. I have a pink saddle pad, but only one and I'm a total saddle pad addict. What about this pad with burgundy trim? I have barn buddies, so free embroidery... I like the recycle symbol with "River Mountain Rd" under it in pink. It's not excessively frou-frou, and the recycle symbol is fitting. And also a pair of Woof Wear boots with pink straps. Any other suggestions?
I got a fun new halter for him, but the pictures I got are too washed out and I don't want to spoil the surprise by posting not-great pictures, so that will have to wait until tomorrow.
He has a weird head. The top of his head is too narrow or something, so his ears are too close together. He always looks sweetly dopey.
Sorry, nothing very interesting on the River front (ha ha!).. I didn't see him Wednesday because we had our office Christmas party (which means yummy cocktails!) and today I stopped by for a few minutes.
Horses are stupid. They had a bunch of fresh hay tossed out in the paddock. They all ignored it to dig strands of hay from the round bale out of the mud. ?????? Idiots.
River is getting better about respecting that when I'm in the paddock, *I* am in charge. He tried to run my mare off once, but he backed off when he realized that he was on thin ice.
Here's an illustration. I hope it compensates for the lack of entertaining posts.
As I have mentioned, River is not my only horse. Here is an introduction to my other ponies.
Striker is a 24 year old Thoroughbred who is incapable of acting his age. His show name is, for good reason, "Suicide Run". He was the first horse I took a lesson on, the first horse I leased, and we're still together. It's been nearly 6 years since the first time I rode him. Now we're an old married couple. He annoys me, I annoy him, he behaves himself for me and drags other people around when they try to lead him. I can't bring myself to get annoyed with him for that; I rather think it's endearing. Striker is the horse I lease.
Next up is Irish. She's a 17 year old Thoroughbred who is rarely addressed by her name. She usually goes by Mare, Red Mare, Mare-Mare, or Beautiful. I've been riding her for about 4 1/2 years, and I've owned her for a bit over 2 years. There's a very long story with her, but in short she was given to a scumbag horse trader behind my back while I was leasing her, without her owner's knowledge or consent. I got her back in the end, thank goodness. In some ways she's perfect for me, in others she's perfectly wrong. Mare is me in horse form... sometimes that's a good thing, because I know how to get her to do what I want. Sometimes our similarity is bad, because we feed off each other and a situation gets worse. Unfortunately for her, she's stuck with me. Mare lives with River.
And last, but certainly not least, is Lily. Lily (AKA Pig, Piggles, Pigs, Piglet) is an almost-8 month old Thoroughbred/Connemara cross filly (registered and branded ISR, Premium awarded). She is Irish's baby and was conceived while I was still in the hospital after falling off Irish and breaking my leg. Lily was quite beautiful as a very young foal; she now unfortunately bears more than a passing resemblance to a poorly-bred mule. Pig is a stubborn, feisty, attitudinal little beast. She's also very affectionate, if a little too demanding at times.
I know, I know, you look at the fuzzy muley beast and wonder what on earth I was thinking, and how much did I pay the inspector to make her a Premium foal? But honest, she was once a lovely filly:
She's going through a rather unfortunate phase now...
