Guess what!

No, really, guess!

I'm waiting...





Nope, that's not it.  Try again!





Give up?




Oh, alright....

*Someone* is out of aluminum bar shoes and into regular ol' steel shoes!

My checkbook is very very appreciative.  River doesn't seem to care one way or the other, which I guess is good because he feels fine either way.  Bell boots are staying on, just in case.  (Don't worry that the shoe looks crooked.  It's not, but River wasn't cooperating for me to get a better picture.)

Also, we had rain!!!!  First time in probably a month we've had any appreciable amount of rain... thank goodness.


Not about River, but I have to brag.  Seriously, I do, I'm so excited.

I like feet.  Not in a foot fetish way, in a hoof trimming way.  I've been playing around with trimming and learning for something like three years now.  Every time my super-awesome farrier comes out I watch and ask lots of questions.  I've been trimming my older gelding for the past year and a half, ever since he went barefoot.  He's stayed sound, so I figure I'm doing something right.

Last week, my BO asked if I could do one of her horse's feet.  Her farrier isn't due for another month and the mare's feet were getting pretty gross.  I had planned on just running a rasp around the fronts to neaten them up, but they were in sufficient need that I ended doing a full trim all around.  I was happy with the work I did and my BO was thrilled.

So when my farrier came a few days ago (yes, this post has been waiting for me to get a picture of Riv's new shoes), she asked him to take a look at the mare I did, not telling him who did her feet.  He was complimentary and BO explained that I did the feet.  Super-awesome farrier was very pleased with my work and only had two very minor corrections.  Super-awesome farrier is proud of my trimming and asked when I'm going to start doing feet for money.  !!!!!!!  Which, honestly, I would actually really like to do.  I mentioned this to the BO at my old guy's barn and she's interested in having me do at least some of the barefoot horses.  Not to brag, but I can say with absolute certainty that I'm better than their farrier.  The barn farrier is... well.... he's terrible.  He somehow manages to keep horses going, but the quality of the work is appalling.  Ugh, I need to stop, I'm going to freak myself out.

I will say, the problem with having a super-awesome farrier and learning about feet is that I pretty much have to force myself to not look at other people's horses' feet.  It's just too upsetting to see horses standing on trainwrecks when I can't do anything about it.  I did suggest to one person that she ask the farrier why the shoes weren't on straight and why one heel was so much longer than the other....

So yeah.  I'm apparently a halfway decent trimmer!  And on Thursday I'm going to a clinic/lecture thingy at super-awesome farrier's house.  We'll be radiographing and dissecting cadaver hooves!  Yes, I am a little too excited about dead horse feet.  It'll be so educational and I think it will help a lot with my confidence...  Old guy had a crapload of retained sole for months because I was too afraid to go after it.  I finally did and his feet look so much better, but I think the cadaver hooves will help with understanding the anatomy so I don't feel like I'm cutting into the unknown.

Riding and pretty pads

River has been ridden!  Twice!  He had some quality time off after his little incident... although really, that had more to do with the weather being horribly horribly hot and humid than his dumping me.  I rode him Thursday and Saturday, and he was SO GOOD.  Next time, I need to take the running martingale off and rig up a standing out of baling twine (no, I don't own a standing attachment; as a rule, I don't like standings).  He still has his moments where he wants to stick his head straight up, but he also has some steering issues.   By which I mean, sometimes he doesn't steer.  The running keeps me from using an opening rein, so we'll try a standing, see if that helps.

Saturday, we did quite a bit of trotting.  And even over poles.  Granted, they were just ground poles, but still.  It was pretty impressive.  Except for when we walked over the elevated pole and he clunked it.  Hard.  Repeatedly.  Until it fell.  He struggles with the whole "picking your feet up and not causing mass destruction wherever you go" thing.  It's a work in progress.

The even more amazing thing?  I untacked him in the grooming stall, and he managed to leave without running into the wall (yes, it happens frequently) or tripping over the threshold and falling out of the stall (yes, it happens frequently).  We're pretty sure he's just kind of stupid.  But he's very sweet and pretty...

My logo is finally done and I got my pads!  Here's River's:

(I don't know why the pad looks pink.  It's not.  It's white with burgundy trim.)

My super-awesome BO designed the logo and is in the process of copyrighting it, so I think logo items will be available for sale soon :).

Thoroughbreds aren't that special.

This idea has been sitting in my drafts for 5 months.... finally getting around to actually writing it.

Thoroughbreds aren't that special.  Which is not to diminish their wonderfulness, their talents, and so on.  But then take a look at The Saddle Club or the Thoroughbred book series (shuttup, I'm not a 12 year old, I just happen to enjoy children's horse books, don't judge me!)...

Ideally this post would be accompanied by actual quotes from the books, but I'm writing this at work, so you're going to have to deal with paraphrasing.

In The Saddle Club....
1.  Pine Hollow gets a new TB and Max asks the girls who wants to ride it first.  Carol and Stevie say they decided Lisa should get to ride the horse "because she's never ridden a Thoroughbred before."  OMG how has the poor child survived?  But I guess it's not surprising, Thoroughbreds are so incredibly rare, it's hard to believe I've owned 3 in my short time with horses, and ridden more than I can remember!

2.  In the book Hobby Horse, Lisa's cousin comes to stay with them and makes a big deal about wanting to ride a Thoroughbred and she throws tantrums when she doesn't get to ride a Thoroughbred.  Then her parents come to see her and ask if she's riding a Thoroughbred.  Because obviously the only horse worth riding is a Thoroughbred.  Obviously.

Thoroughbred
In the first book, Ashleigh is sad and treated like crap by the farm owner's son because she's not rich or whatever.  So her dad finds a horse for her to ride, an old retired Thoroughbred gelding.  She's riding around, cantering or galloping I think, when she passes snotty farm owner's son riding, who gapes in shock at seeing her ride a Thoroughbred.  *gasp*  A THOROUGHBRED????  No way!  She's only 12, how can she possibly handle a horse of such spirit and value?  She thinks "see, I can ride, too!"  Well, ok.  You can ride.  Being on a Thoroughbred isn't actually a big deal.  Riding an old, been-there done-that gelding isn't going to make some snotty teenager bow down and kiss your feet, praising you for your skills.  Heck, I'd be more impressed with someone who can successfully pilot a Thelwell-esque Shetland!

Wow, I kind of sound like a bitch.  Sorry 'bout that.  It's been a rough week.

Since we're (I'm) discussing Thoroughbreds, just a vaguely amusing story...  A few years ago, I was talking to my grandma about horses and she asked what kind of horses I ride.  I mentioned Thoroughbreds, and she said "thoroughbred what?"  Me:  "Thoroughbreds."  Her:  "yes, but what breed?"  Me:  "Thoroughbreds.  Thoroughbred is a breed, like Arabians, Quarter Horses...."  Her:  "Oh, you ride thoroughbred Quarter horses."  Me:  *headdesk*

They're here!

Princess's SmartPaks are here!  And yes, I'm sad that they say "Princess Rive".  I'll have to call and ask if they can either take out the space so it's "PrincessRiver" or just do "Princess Riv".  Obviously taking "Princess" out isn't an option.  Obviously.

And it turns out SmartPak has quite a sense of humor.  Or rather, a sense of irony.

i·ro·ny

[ahy-ruh-nee, ahy-er-] 

noun, plural i·ro·nies.

1.the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning: the irony of her reply, “How nice!” when I said I had to work all weekend.

Also:

 ox·y·mo·ron

   [ok-si-mawr-on, -mohr-]

noun, plural ox·y·mo·ra  [ok-si-mawr-uh, -mohr-uh], ox·y·mor·ons. Rhetoric .

a figure of speech by which a locution produces an incongruous, seemingly self-contradictory effect, as in “cruel kindness” or “to make haste slowly.”

See also:

River's rough-up rundown

River is the most injury/accident/problem prone horse on the face of the planet.  In about 7 months, he has had:

Swollen legs needing antibiotics
Persistent scratches
Hair loss
Various cuts/scrapes/kicks
Hives from bug bites
Some sort of injury to his forehead causing extra bone to develop
Heel cracks needing $200 shoes
Tweaked hip

So basically, we're averaging a little more than one new health issue per month.  Pretty impressive, huh?

Now my question is:  HOW did this horse hold up to about 10 years on the track and 90 races?  HOW?!  He's barely survived just hanging out in a field, eating and being a horse!  You'd think the stress of racing and training would bring out any problems, but nooooo, not Princess River.

*sigh*

River can trot without looking like a giraffe!

Because it's been a concern.  Until recently, there hasn't been much evidence that he was capable of trotting without his nose straight up in the air.

(And his tweaked hip is better, as he's now moving normally.)

I tried longeing him in side reins.  After trying them long a few times, I shortened them enough that he could feel them when standing with his head moderately up/out.  Silly guy had no idea what was going on.  He was very politely confused and even tried backing up a couple steps.  It took a minute, but he figured out he was supposed to move *forward*.  I asked him to walk and trot, and while it was better than without side reins, he was still pretty inverted.  So I got a bit creative.

Disclaimer:  I am not generally a fan of gadgets or using anything to force a horse into a frame.  I tried something new on Riv in the hope that it would show him how to move without looking like giraffe on crack.  So please don't read and think I'm taking shortcuts or whatever... I felt that teaching him to move more correctly as soon as possible was wise so he wouldn't develop all the wrong muscling, which would make things even harder later on.

The side reins were adjusted as long as possible, and the adjustable end (which makes a loop of leather) was put through the girth of the surcingle, coming up between his legs, and then snapped to the bit.  The idea being, if he tries to stick his nose straight up, the reins would pull straight down.  At first he had no idea what to do, and when asked to walk forward he did some lovely turns on the forehand.  So I walked at his head, using the longe whip to encourage him to walk forward with me.  When he was doing that not like a moron, I slowly moved back and had him keep walking.  He got the idea and walked with his head held in a normal position.  Then we tried trotting.  It took him a minute to figure out that he COULD trot without imitating a giraffe, but then he really got it.  He was trotting forward, nicely stretchy, and even stretching forward and down as far as he could.  Then we switched to the right, and repeated the whole "you can walk, honest!  I swear, just try!  Please, just TRY walking instead of turning on your forehand, I promise you can do it without dying or exploding" thing.... boys.

In the end, he really seemed to figure out what I want and was such a good boy.  Even when he had no clue what was going on, he was polite and sensible.  What a good pony!

Good news and bad news and bad news and good news

Good news:  River is sound (mostly)

You can see he takes a slightly weird step a couple times, but nothing I'm worried about... It'll take time for his heel cracks to grow out and get everything 100% stable.

Here's a still from the video:

Bad news:  He was feeling good enough to spook and buck me off.

Bad news:  Bucking me off was apparently too strenuous for him and he tweaked his hip.  So he was moving a little funny behind.  Pretty sure I have the only horse in the world who bucks off his rider and hurts himself.

Good news:  I'm fine.  Well, my butt is a little sore, but no big deal.  It was my first fall since my bad accident, so I was pretty happy to have a not-too-scary fall.  I got right back on and all ended well.