Grandma's Fall Visit.

My Mom came for a long weekend and we enjoyed some time at the barn on a gorgeous Saturday! Junior enjoys being a Grandpony and was an absolute Angel all day. We put him outside and worked on cleaning his stall.



Junior was content outside until someone brought another horse out to the turnouts, then decided the other paddocks were too muddy and then took their horse back behind the barn to the mudlot. Junior was NOT okay with the tease of a possible playmate and I had to go rescue him as he was tearing up and down the fenceline screaming and getting himself all sweaty and upset. Oh well, we were nearly done with the stall anyway. Though the ground looked pretty dry he managed to find a nice muddy spot and rolled both sides in thick mud. We had to tie him to dry for a bit before we could even start removing it.

My mom had horses in the late 60's (and oh were things a bit different back then) so I always had a kindred spirit and support system for my horsey endeavors. My mom was at every one of my horse shows up until I graduated from high school. Yes, Dad came to most of them and dutifully held the video camera and enjoyed the socialization, but he was also the one who put my western hat on my head backwards during a versatility class' English to Western change. But I digress.

This is Mom on Cody, her grade mare which she paid for with baby-sitting money.

This is Mom on Saturday, enjoying the weather in the mid sixties, the sunshine, and the breezes.

Junior was an angel the whole time. I rode him first to get him a little warmed up and collected. Mom hopped on and walked and jogged around. Before I could even suggest it she asked him into a lope and he was such a good boy.

What she said she'd really like to do is go for a ride around the farm. I agree, but I really only have one horse so that wasn't an option for today. My plan is to ask some of my barn friends if they'd be willing to loan me a horse for a ride the next time Mom comes. I'm sure someone would be happy to oblige and that would be great fun!

I had Junior's shoes pulled for the winter on Wednesday and the farrier kept the shoes for me so we can put them back on in the spring. Anybody know if I should do anything with them in the meantime other than keeping them dry so they don't rust?

I have a lesson tomorrow that Mom gets to come watch.

Bad Tidings Come in Threes...?

Don't worry, Junior is just fine. He's fat and loving his life as a lesson pony. He digs the attention, has stopped cribbing, is playing with his Jolly Ball (I found it full of water the other day...impressive) and seems to be in a lovely mood every time I see him. Today I forgot my boots and had to ride in my Chucks. Did you know western spurs just don't work on Chuck Taylors? I do now! So I rode without spurs during KAT's lesson of newbie college kids so it was good practice for busy warm up pens. He was fine, just had to move my feet around more to get him to respond in his normal manner. He had already had a lesson and turn out so I didn't ride hard, but I did make him do a nice true lope for me. It was 72 degrees and sunny today so we went for a walk outside in the breeze to dry off the humidity induced sweat. He's a little terrified of dry cornstalks in the wind. He was not sure about it when it was green and now that it's brown and very loud in the wind he would have nothing to do with it. I think we'll do some tarp work in the spring when it's windy....

So the Bad Tidings. Max, Junior's BFF is on stall rest for a really bad cut on his coronet band which he received in turnout. He's doing just fine, but it'll be a while before we know if he's going to be 100% afterwards.

Bad news #2 is that our only Arabian in the barn had to be euthanized yesterday due to a compound fracture of her pastern. She was 22 years old. She did that in turnout, too. Both of these accidents happened when my horse (and Zippy, too) were with them. Neither of these injuries are consistent with a kick from another horse, so there's nothing to make me think that my horse is at fault, and he's not aggressive but he will encourage other horses to run and play. Though lately when I've turned Jr. and Max out, Max is the one running around and Junior is calmly eating his grass, so I know I shouldn't feel responsible in any way, but KAT said he, Zippy, and the injured mare were all running together when she saw that something had happened. The Arab was running on three legs. Aside from the tragedy of any sweet, bomb proof horse having to be put down, she had been purchased by a family with a 7 year old and a 4 year old .... just one month ago. This mare was also a lesson horse (the first horse I myself rode at this barn) so there's also the life lesson for all the little lesson girls.

So the third? Not happened yet, or hopefully we have already forgotten the first, and the mare's death is actually the third.... we can hope.

So what is the overanxious horse owner to do? She hugs and kisses her own pony and says a little prayer (to whomever will listen) to keep that silly pony (and yours, too) safe. These are "fragile friendships" and we are nearly guaranteed to outlive all of our 4 legged friends. I think the triumphs outweigh the tragedies, but it's still terrifying to be reminded that accidents can happen at any time. We do our best to protect, but tragedy can always happen.

This is a video I had watched ages ago. This woman's dedication to her horse was inspiring and frightening. Her words "your horse has come in acutely lame from the pasture" still echo in my mind.

Clue in the Hospital

Luckily this horse seems to have recovered enough to be a useful mount. If you watch her latest video, though, she hasn't had to best luck either!

Tomorrow will hopefully be nice enough to turn Junior out long enough for me to really get his stall cleaned. It's kinda nasty after being ignored by me for two weeks..... I can SOOO tell the difference when I get all the wet out on Saturdays and when I do not. I took two tubs out tonight so there will be a few less tomorrow. Oh the joys of horse ownership. No really, it IS a joy. I am constantly grateful that I get to be a horse owner.

A Day at the QH Congress

When I decided to take the job in Columbus, Ohio and move far away from my life in Minnesota, one of the silver linings to that black cloud was the realization that QH Congress and Rod's Western Palace were IN Columbus, and Schnieder's Tack was just up by Cleveland. Ohio has proven to be packed with horses and packed with very high quality Quarter Horses. Even the small open shows I go to have Congress quality teams. Boarding is expensive here compared to back home and horse property? EX. PEN. SIVE. But I'm lucky enough to get to enjoy a trip to Congress each year, and that's one of the small things that keeps me satisfied with living in Ohio.

Today two of my college students and I spent about 9 hours at the Congress. We started off by shopping, of course. There are TONS of vendors. I refrained from any outlandish purchases, but I did manage to find some new show gloves, a big Jolly Ball for only $10, and some new work reins. I went back and forth about reins, almost buying some from Rods but decided to check some other places and ended up with a $20 pair of brass snap-ends from Dee's. They were the cheapest I found and I almost didn't get them because they were 7' I thought my show reins were 9'. Luckily my show reins are only 7' so it's a good thing I didn't get the 9' as I can barely maneuver the 7'! Having the same style of work rein should help me be more comfy with the show reins.

While we were shopping I stopped by the model horse booth and a nice older gentleman introduced himself as Peter Stone. Yes, Mr. Peter Stone himself, there to sign models. Though I like his sculpts a lot, I have stopped spending money on model horses when there's a real one who needs shoes! Mr. Stone was incredibly nice and we talked mostly about how he's gone back to school at Notre Dame for a PhD in Peace Studies and Theology (or something like that!) and how he's actually in the middle of mid-terms right now! He also gave me a pamphlet about their "Design a Horse" when I told him his new foundation Quarter Horse would look just like my Junior if he had the spots.

I also ate a huge plate of "ribbon fries" and a Stromboli, but not at the same time, of course!

We watched lots of Pole Bending and Barrels and all the splits of the Amateur Select Horsemanship. We didn't stay to watch the finals because we felt like we had seen all the outfits already and were a little blinded by the crystals. Some of those ladies were so sparkly they looked like they were covered in those old "twinkle" Christmas lights! I kept thinking that if the point was to sparkle that much putting battery powered LED lights in the blouses wouldn't be so off base! Poles was Novice Youth so the kids were lucky if they got a clean go-round, but the Barrels were really great times so it was exciting to watch, but it was chilly in the Colosseum.

My iPhone was super helpful. I was able to find out when the HMS was starting in the other arena by checking the live video feed. When we were watching the Horsemanship we were debating on who was doing this one part correctly and I was able to go onto horseshowpatterns.com to see the actual pattern they were doing.

Then we all became exhausted and I didn't realize until I got home that my feet were freezing! Dry fuzzy socks and being wrapped in a blanket has not broken the chill yet.

I saw a lot of ugly tack, some I drooled over, some show clothes I thought should be banned, and some I recorded into my memory for use in later designs. The funniest thing we saw all day was an advertisement all over the Colosseum. Not only did they get their own phone # wrong and had to fix it, there is a lovely spelling error that makes them look like professionals! I photographed it for your viewing pleasure. I have blackened out the # to protect the stupid.

My training question was answered on Mugwump Chronicles!

For those of you who don't read Muwump's blog, here's a link: Mugwump Chronicles. Today she answered a question I emailed her in mid August about Junior and his mouthiness. I really like what she had to say. As I think I've mentioned on here, he's doing better with the mouthiness and the ADHD, but on days when he doesn't get out due to weather/no lessons, he goes back to the behavior. So we'll continue to work on it.

Enjoy!

BooBoo Progress

I've got a busy week at work ahead of me, but thought I'd quickly update with Junior's leg. He's fine. The swelling was nearly all the way gone when he came in from turnout, he had a lesson at 3pm, then when I arrived at 7:30 he was a little puffy again but better than Sunday. The scrape itself looks quite healthy. He wasn't tender anywhere and I could push on the scrape and the swelling and he didn't register any discomfort. He rode really well and KAT was happy to see how well he was moving. He's really improving every day now that I'm better at being consistent with him. After our ride his swelling went back down again. I'm not planning (because of busy week) to go out again until Friday so I asked KAT to keep an eye on him and if I need to come out to call me. He'll be turned out when the weather is decent and he's loving his lessons. He's a barn favorite among the college kids and the experienced show kids alike.

So worry is over. We'll continue to monitor, of course, but it doesn't seem like any more than a hard scrape that's continuing to heal. Thankfully it's improving.

Have a great week!