Weekend Photo Update

Sorry that I’ve been so inactive- the weather here has been total garbage so I haven’t been able to get much riding done. However, I have managed to get a couple rides in and this weekend the weather was beautiful, so I packed up Cool and went to a horse show with Dee!

Last week, Ki helping me make feed!

Cool’s ride on Friday before the show - the ground finally thawed a bit!

Coolie takes first in Western equitation!

English equitation!

Western equitation!

I got this hunt coat on consignment for $40...I love the color on Cool!

Dee and Coolie took 3rd, 3rd and 2nd in Halter!

Peace.Love.Ponies.

Hacking Out!

We had a blizzard of snowfall this past Saturday (which made me die a little bit inside) but also *sort of* cleaned up some of the mud from last week...that was, until it went back to 40* Monday/Tuesday and the majority of it melted back into standing water and mud again.

Monday morning though ended up being a fairly lovely morning for riding. The temp had not warmed up yet so the ground was still solid, and the 5” of snow that we got over the weekend made our long, gravel driveway back into the woods passable for horses again. Normally I don’t really ride down our back driveway - hubs put it in years ago as an access road for the site where he has been building his HUGE new garage/ag building all summer. The drive is only half topped with small stone and mainly consists of huge rock/brick/concrete chunks that were trucked to us courtesy of an old brick school house that was locally torn down. I worry way too much about my poor horses bare feet to ride down it during the summer months (although I probably should to toughen up those hooves!) but once a few inches of snow have fallen, my horses can safely don their equine tennis shoes (aka=Cavallo boots) and go for a stroll.

Monday I managed to hack both Johnny and Cool down the drive and around the back field. Cool doesn’t trail ride much...actually Cool doesn’t generally get ridden in the winter really. Mainly because I’m too afraid of getting dumped off as he spins around and peels back for home. Ever since we began keeping horses at our house year round, Cool has turned into a raging psycho any time the temp drops below 50*. Last year after Ki was born, I think I had a Cool on like three different calming supplements at once just to be able to safely turn him out and play around with him in hand.. He’s the poster child for SmartCalm Ultra (no seriously, he’s in the Smartpak catalogue all the time lol) but this winter, with me being a stay-at-home mom, the amount of money that my (now three) horses consume has to be drastically cut back, and there will be no excessive calming anything for Cool this year.

Instead, I’ve decided that I’ve HAD IT with wintering a horse over and over again that I can only ride for four months out of the year. I’m pulling up my big girl panties and MAKING IT HAPPEN. And that means getting on Cool every chance that I have, taking him out and DOING things with him. Emmy and Johnny did not become good horses by standing in a field. They became good horses because I was a kid who wanted to ride and therefore rode wherever and whenever I could. It’s hard as an adult to put yourself back in a child’s perspective, but sometimes I think that, with horse, a child’s perspective can be invaluable.

So Monday morning, while Ki napped, I saddled the big red dragon, strapped on my helmet, turned on my Smartpak Ride With Me app, and hit the trails.

Ok, it was one trail. But I hit it. And not with my face!

Cool was...confused I think more than anything. He was snorting along in the new fallen snow...trucking forward like a curious child but also feeling like a tense coil of springs that could explode at any time. Adult Katie really wanted to have more bit in his mouth, but Child Katie said no, warmed up the eggbutt snaffle and bridle him. While we trucked along walking faster then Cool has EVER walked in his life, I kept forcing myself to breathe, to untense my thighs, to leave the reins loose and keep rubbing his neck. We made it all the way down the driveway with Cool only trying to turn around once and quickly righting himself when I closed my leg on his side and insisted that we go forward. At this point, he caught sight of the enormous garage, covered in white Tyvek wrap and I could literally feel the conflict inside him. Cool is naturally a VERY curious horse. I could tell that half of him wanted to run away from the big scary white monster and the other half really wanted to go see what the heck it was. I made a quick decision to side with Curious Cool, closed my leg again and clucked, sending him up towards the garage. We made a full lap around the entire building safely before Cool tried to drag me inside one of the bays to see what treasures might be hiding in there. At that point, he deemed the whole ordeal acceptable and took a big deep breath. After exploring he building, we meandered our way along the creek for a bit, before turning back for home. Cool pranced his way back to the barn, but never threatened to be bad so I was extremely pleased!

My next ride of the day was Johnny, who was incredibly nervous starting out. It took a lot of concentration to keep him walking along straight down the drive as he was snoring and I could feel that he wanted so badly to turn back for home. I tried to envision my legs and reins like soft channels sending his energy forward instead of sideways, which really seemed to help! After a few minute he also took a deep breathe and relaxed. We rode the same track as Cool but then came up through the back field instead - John was so happy!

Two weeks until my next horse show, but in the meantime, I’ll be trail ricing!

Peace.Love.Ponies.
✌🏼❤️🐴

Mid-week Update

I have to say that apparently it’s just going straight to winter in Ohio this year. The last two days we’ve had 20-40 mph wind gusts almost non-stop and the temperature has been hanging in the low 40’s during the day. Not really “winter” by Ohio standards but the fact that we seem to have completely skipped over the season of fall this year has left me a little salty to be quite honest. The only good thing I can say about the wind is that it DID help tremendously in drying out the ground, in fact, today my sand ring was dry enough to take Cool for a little spin. We didn’t do much, as chilly windy weather tends to make Cool significantly more “spookable” that usual, but I did get him saddle up, out on the lunge line for a bit, and then worked on some much needed ground work followed by lateral work in the saddle, which he was really good for. I’ve been trying very hard to improve my position and overall horsemanship with Cool. It’s amazing the difference in his responses under saddle when I’ve appropriately done my homework.
 I was planning to take Johnny for a walk initially, but decided against it because a) he was COVERED in mud and I didn’t have that kind of time, and b) the farrier is coming tomorrow to trim and re-evaluate where we are with his feet, so I figured what’s one more day of waiting?

In the end, I spent Ki’s nap time riding instead of doing barn work (which meant that I was cleaning stalls at 10pm) but it was worth it!

Ki is an extra good barn helper (most days)

Emmy (she’s 31 now!) and Cool - that one time the sun came out

Coolie today before our ride, looking skeptically at the bushes blowing in the wind

More after tomorrow’s farrier visit!

Peace.Love.Ponies 

✌🏼❤️🐴

Fall, who?

Fall is my favorite season. By far. In fact, it really should be most horse people’s favorite season because with its beautiful colors, comes some of the best riding weather you can ask for...at least, that’s how fall is SUPPOSED to be.

This year, Ohio laughed, gave us horse people the big middle finger, and went from 86 to 46 degrees overnight in the third week of October. After that, the sky started spitting rain, and it hasn’t stopped since.

Seriously. It’s been raining for TWO WEEKS.

Everything here is WET. Saturated wet. The kind of wet where solid ground doesn’t even exist anymore and you just walk through endless slop anywhere you go. It is not conducive to horseback riding. Or turnout. Or stall cleaning....shit it’s just not good for ANYTHING honestly.

I did manage to take Johnny for a few walks in Cool’s hoof boots/pads. It’s the same “navicular” set up that I used to get Cool sound, and “navicular” is on the list of Johnny Woes, so I figured that it wouldn’t hurt. We did carrot stretches and then walked for 12 minutes up and down the road.

And then it started raining again. And Johnny, after finally not being lame in the right front, came up sore in his LEFT front a couple days later so really I’m just giving up for right now.

That’s actually a lie...I’m poulticing his tendons and wrapping his leg because it’s hot and inflamed and I fear that he may have actually hurt himself for real in all this MUD. 

I did get a short ride in on Cool yesterday and after bucking around a bit on the lunge line he was a very well behaved so I was super happy about that! 

And then it rained again last night. And no, I can’t make this crap up.

So until it dries out, I’ll just keep greasing heels,  cursing and sloshing through mud over here. 

Peace.Love.Ponies.

Champion Coolie!

Sorry I’ve been MIA for a couple weeks - life has been hectic and I just haven’t felt like I’ve had the time to really sit down and write out everything that has been going on. Tonight, I’m avoiding washing my dishes (for...like...not the first day in a row...oops) and starting to type.

The Johnny update is a quick one because he’s been totally broken since blowing a big abscess out of the side of his frog. I’m not actually convinced that it’s finished exploding yet, and my wonderful farrier lives quite far away and isn’t headed out my way for another couple weeks, unfortunately. In the meantime, Johnny is certainly significantly less lame then he was during the abscess ordeal, but he’s more lame now than he was before it. His current regiment includes all day turnout, carrot stretches, and either handwalking/ground work or tack walking whenever I get a chance. Last week I think I walked him undersaddle twice and did ground work one day. I’ve been riding him without a bridle lately, just in a halter and lead rope and he seems to like that. I also bought him a dirt cheap, moldy, 5-point breast collar off a girl on FB. It cleaned up ok and seems to be helping A LOT to keep the saddle from sliding so far back on his muscle-less body. I’m in the process of working up a “rehab” schedule for him based on what the farrier finds in that foot when he finally comes.

Cool on the other hand, is AWESOME. This past Sunday,  Mo, Dee, and I packed up Cool and Mo’s mini Buck and headed to the first show in a local winter series. Mo and I have been planning on attending the series for the past few months, just as a way to stay in practice over the winter. The facility is indoors (although it’s always FREEZING in there), it’s not too far away, the food is good, and the classes are cheap. It seemed like the perfect idea for keeping our horses heads “in the game” over the winter. In typical Katie fashion, I decided the night before the show that I was also going g to show western (side note: western is NOT my jam. Also, although I have all the fun tack, Cool has never shown in a western class.)

See? I told you this was fun.

Anyway, so we packed up a zillion things, two horses and my kid, and headed off to the horse show for the day.

Dee showed Cool first in three different morning halter classes...her first time back in the show ring in 10 years! Cool is, of course, bred for halter and pretty much instinctively shows himself in the ring, so I figured it was a good place for Dee to get her feet wet again. And wet she got them because Cool was 3rd in the jackpot halter, 2nd in AQHA halter and 1st in the Open W/T halter, which was enough to qualify him and Dee for the grand champion class! He moved up a placing in that class and actually beat the horse that he had previously lost to, clinching the Reserve Grand Champion halter horse ribbon! To see us all there you would have thought we had just won Quarter Horse Congress or something LOL! But in reality, it was Cool’s best halter showing to date and Dee was SO EXCITED.

Next I rode him and completely blew our first English rail class as Cool slammed on the breaks right in front of the judge to sneeze and itch his face on his leg (really Cool? REALLY???) but he redeemed himself by winning our English equitation class so I let it go 😝

Next was western, and after piddling around at the stall for a while I suddenly realized that I hadn’t really been keeping track of the classes and we were UP NEXT so I threw his saddle and bridle on, passed my kid to Mo and Dee gave me a running leg up heading down the barn aisle. Ten steps of jog down to the ingate and we were suddenly showing.

Cool kept it together for the western pleasure class, which was a little surprising to me consider the small details of not really knowing how to jog or NECK REIN for that matter. I sat up as straight and tall and I could and tried not to brace against him. When the class finally lined up, I gave him a big pat, sat back, and waiting for them to finish calling places so that I could actually go warm up...that is, until I realized that the announcer was calling my number in SECOND PLACE, at which point in time I almost fell off Cool from shock. He went on to WIN the next class (western equitation) and placed 4th in showmanship after completely blowing his 270 pivot (oh well, better luck next time!)
I’m SO PROUD of him!!!

Dee and Cool in the show ring

  

Reserve Grand Champion!

Showing off all but the Jackpot ribbon (because we didn’t have it yet!)

I have to upload the pictures of my from my phone still...next time!

Peace.Love.Ponies.

Massage Day!

Johnny and Cool both got a visit today from their favorite masseuse Laur today!

Laur was the one who initially sorted out Cool for me, and she’s remained a close friend ever since. She’s worked on Johnny several times throughout the course of his many homes, but never with me. I was both excited and terrified to see what she would find. Dee made her weekly visit today as well, and the two of them finally got a chance to meet. Dee also brought with her a borrowed dressage saddle so that we could try it on John. We are both at a little bit of a loss on what type of saddle (if any) to use on his back right now. He’s so UNGODLY weak. We have been doing in hand walking with him but my gut tells me that he really needs someone to ride walk him up and down gentle slopes (like our back pasture) but I can’t find a SINGLE saddle that even comes close to fitting him right now. The one that Dee brought still sat on his huge-@ss withers...and it was a medium-narrow tree!

Anyway, Laur found Johnny to be sensitive and sore EVERYWHERE. Surprising? No. Disheartening to watch him nearly sit down in the crossties a couple times? Yes. Frustrating...infuriating...disappointing...I could go on and on about how upset it makes me to see this happy, resentment-free horse feel the way that he feels. It hurts my heart in so many ways. 

Afterwards, John seemed to have lost his earlier “spunk” and he just looked very blah and ouchy. Laur warned that he would, and asked Dee and me to make sure he spent the afternoon in turnout just relaxing.

Cool was actually a bit of a mess too...I hadn’t originally called Laur out to work on him, but with her long history with him, she insisted that she couldn’t leave without rubbing on him too. Cool was appreciative, as always, and Laur worked out some junk on his left side, which he apparently desperately needed.

So, it’s another day off for everyone tomorrow and HOPEFULLY I can get back to work with these horses next week!!!

As Always,

Peace.Love.Ponies

✌🏼 ❤️🐴

Some Updates

This last week has been so busy I really haven’t had a chance to sit down and update...I’ll try to give the highlights here (also, STILL can’t get all my pictures to upload on here wtf.)

I didn’t get much horse working in during the week...maybe one little ride on Johnny but he was totally lame so I didn’t do anything other than walk. On Friday Dee came out for the afternoon. We started our horse mania with Johnny, who seemed to be feeling better, but saddle fit issues and no babysitter for me, kept Dee from riding (still trying to sort that out) so we took tacked up Johnny out into the pasture and worked him up and down the hill in the field for a little. I took video of him (WHICH I CANT UPLOAD) and he actually looked pretty damn sound. The video turned out to be extra helpful because the more I watched it the more I realized that Johnny’s lameness, although manifesting in the right front, actually seems to be caused by the left hind. More on that in a minute.

After Johnny, I tacked up Cool and took him for a little walk/trot hack, for which he felt FABULOUS so I didn’t even attempted canter because I knew that it would ruin the little vibe that we had going. My little monster son rode him after him and that was adorable so yeah.

Emmy got a good grooming session and then everyone went back out in the field for the night.

Saturday one of my best friends Mo got married and that was fun. I left the horses out in the pasture with their delicious round bale while we went to the reception and everyone was fine when I left. On our way home from the reception we hit torrential storms and so the poor horses got rained on also. I brought them all in to dry stalls when we got home and noticed that John was pretty lame on the front right (he had not been when I left). A quick check of the foot and leg didn’t really yield anything so I tucked him in for the night, as it was quite late, and crossed my fingers that he’d just over done it and would feel better in the morning.

That turned out to not be the case though, and Sunday morning (my birthday no less!) he was toe-touching the right front on and off while eating breakfast. I checked him again and then stood him in ice from knee to hoof just to be safe and packed/wrapped his foot. After 4 days of treatment he finally seems to be moving significantly more comfortable. Aside from a small crack that has opened up on the medial side of his sole (white line-ish area) which nothing ever came out of - he seems to have mysteriously gotten better. I’m hoping that it was just an abscess that has worked it’s way out somehow.

In other news, I’ve definitely decided that the main source if Johnny’s lameness is his left hind leg, specifically somewhere in the stifle/hip area. Once his right front was useless, it was blazingly  aparent hoe much weight he’s been dumping into the right front to compensate for the left hind. There were a couple times over the last few days that he actually almost sat down in his stall because the left hind gave out so badly when he tried to shift weight onto it. The massuese is coming out Friday to give him a good once over and try to sort out some of his muscular issues and hopefully make him a little more comfortable so we can start to unravel this physical mess that he’s in.

I’m also hoping to get some riding done with Cool this weekend but we will have to see about that since my poor human child is sick 🤒

More on Friday after the masseuse comes.

Peace.Love.Ponies.