Hey there! Aren't you forgetting somebody?

Yesterday was spring shots and dental day for the ponies. We had the vet take a look at Baythoven. We had thought he was relapsing with his ringworm. Instead we find his ringworm has most likely been cleared up for quite some time. We have continued to treat it as if it were still there because of some scaling we were seeing...the scaling turned out to be a dead skin layer. Apparently we were too diligent and had blistered the skin underneath the new hair growth. Poor Bay has been suffering for nothing these past few weeks! The vet told us to leave it alone and let it heal...he's not contagious anymore, so we can put him back out on pasture with his buddies too. The barn owner turned him out this morning and she said he literally jumped for joy! I wish I could have gotten a picture of that! I did manage to take one of Boo yesterday hanging his head over his stall door wondering why he didn't get to go outside with everybody else. The boys got today off just in case there was any residual soreness. Tomorrow it's back to work as usual!

Busy weekend

Spent the better part of Saturday afternoon helping to spring clean the barn. Most of the boarders showed up to help and we made short work of clearing cobwebs from the rafters and scrubbing down everything in sight. Small price to pay in my book for having such a wonderful facility to house my horses. The barn owner fed us all for our trouble and was very appreciative.

After coming home to clean up, we headed out to comparison shop on dishwashers. Mine has died. Got 14 years out of it which I think is not to shabby. Decided on a Bosch 500she45. Waited until today to actually purchase it because a promotion started today which gets you back the money you pay to have it installed. So with 10% off and the rebate I am a happy camper. My new stainless steel dishwasher should be here in about a week. Wanna take any bets on whether or not that happens? The best thing about it is how quiet it is. The old one has been squawking and squealing for about a month. It was loud anyway, but the squawking and squealing about drove me nuts. I got to where I would wait for hubby to be home to run the dishwasher just so it could annoy him too. Figured I'd get a new one faster that way!

Went out to ride today and had a pretty good ride. He seems to be stiffer on his right side...I wonder if he really is though because I know I am stiffer on my right side and Boo may just be reacting to that. He also had a tendency to want to rush on his forehand and rush right through my aids. We worked until I finally started getting a nice round canter and then called it a day. Looks like we will have to warm up with get in front of the leg, but then work on listen to the seat too! It has been quite a while since I have had a lesson. I think it may be getting time to pony up for one. Luckily for me we have a trainer at our barn who knows her stuff, so it will be easy to get the help I need. I'd also like to start going to a clinic here and there.

Bay seems to be having a relapse with his ringworm. We have the vet coming out on Monday and will have him take a look. I am worried that this is an immune system problem here. I certainly hope not, but with Bay it seems like it's something every spring. Then, to top it off I took my coming 10-year-old collie in for her annual physical and teeth cleaning and her blood work came back with an elevated white count. I had hubby pick her up and he didn't catch that there was a problem so he didn't ask any questions. I found it in the paperwork when I got home. I'm going to call tomorrow because he said they said something to him about further tests but he didn't remember what for. She is the best dog I've ever had, so I hope there is nothing seriously wrong with her. Keep your fingers crossed for Poko.

A visit from an old (young) friend

We all have dreams. Sometimes we know what they are from a very early age. For the lucky few those dreams are fulfilled while we are young. For others there is a bit of a wait. I have always loved horses but I rarely got the chance to be around them. I fantasized about having my own horse for most of my childhood. It wasn't until later in life that I was in a position to begin the process of making my own dreams come true.

When I turned 49 I realized that if I didn't learn to ride NOW...I probably never would. So I set out to educate myself about horses and then to find someone to teach me to ride. I rode one of those "worth her weight in gold" lesson horses, the kind that will put up with beginner after beginner after beginner. I rode her once a week for a year ...then I sponsored her which gave me the freedom to ride her as often as I wanted. I guess I averaged about 3 days a week. One of those days being lesson day. I did that for another year. A lot of people would have gotten over it by that time...the work, the expense, the cold, the heat, the mud, the mucking of stalls, the smell. I didn't get over it. I decided I wanted a horse of my own but I didn't think I could afford it. One day a good friend told me "if a person REALLY wants something they will find a way to make it happen. It turned out to be good advice...I really wanted a horse of my own...so I bought Boo.

He was beautiful, and muscular, and about 10 years younger than my trusty lesson horse. He was not a hot horse, but he was also not a beginner horse. Yet, I was still quite the beginner having never ridden any horse other than the lesson horse I started out on. It didn't take me long to figure out I was over horsed. Either this guy was going to scare me off of riding, or I was going to ruin him with my inexperience. It was shortly after I bought Boo that Lauren entered our lives. She was probably all of 14, but she could ride circles around this old gal. Lauren needed to move up to a better caliber of horse, and I needed someone to keep Boo tuned up, toned up, and amped down.

For the next 2 years we were a happy horse family. Lauren would ride Boo in her lessons and I would ride him in mine. We split up the week and Boo would get worked 5-6 days a week. Lauren showed him in the Arabian class A circuit. She did ring classes like hunter pleasure. She did sidesaddle, and native costume, and she did dressage. She went to regionals with Boo, and we both did trail riding. Lauren did OHSET. It was the best thing that could have happened for Boo and me. It gave us time to get to know one another and it gave me time to become a better rider. When Lauren moved on which is inevitable in that type of situation we missed her, and when the time was right we found another excellent young rider to help keep Boo in shape and keep him showing.

Lauren is in college now and today, while home on spring break, she came to visit Boo. Horses must have a long memory because Boo remembers Lauren. He was quite happy being the center of everyones attention. It was a beautiful thing to watch seeing a horse and a young woman reunited. I am happy to have been a part of it. All in all between both Boo and Bay, we have had 5 young women share our horses with us. There has been tremendous value and satisfaction in the arrangement both for the people and for the horses. These are young women I will always care about. They are young women whose lives I will follow. They are young women I will never forget.

Goodies from my wild horse weekend

Whirlwind weekend

Had a great weekend. Spent Friday at the Horse Expo, Saturday morning at the Canby tack sale, Saturday afternoon at Devonwood's Spring Into Dressage, and Saturday night back out in Canby at the Clackamas County fair and rodeo court coronation. This morning we got up early and drove back to Albany for the day.

I think the highlight for me on Friday was watching the Stallion presentations and of course the highlight of that (for me) was watching Rembrandt strut his stuff. He is an absolutely gorgeous Friesian stallion. Seems to be pretty even tempered too, what with all the peering into his stall and petting and scratching from strangers that was going on.

The tack sale was fun. I ended up with some books to read to my grandchildren the favorite being King of the Wind: The Story of the Godolphin Arabian. Got a kick-ass ball cap too with a cow hide brim and some bling.

Devonwood had us showing up at the tail end of one young rider we had gone to see, but I did get there in plenty of time to watch the young lady who use to show my Boo ride her very first 3rd level dressage test. That was a proud moment. She did an awesome job.

The coronation turned out to be fun too. We know the family of one of the princesses and had a good time catching up with old friends we hadn't seen in awhile. Bought the most to-die-for homemade turtle bars in the auction. All I know is they said they were made by Aunt Shelly and I couldn't find her although I tried. I wanted the recipe. I ended up getting an original watercolor painting of a horse and rider too. That was the highlight of my evening.

Today we watched the end of the extreme cowboy race and first and second place were taken by cowgirls. Yah! Hoo! Watched a stellar FEI level dressage demonstration, and watched the Arabian showcase. They had driving, reining, halter, western pleasure, sidesaddle, and native costume all in the ring together. I had to wonder though if they want to show versatility why they didn't have someone doing dressage.

All in all this has been a great weekend. I'm glad I got to do so much. Riding my own horse suffered because I didn't have time for that, but I will more than make up for it this week!

What's up with my crazy Arab???

I think it is bizarre all the weird happenings with Boo this week. Went out this afternoon to ride. He seemed fine when I brought him in from the pasture. Once we were tacked up and in the arena I did the normal ground work that I do with him in order to check out his mood and obedience level. Kind of a test to see where his mind is. We do forehand and haunch turns. We back up, and we do sidepasses. Today was pretty much like most days. So I went down to the mounting block to get on and from the moment I got onto his back he was lit. He didn't want to be anywhere near either short end or anywhere near the outside wall. He was all snorty and blowy and jigging. I immediately started him leg yielding and doing circles. We did all the ground work again only this time from the saddle. Still he didn't want to settle down. After about 7-10 minutes of this I decided that I wasn't willing to get hurt over it, so I got off and hooked him up with his halter and longe line.

We longed for probably 25 minutes and most of it was at the canter. He really worked himself up into a sweat and he still tried to avoid the short ends of the arena. I finally got him obeying voice commands for the walk, trot, and canter, so I put his bridle back on and got back into the saddle. We walked around for about 20 minutes to cool out. Did lots of suppling exercises. He seemed fine then. I have absolutely no idea what his problem was. This has happened a couple of times before, but it has been a long long time. He didn't seem to be sore in his back and his legs and feet seemed fine. Guess he was just out of sorts today or something.

At any rate, he ended up working harder than he would have if he'd just behaved himself. I realize that, but I'm not so sure he does. I have a lot going on this weekend and most likely won't make it out to ride at all. We will see how he does on Monday. If he acts up again and I can't find a reason for it, he'll get the same treatment. Most likely he'll be just fine though. That's what has always happened in the past.

Carelessness

Did a little slip- sliding when I went to the pasture today to get Boo. It's not so bad except for right at the gate. I think it would pretty much ruin my day if I fell down in that stuff ya know. I managed to navigate both Boo and myself back through it and out the gate still upright. Boo decided to have a mud bath and it took me quite awhile to get him cleaned up enough to ride. He's also shedding like crazy. I'll be glad when that's done.

I felt more flexible in my own body today, so the ride went better than it has in quite some time. Maybe it's the warmer weather, or maybe it's that linedancing class I went to this morning with a friend. At any rate, I wasn't creaking and popping like I have been. Yay! That just tells me I have to be more assertive in conditioning myself for riding.

We worked on transitions and canter departs. Both are a little rough. We still have a ways to go, but I did feel we improved over the course of the ride. Walked around outside for a few minutes. Boo tried to avoid every mud puddle I pointed him at. This from a horse who has obviously been rolling in mud puddles since Sunday. AArrggh!

I got careless when I was untacking and nearly got myself hurt. I cross tie Boo right outside of his stall to untack. All the other horses were in their stalls having their dinner. Once I was ready to put Boo away I undid the cross tie farthest from his stall and walked over to get his lead rope. Boo either thought he was untied and ready to go into his stall or he was just anxious to get to his dinner because he started into his stall with me standing in the doorway and knocked me inside with him. I ended up at the back of the stall about the time Boo figured out he wasn't untied and he swung around to face the door putting me directly behind him. All I could think was don't get scared and kick out cause I have nowhere to go.

I immediately took him out of the stall and spent the next 5 minutes going to the door and making him wait for me to tell him he could enter. I could tell by the way he acted that he knew he had done wrong. Once I finally let him in with his food I made him wait to eat until I told him he could. I'm probably going to have a bruise on my hip where I banged into the door jam. Sure taught me a lesson though. Pay attention! Don't release the tie farthest from the stall door first that way he can't get to the stall door until you take him there.