This Stunning Creature

I am super biased.

That tail is finally recovering from Tail-Eating-Fence-2012

I think my horse is just the most beautiful creature on the planet. In reality, she is just a ncely put together pretty faced bay mare.

Nothing like a clean popo with a fresh trim and a banged tail!

But I could stare at that horse all day long. Every day when I get to the paddock, I look at my horse and just think wow. I am so lucky to have a horse like that!

Yes, I am rather lovey, aren't I?

Today, I spent a couple of hours waddling around the paddock doing a couple of chores. After I fed them breakfast, I got down on my hands and knees and scrubbed one of Allie's cotton combo rugs clean, hung it on the fence, then got Allie out and washed her. I scrubbed her mane and tail (which she LOVES), and conditioned them both with a protien conditioner. I washed her face (which she was not so pleased about). I sprayed detangler in her tail and combed it out. I even trimmed her tail AND did a hack job of trimming her mane.

She keeps rubbing out the centre of her mane. I think she has found a favorite rubbing spot.

Then, after a green pick to dry off, I popped her back in her yard, made her run around a bit to try to get some video (which uploaded to Youtube sideways?), then rugged her up again to help stop her scrubbing her mane and tail out.

Her scar is looking excellent!

It was awesome just to spend an hour or so pottering around with my pony again, :)

Just a little general update on things that have been going on around here.

Nostril Roller Coaster

Allie's nostril sort of cleared up - then this afternoon it was pretty snotty and a bit stinky again. It is like she heals just enough to stop me taking her to the vet and then has another issue a half a week later. This time, it might have been caused by the weather again - Sunday we had a 45 degree day (113F) and then yesterday afternoon we got a windy, thundery rainy storm roll through. Might have whipped up a bit of dust up there? God knows. I'll give it a few days and see how it settles. And no, I am not dealing well with this but I am trying to ignore my anxiety.

Preggo Lady Stuff

So I am 26 weeks and 5 days pregnant now.

I feel enormous.

The baby kicks and rolls and moves ALL DAY LONG. I thought they were supposed to sleep sometimes? I had a glucose tolerance test this morning to check for gestational diabetes. If I am negative, I won't hear anything. If I am positive, I will get the result at my next midwife appointment.  I had three bloods taken. It was not nice. You had better appreciate this, kid.

We have bought a bassinet and a cot/change table duo. It looks fancy in the room.

Pretty...

Joey

Joey is continuing to get better with the training we are doing (as am I). The biggest thing we are working on is impulse control. He's getting there.

My little kitchen helper.

He had a play date with some other puppies at the dog park for the first time a couple of weekends ago. He had a blast.

See that happy white puppy on the left there?

He was super pooped after.

Gracie

Gracie hasn't been doing much of anything either - she has been a bit sore over the back. She had her teeth done, had a massage, and is now waiting for Nat to find the time to get her back in work.

First time getting her teeth done without sedation. She was such a good sport about it! This dentist was a gem - I think she is going to be Gracie's lifetime dentist.

In Other Horrific News...

One of my trimming clients was towing 2 horses with a friend when a tyre on the float blew out, flipping the float on it's side on a freeway going probably about 80-90km/h (50-55 mph). The horses were trapped and had to be cut out of the float via the roof. Both horses are ok - have some deep gashes and some brusing and will be sore for a while. But they are fine.

The people are fine too - very shaken, horrified and incredibly sad. The driver (my client) has been accused (on Facebook, by strangers) of being drunk, speeding or driving while tired. That she somehow did something wrong and that is why this happened. Unbelieveable! This could happen to any one of us. Any one. It just happened to her and the poor woman needs to heal from that. Why does the horse community turn on each other so easily?

Also, her float was towed off the freeway at the closest exit and just dumped on the side of the road by the freeway operators. This is ridiculous. I'm outraged and horrified and angry on her behalf over the whole ordeal. I hope nothing like this happens to anyone I know (or to me!) ever again. The people and the horses are so lucky to be alive, let alone to escape with relatively minor injuries.

This is just terrifying...

Hippo

Allie loves the water, as do most ponies.


She likes to eat the water grass and put her face half under the water to blow bubbles. She's weird.

In ths one, she clobbers herself in the face, like the clever dumbblood she is.

This is about as exciting as it gets! I'm just happy to be on her again.

Hacking Out

Just a quick little video of Allie and I hacking out the back. We agist on a cattle farm/cutting trainers and the view is just stunning.

Making a special guest appearance are the poor Cavallo boots which are taking a beating, going through muddly puddles and dams..

Allie and I

I was snuggling with Allie last night in her stable.

Ever wondered what I sound like? Well, here's a video with me talking.

Backyard Ponies

 

Allie Trim

I trimmed Allie today - if you are interested, pop on over to my hoof blog to check out the pictures and the write up.

Sneak peek of pretty feet!

The Plan

Above is our plan for New Years Eve tonight. Specifically, avoiding what happened last year.

This year, the girls will be locked up in their stables (where they have spent the night for the last week), sedated, and out of sight of the fireworks thanks to our nifty blue tarps. They will also have some loud music playing from the radio to help drown out the noise.

We can not go through what we went through last year ever again. This will be my NYE every year for the rest of my life. Overkill? Maybe. But it is not worth the risk. Not one bit.

The neighbours had a couple of fireworks last night (maybe 3?) but they were over very quickly. The girls were already stabled away and they were fine. But that loud booming noise - it makes Nat and I feel like throwing up everywhere. I got physically sick and felt exactly like I did last year when we heard them last night.

Last year when we drove in the driveway and saw the fences down, was the absolute worst moment of my entire life up until that point. Then it just got worse and worse as the night drew on. We stumbled through the spider riddled bush looking for any sign of them. Calling, screaming, hearing hooves and soft neighs in our heads but thinking it was real. I even remember thinking "even if we find them dead, at least I know where they are".

When there was a car accident around the corner from my house about a half hour after we got home that night and I thought the horses caused it - cop cars everywhere and the cop I spoke to couldn't tell me what was going on. I swore I heard screaming horses and I envisioned my girls trapped between a car and a tree. It was really just the cop car radios distorting voices but it was all I could do to stop myself from pushing past them and running to see.

Hours of trudging through the bush, calling to them, praying to God, bargaining to just help us find them. Many many friends coming to help us look, some with their horses, some people I had never even met before, in over 40 degree (104 Fahrenheit) heat, all helping to find our mares.

And then the relief, when I thought all was lost, the relief when Andrew called me in hysterics telling me he had found them and they were safe (albeit cut up, thirsty and hungry).

Never ever ever ever again.

A little less sticky

A little update on the Allie cantering issue - we have right canter under saddle now. Just. I am working my butt off with her on this. Natalie has been lunging me while on Allie so she at least understands what it is I am asking of her - this seems to have done the trick. We have had a couple of off lead under saddle canter circles too. She picks up the correct lead to the right about 90% of the time.

Her left canter is depart is lovely and the left canter itself is pretty good too - balanced and light.

We are getting there. :)

Sticky

We have a sticky right canter people. And a big lug of a rider who is not helping the situation at all!

Pretty pony likes to tilt her head. : /

The lesson with Linda at the local indoor went well until we tried to canter right. I tried and tried and tried and tried. She just would not pick up the right lead. We had hissy fits, spins, leaping and disunited canter, all which ended up with me being so tired that I didn't have the strength to give aids anymore.

So this is what happens when Allie is over it and  'checks out'.

I was asking for canter right. Note how we are facing left.

Allie was pooped, I was pooped. Linda couldn't figure out what was going wrong from the ground.

Tired yet Allie?

Eventually, Linda got on and sorted her out. She got her cantering right a couple of times, but not without a fight. (Which made me feel a little better about it all).

Getting a feel for her.

Screen shot of the canter video. Win!

It was a good day really - even though we had problems with canter, it is something to work on now.

There are more photos and video, but to be perfectly honest, I look too fat and the videos of me trying to canter look so horrific and I'm so tired that my hands are bouncing around like no body's business so you are not seeing them.

That day has prompted me to start getting myself fitter - I can't expect my horse to be this fit athlete if all I do is sit around all day getting fatter. All this week I have gotten up early to exercise (not much yet, but it is getting me in the habit of it). I'm trying to cut out as much sugar and junk food as I can. I rode today for about an hour and a half (more canter disaster, see below) and we had two canter lunging sessions earlier in the week. The brat of a horse has almost no problem cantering right on the lunge, even on a small circle. So the problem is obviously me.

The disaster today was my horse chucking more fits because the pressure was on. I concentrated on my balance, position and having quiet hands but still, Allie got offended and did her spins and her leaps and I just couldn't get the canter again. Plus she unsettled me and I was not as tough on her as I should have been. :(

I have the next two weeks off work. Guess what Allie and I will be practising?

Sorry for this shitty downer of a post. Hopefully in a fortnight I can look back on this and think "Ha, problems with canter! So last month...". I can only hope.

My horse has leprosy.

Far out - it NEVER ends with my pets!!! Can't I catch a break?!?!

She is itchy, and the skin is flaky and coming off two spots (pictured below). Dr Google diagnoses ringworm.

I have never dealt with ringworm before and I have NO IDEA where the hell she picked it up from. So I am off to the saddlery tomorrow to get an anti fungal treatment to see if I can avoid another freaking vet bill treat it quickly.

We shall see. Harumph.

It's been raining here again.

Reading Sprinklerbandit’s posts about her wondermare Izzy and Karen’s posts about her lovely gelding Hampton and Kate’s awesome jumping photos of Lucy have gotten me inspired. I want to ride, I want this summer to be amazing and fun and I want to get out there on this horse that has such potential.

To be honest, with the tiny bit of shitty schooling we have done over the winter, she has really improved despite all that and looking back I can see what we have accomplished. But I still feel like we are behind. And I know a big part of a horse learning self balance is being confident to move out. At home, we just can’t get that. We have lumpy grassy areas we can do circles in under the flood light but even on the weekend there is not much of a flat area to ride in. I have felt tiny little glimpses of balance but then the poor mare looses confidence and comes back. If we had a float and a car to tow it we could float over to the local indoor once or twice a week. But we don’t, so there is no use dreaming for now. :P



At least daylight savings starts this weekend! I’m pretty excited about having a couple of hours of sunlight to ride in of an afternoon. And seeing as I am so sick of riding in our pseudo-arena at home I am expecting to go on a lot of road rides throughout summer.



Those mares need some serious work now that they are both 5.



In other news, Chakra is still going strong. No sign of the cancer hurting her just yet, so I am hopeful for another month or so with her. She is happy and healthy right now, so that is enough for me.



Sorry I haven’t really blogged in ages. There is just nothing to report!

I need a Real Plan

So I bought this four year old mare to event in the future. This
month, on the 25th, she turns 5 and in November, I would have had her
for a whole year.

I need a Real Plan, not just this wishy washy vague idea of where I
want to end up. I know that this year has been all about confidence
building, getting them out and about a little, getting to know Allie
but now that winter is finally over I need a game plan.

We have tried our best to get them out on the float, and I think we
have done well considering we don't own a float or a tow vehicle.
Allie and I have had only one dressage lesson and are way overdue for
another. At home, it is very hard to school as we don't have an arena,
just a lumpy round spot of grassy area that is relatively clear of
trees.

This summer, I would ideally like to:

- have monthly dressage lessons with Ann. I need Allie solid in walk,
trot, canter, transitions from gait to gait and preferably starting to
transition within the gaits too.
- go out to at least 1 dressage day and do the easiest peasiest test out there.
- school at home at lease twice during the week, then one road ride per
week after work and one ride somewhere (lesson, visit friend, bigger
road ride) on a Saturday.
- I want her ready to send off to be introduced to jumping in winter.
I have no idea who I would send her to but I am not confident at all
teaching her how to jump when previously I have only been the
passenger with her eyes closed throwing the reins at the horses face
to avoid bopping them in the mouth over fences. Then, while she is
being trained, I will have some jump lessons on a schoolmaster.

What do you think? What else should a 5 year old future event horse be
doing over her 5yo summer to get her on track? What should I be doing
as a rider to develop myself further? Please, leave a comment an give
me some pointers, I need it!! :) I must add that I don't intend on eventing properly until she is 6 and my goals are to event at preliminary (in Australia, jumping to 0.95 or 3.11 feet). If we absolutely love eventing and Allie is a superstar, we might move up to pre novice (1.05 or 3.44 feet). But I doubt it.

The Twenty Fifth of September, Two Thousand and Six.

Allie's breeder found some foal pictures of her and she emailed them to me this week!

The day she was born.

Again day one.

Fuzzy cuteness!



One week old. Her dam looks so much like Allie in this photo! Same kind expression.



One week old. Again, she is now the spitting image of her dam.



Three months old - starting to look like my Allie!



Weanling - already a total grot.

 



'Giant stifle, tiny neck' was the first thing I thought when I saw this photo. :P

  It is so nice to have baby photos of my girl. If only we could have the same for Gracie!

Oh Mare!

I have written briefly before about how my horse is a dope. She is book/schooling smart, not street/survival smart (at all). She loves a good roll and I catch her rolling or lying in the sun multiple times during the day. She almost ALWAYS has a bunch of dead grass tangled in her tail. She loves it.

Last night I went out to check on the horses at about midnight before I went to bed (I always check them before bed to see if they have finished dinner and that all is well. That is how I found Becks' colic and was able to get the vet out to end his pain so quickly). So I am saying goodnight to Allie and I notice her left eye is squinting. On further inspection, I found she easily had about a tablespoon of large gritty dirt in her eye. Great big goopy clumps of dirt. The only way she would have gotten that much dirt in there was if she rubbed her head on the ground while rolling with her eye wide open. Repeatedly. Eye lids scooping.up.the.dirt.

Why? Why is she so dumb?

p.s. She is fine this morning, thank heavens.

pps.
I think her 'brains' may have something to do with this?

Not Much (plus a video)

Yeah, so Not Very Much has been happening on the horse front, mostly due to rain. We haven't done much except a little schooling and maybe a couple of lunging sessions. Allie is doing much better getting the right canter on the lunge, and is improving under saddle. I think we are super ready for lessons. I need to get off my butt and organise it!

Gracie we think has been having hormonal problems. Mood swings, cranky, very kicky when we touch her flanks and not being happy under saddle at all, very very tight tense muscles, then the next week she is fine again. We are keeping an eye on it over winter (as she will stop cycling and the symptoms probably won't show) and then readdress in spring. If the symptoms persist, then a vet visit is in order.

For the last few weeks they have been living in the stables overnight (due to the mozzie virus going around and the possibility of Easter fireworks). They took a while to settle into the routine but now that they are in the paddock at night again they seem a little offended at being left out! Pretty cute. We will probably stable them only if the weather is horrendous or if it is bitingly cold over winter. It's a lot of work! So much money spent on savings! I discovered this stuff called Struflex which is a pelleted dust reduced straw bedding. Allie is a bad stall walker and spreads her poo EVERYWHERE so I was finding it impossible to pick the poo out of the shavings even with gloved hands. With the Struflex I can use the pitchfork. I was throwing out at least a whole heaped barrow of soiled shavings from Allie's stall alone every day, (normally two!) but with the Struflex I only threw out the poo and the (much smaller) urine soaked patches. Equals about a quarter of a barrow of total waste per day. This is with her being inside for about 10 hours.

So, want to see a cute video of our girls taking it easy?

Things of note in video:

• My baby-talk horse voice. I didn't realise it was that bad...
• The traffic - see how much the girls have quietened down? No WAY would they have taken a nap while even one car was going past before we moved here!
• Look at Allie with her head on the ground in the beginning of the video. What a ham!
• Please also note that they are both ADORABLE!

Horse-Love

I read a post over on The Literary Horse this morning. She's asking why you fell in love with your horse.

 

 

I fell in love with Wombat at first sight. I was 12 and saw this great big (well, I thought back then!) grey horse standing at the gate. I loved him from right then, the way only a twelve year old girl could. I had him from 1996 til 2003, all through high school and a couple of years after. He got me through my parents divorce, bullying, first boyfriends and break ups, plus all the other horrible crappy things that you have to go through in order to be a 'grown-up'. I was in love with that horse because he was always there, always waiting. I still love him because I feel he is still waiting for me somewhere. I feel him give me confidence when I am nervous on a horse. I still to this day just pretend that I am riding him, and then I can trust the horse. Anything Pom dished out, I could handle. Therefore, anything this horse can dish out, I can handle. Confidence is just a bluff anyway, right?

 

 

 

Becks was a different story. I had lost Pom about 6 months earlier when Beckham came on the scene. I got him thorough a friend of a friend's friend. He was a free horse too. The guy was too old to look after him properly anymore, and he just wanted him to go to a good home. We did not click. He was totally different to what I was used to and he wasn't sure what I was all about either. He had a few health issues too, and the tiny bit of rapport we built up was totally shattered when I needed to float him to the vet clinic for eye surgery. He refused to get on. I had very little experience trailering too, and the whole day ended in tears for me. My horse didn't trust me. He had loaded fine for his last owner when I went to pick him up, and I felt terrible. I ended up having to hire a professional horse-truck driver to get him to the clinic a few days later.

Our love was a slow moving one. By the time I had him at home with me, I loved him just as much, if not more then I had loved Pom. I couldn't tell you when the turning point was, or what set it off, because there was no one little thing. It just crept up on us, and then I realised we were dependent on each other. I had him from 2003 til 2010. I have written before about our one moment of perfection under saddle, and that was like the culmination of all the years of hard work, but I always had a soft spot for him. Always.

 

 

Allie is an enigma. I love her certainly, but mostly because I know I'm supposed to. I'm not yet in love with her, but I am starting to see certain things about her personality that I know will form part of the puzzle that will lead to me being in love with her. Things like when she leaps into a trot she does a silly little squeal, or how she LOVES cuddles and will come up to you and put her head on your chest for one. She is just... so dumb sometimes! She is a quick learner, and she is quiet, but she is certainly not a clever thing. I'm used to clever horses like Gracie (who is FAR too clever and smart for her own good!) and Pom, and even Becks was smart because he had a lot of life experience. I expect Allie will become like Becks once she has been out and about. She is just off with the fairies half the time. Kind of like me I guess!