Monday, April 27, 2009

and...we're back to winter

I said I wouldn't whine about the weather, but once again, I fed with my winter coat on. It is wintery and blustery and it sucks! So there! :oP

I went into the kitchen and asked Mike "How much do you love me?" He replied "What did you do and how much is it going to cost me." Geez! A girl can't ask a simple questions that there should only be one answer to...

Thai continues to look horrible. She is off all feed and supplements except hay and pasture. I'm getting bag of orchard grass pellets and will start feeding mush. She WILL however, have full and free access to the pasture. She ignored her alfalfa pellets and hay in favor of the fresh grass. Well fine...I guess tonight after dark, she'll have something to munch on. This weekend, I'll turn Honey out with her.

Classy continues to shed and looks like a mutant, but she has sleek summer hair under the pelt and tufts that come off. She is an eating machine. She is on 8 pounds of senior feed, hay, and as of tonight, free access to pasture.

I had also worried about grass founder, but a friend tells me that Thoroughbreds rarely founder and putting them out on grass would be safe and would fatten them up better than anything. Ok...so out they go!

Dobbs is penned up. He came in from the pasture lame. By Sunday night, he could barely walk. I'm thinking the little monkey has an abcess. He's better tonight, so we'll see. He will have no part of soaking in a bucket and I don't have a soaker boot. I put a poltice on his foot that is supposed to draw out an abcess, but until then, he looks like he's wearing slippers. And by the way, horses CAN look embarrassed.

Millie is doing fine. She is next to Classy, who is VERY put out by having to live next to the brat. Millie pretty much ignores Classy's huffing and puffing, and remains her sweet perky little self.

Honey and Jazzy are out in the arena. I penned up Jazzy tonight because she bullies Honey away from the feed. So Honey will get to eat ALL her supper without worrying about the boss hag running her off. Plus I can better control Jazzy's feed intake. She tends to be an easy keeper.

Angel and Squirrel - aka Tub and Chub - are on diets. They get fat breathing...I SWEAR they do!

So...is that everyone? I think so... there should be eight names...

I found some great orchard grass hay, 110 lb bales, for $8/bale. There's a little bit of alfalfa, but it's really hard to find. The guy has about 20 ton left, so if a couple of you mossy folks from the west side of Washington want to throw in together and get a semi-load, let me know and I'll give you his number.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Spring in here!....FINALLY!!!

Not much to update...

The horses are shedding. wow...how original is that??? LOL!

Classy is shedding in huge clumps, more falling off everyday. But in places, she still holding the hair, so she looks funny. But underneath, she has a smooth shiny summer coat.

Thai, on the other hand, is molting. There's this pink naked chicken skin underneath. It looks awful! But she's eating good and pooping firm poops, so I'm adding corn oil and ground flaxseed to her supper to try to figure out the hair stuff. When her summer coat comes in, she will be the color of a new shiny penny!

Everyone got turned out this afternoon on the pasture, which looks AMAZING! We turned it under and reseeded it in Spetember 2007. The picture on my photobucket was taken 6 weeks later. I would LOVE to have a more current photo, but that costs a FORTUNE!!

Honey, of course, did the "rip and roar" up and down her side of the pasture and hurt herself. I noticed her limping heavily, but when I came in, she was grazing. If they could only understand the spoken word...I'd tell her "Go slow and take more laps so you don't hurt your ankle." *sigh* What AM I going to do with her.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

A GREAT WEEKEND

Friday - My Friday off. I turned the horses out on pasture and raked up the poop. Then I showered and Mike and I went to lunch at Anthony's. He'd gotten a gift certificate, so Oh Boy! free lunch! It was delicious! I got the Seafood Chop Chop...my most favorite salad in the whole world. After lunch I rode with Pam, my neighbor. I rode one of her horses...one she's trying to sell. It was short and sweet and I didn't get bucked off! We went to dinner at my son's. Came home. A good day!

Saturday - Mike and I spent the day spraying weeds. For dinner, we went to Chad's house. Chad grew up with my son. A good day!

Sunday - Mike let me sleep until 8 am and fed the horses for me. We cleaned and dusted the office. Pam moved the rest of hay out of my barn. (That's actually a good arrangement. I store her winter hay for her, and she buys me two ton of hay) Anyway, I can now park my trailer in the barn. Woot! We went for another ride. This time, I rode my OWN horse - Squirrel. She hasn't been ridden since October. She was a goofy while I was trying to get on, but I remember her doing that last year too. Then she didn't want to stand and wait. But for the most part, she is a GREAT ride! She's smooth and responsible and sensible! I'm going to have SO MUCH fun with her this summer! The ride was very enjoyable, though my legs were numb by the time I got back. I am SO out of shape! Even Pam's company was great! I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Pam has decided not to rent out her house. She's just going to leave it empty and her employee can stay there overnight on trips that she gets in to the Pasco airport late. (Brooke lives in Omak) So it's looking like I'll be neighbor-less through the winter. :O(

Now...I've got to go PICK UP the poop. It was still a GREAT weekend!

Saturday, April 18, 2009

The Naked Mole Rat

AKA Thai

That is what she is starting to look like. Her winter coat is coming out in clumps and tufts, leaving naked skin beneath. It's gross!

I posted on another discussion board and almost all the responses came back "20+ TB mares, every spring"

Hmmm... in the meantime, I'm going to add corn oil to her grain and ground flax seed. I have been giving her Necessity, but she's now decided that she doesn't like it after all and won't eat it. Just gotta love those fickle mares!

She is currently "free-penned" with Honey, but I'm going to separate them later this morning after breakfast.

Squirrel and Angel were moved out the the arena yesterday and Dobbs and Millie took their spot in the barn. It's their turn.

Our list of chores today: Move the manure piles from the runs to the arena (I raked them up yesterday), spray weeds in the gravel, brush horses. That should probably fill up my whole day.

A guy that I work with was going with his wife on a 100 mile motorcycle ride for charity. Apparently once or twice a month, they go on these rides. I asked Loren to get the name and phone number of the person who organizes these rides so I could talk to them about maybe doing a ride for SOSEquines. Shawna said that their isn't a whole lot of interest, donations, or volunteers in the area. So I got thinking...610AM radio does 10 minute public interest spots at 4:50 on weeknights. What if Shawna did a spot on the radio to talk about what she does and what she needs. Or maybe the Back Country Horsemen did a charity ride? What if the local 4-H groups did a pen-cleaning day? These are projects I'm going to be working on.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

I'm Baaaack.....

I've been busy recovering from my big weekend at a barrel race in Walla Walla. While I didn't enter and race, I DID work in the office and had to drive home each night, then back in the morning. I got to see my bff Barb O on Friday night and hang out for a while watching the race, but had to get up early to make it back Saturday morning by 8 am.

THAT didn't happen because Mike let me sleep in. He'd turned off the alarm. Then when I went out to feed, Jazzy had kicked in the plug on the automatic waterer, flooding her stall. So we got to use the shop vac and suck out the water. I made it down there around 9:45 am and went to work in the office. I didn't sleep much so I was exhausted. But I survived and I'll recover.

Now...what to post about.

Thai and Classy are both disgusting horrible molting mutants. They look AWFUL! Their hair is coming out in chunks, and they look like they have mange. However, underneath, you can see the sleek smooth summer coat and they will someday soon, be beautiful!

So since I lead such a boring life, I thought I'd do a "TIPS" post. Some of this, and some of that, and invite you to post YOUR tips

** Algae control in the water tubs - add two cups of distilled apple cider vinegar every time you fill the tub. The algae won't grow. And...it won't hurt your horse!

**Getting pony to eat the "poison" aka new supplement that you spent a fortune on because it's good for him - pour 1/2 cup of RAW apple cider vinegar on his grain and mix it with a spoon. You can get it in the health food section. The "fumes" from the vinegar mask the smell of the "poison" and he'll gobble it up! (This is the trick I used to get Classy to eat her feed-through antibiotic when apple juice and honey didn't work.)

**Rider's Rasp - Have you seen this??? I can't tell you how many times I have wanted to "finish" the job for my farrier. He's left without round off the edge of the hoof after a trim and the hoof wall has either chipped, or the horse cut himself. Traditional rasps, if used in the wrong hands, can cause more problems than it "fixes". The Rider's Rasp looks to be pretty much idiot proof (me being the idiot). I am TOTALLY buying this little sucker since all my horses are barefoot.

**Plain Metamucil - Cheaper to use than Sand Clear! It absorbs water and "picks up" sand in the intestines, thus helping to prevent sand colic. You can top dress your grain with it and if you stirred in some apple cider vinegar, it'll stick and they'll eat it up.

**The Bucket Test - the easiest way to see if your horse is passing sand. Take a handful of fresh poop that hasn't touched the ground and place it in a bucket. (Use a rubber glove though, would ya? Barehanded is gross!) Fill the bucket 1/2 way with water. Soak and stir the poop until it dissolves. Turn on the hose to just a dribble and put it in the bucket, letting it overflow. Leave it like this until the water in the bucket is completely clear. Then look at the bottom of the bucket. Is there sand in the bottom? If more that a couple teaspoons full, you probably need Metamucil.

So those are just a few of MY tips. I know I have more "bright ideas", but I'm too distracted to get them written out. Post YOUR tips!

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Back to Business

It was BEAUTIFUL today, and of course, I had to work. But I came home, told the Cooker Bitch that I was working with horses tonight and that I'd let him know when it was time to get started.

First out was Squirrel. She ran to the end of the run, as usual, and waited for me to walk out and get her. I brushed her down real good (BOY! She's going to be beautiful when she's done shedding!), then saddled her. I led her out to the arena, intending only to lunge her. *snort* Ranch horses don't lunge!

So I turned her loose and free-lunged her. She got to playing and bucking, but it was only half-hearted. She spooked at the water tub. She spooked at the bag of leaves out by the flowerbed. After 20 minutes, poor out of shape darling was breaking a sweat. I thought briefly about climbing on, but the last time I got a bright idea right before a big barrel race, I got bucked off and hurt. I decided not to push my luck. While I'm not entered in the race in Walla Walla this weekend, I have promised to help in the office AND my good buddy Barb O is coming and I really don't want to be hurting when we meet up at the race!

I know...I'm a weenie, but I had a great weekend riding around on Angel, so it's all good!

Horse number two was Millie the Fillie. This girl is so dang smart! Last Friday, I dinked around a little, trying to see if she'd yield her hip and lunge. She was fine with the hip, and lunged fine to the left, not so much to the right. I was thinking "Wow! Barb did a great job!" But when I talked to Barb Friday night, she said "Nope. Didn't do any of that with her."

So tonight, I did a little flexing, giving her face and yielding her hip. Then I got a bright idea...I'd put the saddle blanket on and see what happens. So I showed it to her. I rubbed her shoulder and bumped her with it. No reaction..she just looked at me like I was a dork. So I put it up on her neck. Again, nothing. I pulled it down into place. She looked around like "WTF?!?" I pulled it back on her butt. She humped up her back and walked forward. WHOA!!! Now THAT was different. She did a pitiful little humpy-buck (her toes didn't even come off the ground) and walked around me.

We ended up walking around for 10 minutes or so, blanket on, blanket off, on her neck, on her back, on her butt. She got over it. So "PING", I'll put the saddle on her. So I did.

I let her smell it, and she wanted to chew on it. So I bumped it against her shoulder. Nothing. So I put in on her. She didn't care for it and tried to walk away. She gave me again the little stand-on-her-toes thing. She didn't much care for it. BUT...it was down on her shoulders and not cinched on. I'm really happy with how she handled it. So I put the tack up and got the lunge line.

She remembered going to the left from last week. She did great..walk and trot. After 5 minutes or so, we went the other way. It took about a minute for her to figure out what I wanted, then she walked and trotted quietly at the end of the lunge line with her nose tipped in.

Then we quit and I put her away. It was a great day!

The weather is supposed to crap out tomorrow, so I'm really glad I worked with the horses tonight!

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Classy's Boo-Boo

Thursday The protecting flap fell off some time today. I was thrilled with what I saw. I'll try to get photos and posted on my photobucket. I'll update when I get pics.

UPDATE - Sunday Sorry it took me so dang long to get pictures. I've had a busy weekend, with the exception of Saturday - which I spent in bed with a migraine.

Before


After


She is going through the mutant molt phase so her coat looks horrible, but her body condition is looking good.