Grr... Some people kids!

So this morning i went out as i do every morning to feed and check on G. This morning when i pulled up i found him with his blanket half off and one of the straps ripped off and one of the elastic ropes wrapped numerous times around one of his hind legs. He was struggling to get it off of his leg running and kicking standing and kicking as soon i got out there he sighed and stood perfectly still so i could untangle him. I was very frusturated by that i could tell by the marks on his leg from the rope and how sweaty he was he had been fighting with this blanket for some time. I know i am in quarantine but im sorry if i saw someone elses horse wrapped up like that in a blanket i would go out there and try to untangle the horse before it got hurt. Everyone at the barn looked surprised like they had not noticed him out there worries me a little bit.... can i rely on these people if something more serious where to happen? Im sure i can and this is coming out more like a rant than anything... im just upset and concerned for my horses well being. I lunged him today and watched his movement closely and he isnt favoring any of his legs so i am sure he will be ok. When i went out tonight he seemed fine but will have to get through the chilly night with a lighter blanket, i hope he is ok tonight.

Dr. B came out tonight to look at another one of the horses so i got our "get out of jail" vet check done. This is the first time i have met him, he came highly recommended from a bunch of people at the barn and works with all the race horses. Just by looking at my Trakehner he asked if there was Thoroughbred in his blood lines... i was kinda shocked because he does but its not something that you could tell from looking at him (his Dam's Dam Calypso Rose was a Thoroughbred). He completed his exam and didnt see anything he would be concerned about, he did suggest that since i am planning on competing at some point that i should get a coggins test done so we did that as well. I will have the results within a week *fingers crossed* that all is well and we can get the hell out of quarantine!!

The only thing Dr.B said was that he looked a little yellow to him (hes a chestnut horse.... of course he has yellow hues). So i will be doing a little research on that later. But im going to go finish my cleaning i am working 1 room at a time, our lease is up April 1st and we want to move to a house so i have some doggie damage to the walls to fix up and a few paint touch ups so we dont lose our damage deposit... and my hubby is home tomorrow so i would like him to come home to a decently cleaned out.

Night all!

Just another day..

Today i was very lucky to have some help out at the barn as i got G settled in for the night, It is suppose to hit -15 degrees (celcius) for the first time since the begining of December, so we had to get a nice bed made and take out his warm blanket. My 3 year old loves coming out with me to the barn, he loves to feel like he is helping carry 5 gallon buckets of water and 45lb bales of hay. There are days that it drives me crazy but i would love for him to get into horses since as said in my previous post about why parents buy horses for their kids having a horse is a big responsibility and it could possibly keep him out of trouble in the future.

Since there wasnt going on the last 2 days i thought i would post about a christmas present that i got that is absolutly hideous but means the world to me. My extended family doesnt support me riding in any way, which is odd since my family has strong ties to the Rodeo here in Alberta. When i had to put my last horse Indy down (story posted earlier) my dad told me that it was a good thing because horses are a waste of time and a waste of money. This year on christmas eve he said to me "are you still doing that horse thing?" he must have known how upset it made me because he instantly replied with "we wont even get into that because you know how i feel about it" I was heart broken, my entire life i have tried to make my dad be proud of me, I am a very nervous rider but it isnt the horse i am nervous about it is more a fear of failing a fear of my dad being right about me wasting my time. So i struggle to ride some days because i am tense and my head is swimming with random thoughts and reasons why i should just give up, but it is things like the hideous necklace below that changes my mind.

December 27th i got to see my Grandpa who was a rodeo clown for something like 20 years and followed the rodeo all accross Western Canada and the U.S. When i first told my grandpa i was getting back into riding he was so excited for me and wanted all the details about what i wanted to do, and at that time it was Jump. At christmas i was almost brought to tears when he pointed out to me quietly that i hadnt opened all of my presents and when i opened it i found this inside the little box. It is an ugly thing but it means the world to me, it took my feelings of having no support from my extended family to knowing that regardless of what my dad says my Grandpa is excited for me and knows that i will do amazing. Now if only i could get him to talk some sense into my dad...This "revelation" is a big deal to me the last horse i leased i struggled with because i had lost some motivation to ride and couldnt figure out why i was so tense... This year is looking to be a great year... i am learning more and more about myself everyday and growing as a rider, i look forward to seeing what the rest of the year brings.

Tomorrow is back out to the barn to work in the outdoor (the Riding Troop is back from holidays so i no longer get to use the indoor between 9-4).

xoxo



Patience is a virtue not yet learnt

I am not a overly patient person something that is common knowledge to my husband and my best friend T. I try though and am getting much better with it and every day is a step towards being a better person but it doesnt mean that i dont get frusturated and today was just one of those days.

Bad picture quality but this is G before he decided to pull the hook out of the wall for no apparent reason looking all handsome in his tack.

I have been a little concerned about G's water intake because in the quarantine pen there is no electricity to plug in a water heater so it keeps freezing over but even when i put fresh water into the water bin he has no interest in drinking the water. I can see that the water is going down but we have had very strange weather and their is no snow so i purchased a salt lick and some beet pulp and a "multivitamin" that has some electrolytes. T also suggested that i take out a bucket of warm water and see if he will drink that, all of those things helped him and he drank the entire pail of warm water and ate half the beet pulp.

We worked today on him not being pushy with his head, allowing me to pick up his feet, tacking up, not walking off while tacking or from the mounting block. It is going very slow and i know he is young and i keep trying to remind myself of that but its hard to keep focused and stay patient. G is just trying to figure out what it is that i want him to do and is for the most part being patient. I really want to ride him and start working on our riding, but i know if i rush it i could miss a crutial part in our ground work. So it looks like we are stuck on the ground for a little bit.

Its also really hard to ride... there is never anyone else at the barn. I wear a helmet when i am riding(most of the time) but it still worries me a little riding alone at night because if anything where to happen no one would be out until the morning and thats if they come into the arena when they get there so when G is uneasy and we are struggling to get our ground work down i dont feel really comfortable riding.

On a possitive note we have made great progress in our lunging, he easily lunges both directions and is getting better with his transitions. We will get there it will just take time, its nice to see progress but im not going to say i wouldnt like it to be faster, Clearly i am learning just as much as he is.
Im going to bed im just pooped mentally, tomorrow will be better!

Quarantine day 5-6

Today is going to be a two day blog post, quarantine is not very interesting so there isn’t very much to post about. Yesterday I did get my saddle, a black Paris Tack Dressage saddle with cheese grater stirrups and a really nice girth (which I am hoping fits). I am going to take it out tonight when I go get G settled for the night and hopefully there is no one in the arena and we can try it out. Unfortunately during quarantine I am not allowed to take G into the arena if there are any other riders in there which makes it hard to do any work with him. (The saddle is resting on this adorable toy horse my husband bought for his daughter, it neighs, moves its head and eats a carrot, my 3 year old son is terrified of it!)

Day 5 Quarantine; went out and fed and watered him, made sure there was a nice little pile of straw for him to lay down on incase it gets really cold at night. Bought the saddle and sat in on trainer L’s lessons. I arranged for my trainer T to come to the barn on Friday nights and work with me, on the condition (as the EGSC president says) she doesn’t open an umbrella in a horses face….uhh…. wtf… who on earth would do that. I took out a few treats for G tonight as well but when i try to give him some carrots he looks at me like they are poisoned and moves his head... what kind of horse doesnt like carrots!

Day 6 Quarantine; I spent an hour trying to chip horse manure out of the ice in G’s paddock with a snow shovel since I do not have a pitch fork and cannot use one from the barn. I can’t wait until we are out of quarantine. I also found that if I do not tie G he will not let me pick out his feet, but if I tie him up he will reluctantly let me pick them up and pick them out. We have some work to do on that I promised the ferrier  that by next time he is out G will stand like a gentleman.

I will be going back out tonight and like I said hopefully I can saddle him up and walk around the arena… see how much he remembers from his training last year. T gave me a few great ideas to help with the lunging; First of all I apparently need to purchase a new lunge line since mine is a big thick black rope and cannot be used with bridle and bit, secondly I should try to set up some poles on our circle to encourage G to lengthen his stride and pick his feet up a little more.

The barn is usually pretty empty on Sundays so I will be trying the pole idea then, if I can I will try to take a video so I can document his progress a little better. Right now it feels like we are in limbo because he cant interact with any other horses and we are not able to ride consistently every night… our riding schedule is based off of everyone else’s.

A bit of this a bit of that...

I have been a little bit distracted lately so i didnt post the last 2 days so ill quickly get caught up.

Day 3 of quarantine; I went out a little later today and was met by a very antsy horse. I increased his hay because he seemed completely famished when i got out there, he is now getting about half a square bale a day... when i was searching for the right amount online this seemed to be the most common answer for a horse his size. I was worried about the amount of water he had been drinking the first couple days because it didnt seem like the level was going down as much, he seems to have increased his water intake now as well (YAY i can sleep and not worry about him colicing when there is NO ONE at the barn all night). Today i took him into the arena to start some easy work, i figured we would do a few minutes of lunge work, he was great to the left in a walk and trot but i couldnt for the life of me get him into a canter so we tried to the right which was a whole different story, i could get him to walk to the right but it took a lot just to get him into a trot. We stopped on a good note because i could tell from looking at him that if i pushed a little more it would get harder and harder to get him into a trot so after a lap we stopped. We played in the arena, i have never owned a horse that would "play", i would run away from G and say his name while running and he would chase after me and when i stopped he would look at me as if to say.... go go again.

Day 4 of quarantine; He did not seem hungry when i went out, he is also not eating as quickly when i give him his hay which is good. Almost all of his water was gone when i went out as well which helps me sleep a little better. We went back into the arena today to play a little bit and try again at lunging. Today was a little better he was easier to get going to the Right (i think he understood better what i was asking of him and just wanted to try to make me happy). He easily went from walk to trot to a working trot in both directions, i asked for a canter but i got a full out gallop for a few steps which has left my leg and arms very sore. He transitions very well and will slow down when asked... not so much stop but we are working on that.

Today i am back to work so i had to go out at 7 AM to feed him and check his water. I CANNOT wait until he is in the barn out of the wind and i dont have to worry about the water freezing. Only 16 more days of quarantine. I pick up my new saddle tonight as well, im going to sit in on a dressage lesson with the trainer currently coaching out of the barn and see if im going to change trainers...
I will be booking the vet appointment today as well that is the last step that i have to complete within the 21 days of quarantine.

Now to get caught up on all my work that i have missed for the last 2 days!

xoxo

Day 2 of Quarantine

2 days down already only 19 more to go. I went out this morning to check up on G and give him some breakfast and break the ice on his water and as soon as he saw me he perked right up, i got so excited i cant believe he is mine all mine (well and my husbands lol because to him "we" bought a horse ha ha!).

Today was intended just to be a relaxing day letting G get continue to get used to the new facilities but as soon as i found out D the ferrier was coming out i decided to put him on the list to have his feet done since they were a little long. G will let me pick up his feet one time then the next he puts all his weight on the leg i want to lift and tries his hardest to prevent his leg from bending... something we will have to work on, but despite that he was FANTASTIC for the ferrier! D is a excellent ferrier, he answered all of my questions and was very patient with all 15 horses he did today. I was told that G has great feet and will only need a trim every 8 weeks (which is nice on the pocket book). From my non-ferrier opinion i had thought his feet might have been a little flat but D informed me not to worry about it so that is what i am going to try to do. Its my first horse (other than indy) that i have bought for myself so i am a little nervous, he is the professional so i believe him.

The quarantine pen is very small so i wanted to let G stretch his legs, but when i put him in the round pen (i forgot my lunge line and whip) he just stood there and looked at me and anywhere i went he followed. So i figured we would go into the arena. Aparently the arena is a very scary place and it took me about 5 mins to convince him other wise but i am very lucky he was very trusting and when he saw me go completely inside the arena he started to cautiously follow me in. Same as the round pen he wasnt really interested in stretching his legs he was more concerned about where i was at all times.

He is so sweet i am so lucky cant wait until we can start our lessons or at very least he can interact with the herd. Yesterday i mentioned that he cut his eye, when i went out today it was clean and healing over very quickly so i thought i should take a picture because it was his first injury with me owning him! Hopefully there are very few to come!

Us in the big scary arena.

Welcome 2012!!

Today was a great day i finally moved G to the new barn! I got out there to help get him loaded into the trailer, last time it wasnt an issue but i think he knew this time he wouldnt be going home, so it took about 20 mins and a bucket of grain to coax him onto the trailer.

While waiting for one of the executives to come out to the quarantine pen to tell us which one to put him in N (original owners) opened the window for G to put his head out and of course murphys law he has a cut just above his eye. It isnt to bad bleeding has stopped and it scabbing over ill have to keep an eye on it though. My boy did so good he let me clean out his cut, pick up his feet and clean them out as well as put a new heavy winter blanket on him, he is so good.

Today was also the first day of my diet and it is going really well so far, im counting hauling buckets of water and hay bails as my exercise. My starting weight is 151.2 cant wait to be back down in the 130's!

Anyways back to the quarantine pen; my only issue with it is.... its a round metal water trough, there are no plug ins for a water heater and i have to be out there at least 2x a day to break the ice and make sure that he has water. I have been doing some research and aparently if i put a ball in it that should prevent it from freezing over. The weather has been pretty mild so i am hoping that the cut above his eye is the only issue i have to deal with while he is in quarantine. I will have more pictures of the cut up tomorrow.

D (original owner) took a great video of him having a bit of a temper tantrum in the pen, pushing me over with his head. After a few mins he settles right in, ill post the link for the video at the bottem. Im just about to head out to the barn to make sure he is good for the night. I am taking name suggestions by the way, i am keeping his registered name as is of course but he needs a barn name Gjonstone is a little akward.

I am so happy he is such a great horse!! ill post more tomorrow!!

Video of G at his new home