End of the summer

I had big plans for this summer!  I ordered a saddle for LB (took his measurements and sent them off along with a check) and figured to start riding him and at least one of the mares.  At the end of summer there is an endurance ride nearby and I wanted to take one of them in the 25 mile “limited distance” version.

As they say, life is what happens while you are making plans.  I didn’t get LB’s saddle ordered until mid-spring (we had to juggle a couple of checks).  It only takes about 30-60 days, so I hoped I wouldn’t loose too much of the season.  But the fellow who makes the saddle trees had wrecked an arm, so that meant the saddler was behind, not only for my saddle but for the folks who were in line ahead of me.  No matter, I have a great little bareback pad and could get some basic work in on LB.  Things were going well, I was about to try him outside of the round pen by mid June (my trainer’s helper had been out and rode him around the yard, he was good as gold.)  The first week of June, we were flat walking and gaiting and turning and doing figures and whoa-ing great in the round pen and doing a few introductory lateral moves.  We took a break, I let LB just walk out across the round pen and he stumbled, I lost my balance and gravity took over – I landed on my hip and then rocked onto my shoulder.  It took a month or so for the hip to feel well enough to ride – my shoulder was messed up a bit longer but it was livable.  Oh!  a week after the landing, my saddle arrived!    It’s really beautiful – but I have yet to ride in it, though I have ground-worked LB in it several times to help it mold to his back.

I decided it would be smart to have my trainer (K) put a few miles on LB while I worked on my balance, but K got hurt and missed a few weeks on the horses he already had committed to.  And I was finishing up classes toward graduation – it seemed I was never going to get a chance to ride anybody!

I hadn’t realized how much core strength and balance I had lost while slaving over my books and computer.  For me, the best way to work on balance and strength is to ride.  Obviously, LB is a bit quick and catlike, but I have some other horses that are a bit kinder to me.  I felt I needed a saddle instead of my bareback pad while I worked on myself.  I was lucky enough to find a slightly used Abetta saddle that would fit my other horses with just a few adjustments of the saddle pads.  I started riding again at the end of July – not enough time to get ready for the 25 mile ride – but heck, I was riding again!

Since the Abetta is a western saddle, I tried wearing jeans.  As I dismounted, my mare stood perfectly still (her favorite gait!) and as I set my foot on the ground, I landed on the side of the foot and rolled my ankle!  I am always rolling my ankle while walking around but this was a first! all I can figure is that my jeans were snugger than my normal riding tights and I just didn’t have my foot under me.  I limped a little but like I said, I am always rolling an ankle.  But after 3 weeks, my ankle was still sore and the side of my foot was pretty painful so I saw the podiatrist.  I may have a fractured bone in the foot – maybe it was fractured and is healing 3 weeks later, maybe it is about to let go in a stress fracture.  My ankle was very loose and very sprained though.  So the Dr. put me in a “cam boot” which is like a walking cast except I can un-velcro it at night for sleep and I can shower without it.  It’s been 10 days so far, the ankle is good but I can’t tell about the bone.  I do know that I can’t ride in it, it is too much in the way.  I see the doctor in a few days and I hope everything will be healed.

I did go to the endurance ride though!  I have gone the previous 2 years to help out and support it, I really want there to be a ride when I finally get myself and a horse to it.  It was fun to again see people I am getting to know, and this year’s camping area was great!  And all those fit Arabs and other horses (a few QHs, a TWH and I think I saw a Foxtrotter) are a tonic to my eyes.  Next year for sure!  I am out of school, so who knows, maybe I can get two horses conditioned and do a 25 on Saturday and on Sunday on different mounts!  haha well I will be happy to get one there.

In other news, Rita spent time getting started at the trainers this summer.  She is going great, not a buck or mean streak in her and always willing.  She came back in mid-August, and Buffy just went to be started last week.  I hope to do a few rides over the winter and then get serious in the spring and summer.  Or maybe they will find their new homes sooner!  That would be nice.

School

I finished up that horrible 12 week course a couple of weeks ago.  The course started out OK and I began to think that my misgivings about The Kirkpatrick Series were mistaken.  We read about the US Constitution and Declaration of Independence but then it went downhill fast.

I admit I am not a huge fan of history.  I don’t know why, I like stories, I like understanding how things came about.  Maybe the motivations of some of the movers and shakers were lost on me and I couldn’t find the logic in how we got from there to here.  I am likewise not a big fan of Politics.  Oh, we all participate at some level, whether in the schoolyard at recess, the break-room at work or in internet discussion groups, just by interacting with other people.  And I’ve sort of figured those politics out well enough that I don’t take too much of it personally and have learned how to play the game sufficiently to be satisfied.  But Politics!  Too much lying and shady dealings for me.  I am just not cynical or suspicious enough to keep up.

After the first week or two of the K Series, we read about social issues like race, feminism, family, marriage, civic life and volunteerism, religion and government.  We read about the Progressive movement brought about by Wilson and Roosevelt.  Ok, all well and good, these are things I don’t know much about and should learn about.  BUT! we read things only from “The Heritage Foundation.”  Things from “The American Enterprise Institute.”  There was no balance.  Occasionally (for comic relief?) we would get an opposing view that was so “out there” it was ridiculous.  We’d have about 100 pages total to read each week and then write an 800 word essay, citing info from each reading.  I barely had time to read the info, no time to digest it, and had to spit it out plus comment on our classmates’ essays.  While I did get some feedback from the instructor, it was very general – maybe it was generated by a Magic 8-Ball?

But, happily the course finished a few weeks ago – and I got an A!  After a week’s break, I started my current course, English Composition II.  It turns out I needed a few more general courses to be able to graduate.  It’s funny that I have completed my core curriculum (Corporate Communications) plus 12 weeks of essays and now I need to go learn how to write.  This course is gonna kick my backside – but in a good way.  We have real literature to read (Steinbeck, Joyce, Morrison) and specific, structured essays to write.  I am taking this course through a local community college instead of the University where I will get my degree, so the course layout is a little different.  This one is a full 16 week semester crammed into a 6 week summer session.  Lots to do!  But I love the focus.  It will finish in a few weeks, I’ll have a week or two off, and then I have two more classes (American History and a Political Science course) to take concurrently over the fall, finishing up just before Christmas.

Noontime

I am lucky enough to work from home.  No, I don’t work in my pajamas and I don’t lay around and watch Oprah and eat bon-bons!  I’m at my desk, checking emails, working, answering the phone, etc from 8-noon and 1-5 every work day.  But the big break is that I don’t have to spend time and gas money driving in and going home each day, plus I have my noon hour at the house.  Usually I do some chores at noon – now that it’s summer, I usually check water, put fly-spray on the horses, and turn the “diet pen” horses out for a couple hours of grazing.

Last night it rained a fair bit, over 3/4 of an inch.  At noon there was still quite a lot of standing water and mud, and that always seems to bring out the flies, even if they are not usually too bad.  I had asked hubby to mow the weeds out of the “diet pen” grazing area yesterday, which meant that today I had to re-string the hot tape that splits the area.  Took care of that, turned on the fence charger and let the diet horses out.   I remembered they were low on water, so I put the end of the hose in one tank,  ran up to the house to turn on the tap.  I’d carried the fly sprayer with me to the house (that’s where the refill jug was), so I filled that while the hose ran.  Went back to check on the water filling, one tank was full so I filled the other and watched the turned out horses.  Bird was happy, out looking for grasses or goodies that sprang up from the rain.  Murphy and Foxy were in the other part of the pen.  The flies were bugging Murphy, but both he and Foxy have decided that fly spray is evil, so I only spray them when I have a halter on them, then they resign themselves and stand still.  Murphy is kind of like Foxy’s exercise coach -he makes her move around when she would rather stand in one spot and eat a hole to China.  So she keeps moving and eats a little more moderately under his “coaching” and stays at a healthier weight.

Oops!  the tanks are full, so I run back up to the house and turn off the faucet, grab the fly sprayer and head to the pasture.  Those horses know what fly spray is about and each vies to be the next one sprayed, sometimes butting back into line to get sprayed again.  They are pretty well mannered, no real shoving occurs and there is no kicking.  Although they are pretty close to me, I don’t get leaned on or stepped on.  Pasture water is pretty easy – we have set up a tub with an automatic float valve, so it refills when they drink.  Just to be sure they are drinking, I will dip a few buckets out in the evenings and see if anyone is really thirsty, but so far so good.

Oops! gotta get moving, my noon hour is drawing to an end.  I head up to the house with the fly spray – and hear Bird whinnying for me.  She has a distinctive voice!  She’s left her grass and has come through her muddy pen to the gate to remind me that she also needs fly spray!  As soon as I’m in her pen, she arranges herself so I can spray her all over, then she whispers sweet nothings in my ear as I shut the gate and hustle back to work.

Keep lookin’ down

It struck hit me yesterday.  I walk with my head down a lot.  Like, almost all the time.  As a kid and now as an adult.  I guess it really bugged folks when I was little, people would tell me “Don’t be so sad, look up!”  Shoot, I wasn’t looking down because I was sad, I just didn’t want to walk on stuff.

I was born in Florida, way down on the tip.  Fire ants hurt when they bite, and you sure don’t want to walk on a fire ant hill.  Look down, avoid being bit.  Later, we moved to Indiana, on an acre-sized lot just outside of town.  No fire ants, but there was clover in our yard – and bees in the clover!  Look down, avoid stepping on bees and getting stung.  We moved from there to a little farm – lots of stuff to not step on there!  including boards with nails sticking out.  Oh, and smelly poop.  Look down, look down, look down.  Doesn’t mean I’m sad – I just don’t want to walk on something that will hurt me.

Yesterday, I was walking down our driveway.  It’s a long drive, it’s dirt covered with gravel with slight tire ruts.  As usual, I was looking down.  Guess what I saw?  Hint, this is Nebraska and it’s been warm over the last few days.  <Jeopardy music>   That’s right, a rattle snake!  It was in one of the ruts, its body flattened out and long, as if it were trying to soak up some heat (yesterday was a bit overcast and cool for a change.)  We stared at each other for a moment, then I took a step back to the house to get hubby and his gun – but first I checked this snake’s tail.  There are bull snakes, nice, rattle snake killing snakes, that often look like rattlers.  I sure didn’t want to kill a bull snake.  Uh, not a bull, this critter had about 6 buttons, all shiny and round.

Ok, I walked up to house, not far at all, hubby got his snake killer and I went out to show him the snake.  hmm, where was the snake?  I walked about to where I thought it had been, hubby cautiously went past me, down the drive a bit.  I wondered if I overshot the snake’s location, so I turned and looked behind me.  Oh my goodness!  we had walked less than two feet from it and had been looking for it – and never saw it!  About this time one of the dogs decides she should keep us company and passed within inches of the snake’s head.  I guess because it was still cool, the snake did not strike.  I hollered for hubby to come back, I pointed and he still could not see the thing until I pointed out the grass clump just next to the snake.  (The photo is from my friend and neighbor, Bill Coe, of another snake a few summers ago.)

A few shots later, the snake was pierced.  Odd thing about snakes is that they have really slow metabolisms.  It’s backbone was broken in more than one place, yet it continued to move.  It can still bite and inject venom, as the reflexes remain for most of a day.  Hubby used a shovel to pick it up and take it to the burning barrel – it would be a real tragedy if after dead, the thing managed to bite a curious cat or dog.

So I guess I will continue to keep looking down.

Busy busy busy!

I have just passed the half-way mark in a school course series.  Everyone in the school must take this 12 week series in order to graduate.  There are about 100 pages of reading each week, then we need to write an 800 word essay and make remarks on two of our classmates’ essays.  It could be very interesting work – we have read the US Constitution, we’ve covered such topics as Limited Goverenment, Religion in America’s founding, Moral Relativism, Women’s issues, Race issues, and others.  Sometimes we get to read Plato, Aristotle, Jefferson and Madison.  But mostly we read articles from the Enterprise Institute, the Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and other right-wing “think” tanks.  They mostly quote from one another, and re-inforce one another.  We may get a short paper with a differing view, but generally the worst example available is presented to us.  Our “instructor” is a retired pastor, and with the number of people in the class (it’s all on-line) he can only make minimal responses to any of us.  Many of my classmates seem to be challenged when it comes to writing or even following instructions.  I shouldn’t complain, so far I am making a good grade.  But I do resent spending so much time and learning so little.

Onto more fun things!  I have two fillies who will turn 3 years old next week.  This spring I worked with them for a few weeks, in preparation to send them to the trainer.  I will be taking them this week, to be lightly started, to just get the hang of being sat on and ridden and accepting it all as normal life.  I’m not sure, but I expect them to be there 4-6 weeks.  As the summer progresses, I may take them for short – 20 minute – rides, nice and calm.  This winter, as weather permits, we can work on more things, and next summer, as 4 year olds, they will be ready to start expanding thier horizons.  Rita is definately for sale, I’m not so sure about Rita.  Both have been healthy and good-minded and should make great trail and all-around horses.

Next week, my sis and her SO and we will get together for several days to visit in Denver!  We are working on plans and it should be a little bit of everything.  I’m getting revved up!  But I will need to get a bunch of homework done ahead of tiem if I want to enjoy anything.

Visiting Fireman

Well, no, she isn’t really a fireman, I’m not sure where that phrase came from.  My friend Sue took a nearly 2 week trip to visit a new baby in the family, and dropped her horse Ruby off with our trainer.  That worked out great – but when she left the pasture was pretty bare, all the horses were on hay, and of course Ruby was on hay at the trainer’s.  Then the grass came on great guns… just fine if the horse is on it 24/7 and “eases” into it, but to go from hay to lush pasture can cause a lot of problems.  So I offered to let Ruby stay here, since I work at home, I could take her back and forth to pasture on a schedule to gradually re-introduce her to grass.

So, as Sue has time, she comes out to ride or work with Ruby.  This week, it has mainly been in the mornings, and it is cool to be working and see the two of them ride past my window.  Ruby will be goig back home on Friday – back to her own herd and grass.  I’ll miss her and Sue!

Quick reprise of the April trip

Gee, I never got back to describing my trip!

I had a great time, the clinic was wonderful and I learned a lot.  Some of the things I had to re-learn – Mark Rashid told us and showed us about things I had learned from Ann McKay, but I’d forgotten, or had let someone else show me a “better” way (that really didn’t work as well).  I got to try out some of what I learned on Linda’s horse, Plum, once we got back to her place.

Plum was supposed to be my ride for one session of the clinic, but she started an abscess.  I got to see the miracle potato cure first hand, it does work really well, unfortunately the timing was a bit off for riding in the clinic.  She did clear up in time for the trip home though.

I have a pile of horsey books and dvds borrowed from Linda, to read and look at and maybe decide to order my own.

And it was fun to meet Linda and her crew in person!

If I can, I would really like to take the week-long course that Mark offers in Colorado.  It’s only about a 4-4.5 hour haul for me, and it looks like hubby can find plenty of hiking or biking to amuse himself, as if we were on a real vacation.

Gone Visitin’ I

I’ve been out for a week – Linda from one of my “horsey bulletin boards” (HBB) invited me to come visit her and attend a Mark Rashid clinic.  So last Wednesday – my birthday! – I drove 4 hours to the Denver Airport, flew to Salt Lake City, hung out til my next plane arrived to take me to Spokane and met Linda and Laura, another gal from the HBB.  We grabbed a bite nearby and chatted, then Laura, who lives near Spokane, went home, while Linda and I drove to her place in Northern Idaho.

Wow!  I have been in Nebraska for 7 years.  No trees, no hills – and on the way to Linda’s, we crossed two mountain passes and drove through big forests!  Yes!  It was so pretty!

I didn’t find out until later that I had sent Linda an old itinerary.  They had been waiting over an hour and a half!  And the flight number had changed as well.  No wonder they seemed a little tense when I arrived.

(More in the next entry.)

Progress – week 1

Feb 9, 2009

Today it’s raining, cold and windy – so no photos or measurements, at least not as of lunchtime.  It seems to be clearing up, so maybe after work?

We’ve been very good about doing some kind of exercise daily:

• Monday – Friday – I only had my lunch break to work with her (and do the other lunch time chores).  We rode about 15 minutes each day.  Monday I don’t think we even trotted, we worked on walking and flexing and steering.  Each day we added a few steps of trot, otherwise lots of walking and flexing.  We worked both in the round pen and the yard – I have a row of small trees that are nice for bending around and did that one or two days.
• Saturday I had a bit more time.  She was enthusiastic to work and offered to trot several times around the round pen!  She is getting softer in bending  and is loosing some of the big belly.  We rode nearly 30 minutes, including some time in the yard and around the gelding pen.
• Sunday was too damp and cold for me but she was game   I worked her and her gelding buddy together in the round pen for about 15 minutes.

My goal is to just get her moving.  In pasture she would rarely spend much energy going anywhere.  After our riding sessions, I’d put a little (I mean a little) hay out in the 60×60′ pen for her and the gelding.  He is a nudge and won’t let her just stand still vegging out.

Today the ground is too slick for much of anything.  Between the wet and cold (it’s a bit above freezing) I bet she is still using plenty of calories to stay warm.

We also worked out how to get her to eat her Remission – she gets a cup of dry beet pulp and a cup of senior complete feed with about a half cup of water.  Once that is good and damp, the Remission powder sticks to it and she happily eats it up.

At least she looks like she is loosing weight.  Her belly is a little tucked up and it seems I can see a few muscles working as she moves around the round pen.

Foxy’s Diet – start

Starting date – Feb 2, 2009.  Girth measurement 75 inches.

Just like humans, animals can get overweight without even trying!

Foxy is what we call an “easy keeper” or “air fern”.  One day she is looking ok, well, maybe a little chunky, then suddenly she is huge!  The problem with horses is that obesity leads directly to hoof/foot problems and there’s an old saying “No hoof, no horse” so it pays to take care of things.

Most of the winter, she was a little chunky – out of shape (no riding) and pretty woolly.  The other day I saw that she was developing a crest below her mane – a prime indicator that her metabolism was dropping and she is at increased odds for foot problems.  I want to emphasize that she has never had foot problems before – never sore, no laminitis, no founder.  She is usually fine on pasture – but we’ve had an unusual winter, much warmer than normal.  The grass is normally dormant in winter – well it’s green and a little cold-stressed this year, so it produces a lot more sugars than mature grass.

So she is off pasture altogether and gets her hay rationed throughout the day.  I’m riding her daily – starting out on short jaunts, to build up as her fitness increases and her fat decreases.  She also gets to spend part of her day with a busy-body Arabian gelding – he keeps her moving around the dry lot.  Not running, but if she had her way she’d just park and not move.  Her buddy makes sure she isn’t a “couch potato”.  And the last ingredient in her diet plan is a supplement called “Remission”.  It’s made specifically to support the metabolism of cresty horses.  Between reduced food, increased exercise, and the supplement, I hope to have her in good shape by summer.  Right now she is too round to fit any of my saddles, so I use a “LJ” or Little Joe Saddle pad.  It’s nice and grippy and there’s no slipping when I ride.

I plan to update her “journal” here at least weekly – there will be a photo update and girth update every Monday.