Horses loving girlfriends...

Makayla, Eryka and I headed out to the barn last weekend for a leisurely day in the saddle. Cleaning up the horses and getting ready to ride out. We headed out the gate towards the Balch Springs area for are usual rural ride. It was a nice comfortable afternoon. The horses were pleased by the expressions on their faces, to get out of the pasture. They seem to love to sight see just about as well as we do. They had happy faces, perked ears and a lazy way of going.

Barefoot hoof care...

After going through a slew of Farriers in our area, we've decided to do it ourselves. For one reason or another, they all seem to talk a good line, with the same results. They all seem to agree on one thing though. If your horse gets footy, we can put shoes back on them. Well, Doh! That sort of defeats the purpose of going barefoot and building a good foundation from the inside out. We've been doing our part. Our feeding regime has been low sugar consentrates, good hay without all the added fertilizers and no sugary treats. Our pasture is not ferilized either and they have plenty of other forage to pick at.

The last time our farrier came out. Mind you, he was the fourth one we interviewed and decided to try. I'm certainly not saying he's incapable of doing a good job putting shoes on a horse, but he doesn't want to do it the way I want it done. After two weeks, I needed him to come and do some work, and he recommended I wait another four to six weeks to trim them again. Except for the fact!, they had grown significantly in the two weeks since his previous visit, because he hadn't taken enough off in the first place.  Ack! Since we ride almost every day, the horses hooves are growing quickly and they need regular care so we can lower the heels gradually instead of all at once. I mean, after all, I don't want a lame horse, do to over extention of their tendons during the proccess.

Just a bit on bits...

Mouse has the kindest eye of all the horses, excellent temperament, and quiet personality. There's not much else to ask for when your looking for the right prospect for trail riding. He's easy going, doesn't see a lot of buggers and never gets riled up. Poking along the trail with little be excited over. He almost seems to be in another world. Most likely dreaming of greener pastures and that purple feeding bucket we haul his feed to the stall in. Awe! The feed bucket. Just when you think he hasn't any personality, rattle the feed barrel. He flies into another gear. Impatiently pacing about the grounds, nickering, throwing his head about and kicking his heals up. When the feed lands in the trough, he's back to low gear. He's such a nice character.

Ron has been riding him every evening, for the past two weeks. And just when I thought he couldn't get any better, he proved me wrong every time he was saddled. I did change head gear on him. We were using a O-ring snaffle. He didn't respond the way I thought he should, so one day I rode him with just a rope halter. He did wonderful. Since we really don't know anything about the way he was ridden before we got him, or what they used, it seemed like the right thing to do. He reined a whole lot better and backed much easier with less pressure. Since we ride on the streets around light traffic, my bit of choice is the Weaver Stop and Turn.

I know some folks wouldn't agree, because it can be extremely harsh in the wrong hands. However, my husband and I both are very light handed. I rarely get into a horses mouth and if I do, it's warranted for one reason or another. My mare gets head strong when she sees something at a distance when were riding in an open field. And it certainly isn't because she's not broke to death. It's just that once in a while. I feel it's better to be safe than sorry.

Here, were using the "Weaver Stop and Turn"
 on both, Jerzey and Mouse.

  We use a sweet iron snaffle on this horse. It has a copper roller in the middle. I like it because it doesn't pinch the corners of his mouth, and it gives him something to do when he stands tied for longer periods. The bit doesn't have any stopping power unfortunately, but it's easy on his mouth when our Grandaighter get's heavy handed. Thankfully, the horse responds well to her in most situations.

It's not that I needed a new saddle, but...

I was lurking about on eBay and found a Australian saddle. The price was right, so I bid on it. The starting price was 99 cents. I ended up paying 112.50 for it. Now, I know it's not top of the line, but for the price, I could make it work. I picked it up today and was quite surprised by the condition. Not half bad for a cheap saddle. There are a few things that would make it better. I had one before and remembered after cinching up the saddle why, I got rid of it in the first place. ha ha! It didn't tighten up enough for my fat ass to get aboard. So, I've been searching for a English to Western converter for it. There are a couple of options to check out. Though my Granddaughter tried it out and loved it. And she didn't have any problem getting aboard the saddle. I'll probably end up letting her have it. Another thing I'm not crazy about are the stirrups. I'm going to convert them to irons instead of the western ones. It also needs some fleece on the stirrup leathers for comfort. The first thing you know is, I'll end up having another 100 in it after it's all said and done. All in all, I'm very pleased with the purchase. : )  

From one fat woman to another...

I came across a blog today by accident. It caught my eye with the heading..."A Fat Girl & A Fat Horse". What an eye opener. This young woman struck me right down to the bone. You can, be happy in your own skin! Struggling with my own weight for the biggest part of my life, it's real easy to look around at those who are seemingly in better shape and wish I was there. It was because of my weight I became introverted in the first place. Never wanting to go any where or do any thing, because I was always worrying about what people would think. It's taken me a lot of years to become comfortable with my self. And to tell you the truth, I just got damn sick and tired of being depressed with myself. So I got up off my FAT ass and bought a horse. It's been two years now since I bought him. I really have my Granddaughter to thank for that. She's 12, going on 13 come February and she loves the horses. Initially, it was her, I bought another horse after a ten year break from the equine world. It was because of my weight, I'd thought I'd never own another horse again. I had had my mind made up, that I couldn't do it. Little did I know, that I can do it and do it quite well, in spite of my limitations. It was a grueling experience the first six months on the back of my Granddaughters horse. Both of us were out of shape, neither of us could breath and my muscles screamed during the night from exhaustion. The prior owners stalled him and never rode him, and when he was ridden, it was by a six year old girl. Poor guy! lol After the several months atop Handsome's back, I decided to look for a horse of my own. I found her in January just five short months after we got Handsome. She, to was out of shape. She hadn't been ridden in three years. Both of us got a crash course in respect. She was mare-ish and bitchy! I thought myself nuts for a short time. Buying a horse that had to be tuned up was a huge challenge for a fat woman! Leizurely riding was all either of us could do at first. I excercised her 30 minutes or more, a day most days, until we were fit enough to do as much as 4 to 6 hour rides, 2 or 3 times a week. Our distances varied between 10 and 15 miles. There were a couple of time we rode 20 miles round trip.  I must have put nearly 1000 miles on her in less than six months. Who was it, that said "a FAT woman can't ride the distance"?

I've been so busy...

I haven't kept up with my ramblings. Oh well!, I've been busy. Over worked, under paid and getting older has its challenges. September 25th was absolutely horrible. It started out good, but early morning we woke up to a dramatic scene. Ronnie came in the house and woke me up at 5:30 am. He said one of our older dogs wasn't acting right. Slowly rising, because most of the time when he hollers at me about something happening, it's not as dramatic as he makes it sound.

Unfortunately for the dog, this time, it was a matter of life and death. When I dawned the doorstep of the kennel, I looked into Chessies crate and he was foaming at the mouth. He was seemingly calm and lifeless, however when I reached in a dragged him out of the crate, he started seizing. It was a small seizure lasting a few seconds. He snapped out of it pretty fast, but never regained mobility. He had had something similar just a month before.

At that time, I had spoken with our Vet and he said "since he hadn't had any prior episodes, just watch him and see". The seizure then, was mild and regained mobility shortly after and never missed a lick. This time however, was a entirely different episode of continuous seizures. Some of which, lasted mearly 6 minutes. I was frantic, not being able to get in touch with a veterinarian on Sunday morning.

I contacted a local emergency animal clinic with several questions and asked if there was any one who could come out to the house. They were rude and unhelpful. It finally dawned on me to call the equine clinic I use for my horses. I got a recording and a pager number. I left our contact number. It was shortly there after, Chessie started seizing again, lasting nearly 5 minutes this time. After this episode, he was unresponsive and seemingly gasping for his last breath.

Not being able to move him because of possible spinal injuries from earlier, we opted to make him comfortable until we received a response from my phone call. He seemed to be resting, lifeless and breathing as normal as possible at the time. Watching him closely and monitoring his breathing, he went into another seizure. This one lasted nearly 4 and a half minutes, it stopped for 2:58 minutes and then repeated another seizure for almost 5 more minutes.

I knew then, there was nothing else we could do for him. Shortly after, I got a phone call from our equine vet, and he reccomended we make him comfortable by administering drugs that would help the muscles relax. Thank God!, we had some on hand. We finally got him relaxed, though lifeless and unresponsive, he was comfortable and no more seizsures. He passed away before we could load him up for a trip to the vet.