Jewels "In the beginning"...

This mare is a handful when she's tied. I'm not sure why a person wouldn't teach a horse to stand patiently. Maybe they lacked the time or experience.

Jewels

The man we purchased her from almost a year ago was elderly, and hadn't done anything with her, but feed her. Told us he bought her from a guy that rode up to his house bare back about a year and a half before we purchased her. He hadn't left anything out about her personality, habits, and warned me,"this is a cowboys horse" she's not for a beginner.

Okay, so, that didn't detour me from buying her. I let him know I had a clear understanding of his opinion, but I'll take her regardless of your warning. I think the man thought me crazy, but I needed a challenge in my life. When I went to pick  her up, the first thing she did was run from us. No problem! We hemmed her up in a corner and I put the halter on. Now its time to take her home. The man told us " she won't hop in a two horse straight load". Okay, I thought to myself, "now you tell me". No problem, "so I replied". My grand daughter was holding her near the back of the trailer and I took a lunge line out of the saddle compartment. I was going to have to coax her in with a rope around her hocks. To my surprise and everyone else standing around there, I opened the trailer door and she bumped us out of the way and hopped right in! Nice...

Sunday morning coming down...

  Well, we started out the morning feeling better. Ron fed the horses and dogs early as usual. While out in the paddock area, he hollered at me to come out side.   There were 2 loose horses on the road. One of them was a stud horse! The other was a cute little roan gelding stopping to eat grass in the neighbors yard across the way.  Ron meandered towards them carrying a feed bucket to lure them into a enclosed area around the front of our barn. Neither of then were interested in complying.  Both started trotting off the opposite direction, most likely headed back where they came from. The man they belonged to started this way with a bucket of feed trying to catch the wandering duo. The horses kept making there way home until the owner finally corralled them in another neighbors yard down the way. The roan was a real cute mount, about 13 and a half hands tall. The other was a chestnut standing about 15 hands tall. Not a bad looking horse, but definitely not stallion material. I'm always amazed why folks keep or use a stallion that wouldn't pass on beneficial traits or good conformation to their offspring. Okay, so, lets not meddle into the life of someone else.

We got Mouse back...

Can't say I'm sorry to get him back. I had regrets letting him go. He's such a nice horse, with a temperament you just don't find every day. Mouse is as easy going as they come. Nothing bothers him. The unfortunate thing about him is, he has a early stage of navicular. The right front more so than the left. We are going to take him and have lateral views done on Thursday morning, to see his progress. I had been hesitant getting him x-rays before, but now I'm on a mission to do what it takes to save this horse. We have had many discussions with the farrier and our Equine vet and they both seem to think it's just a matter of time before we get him rolling along. Though without x-rays, they won't know how to set him up to succeed. He was shod 3 weeks ago today, and since he's been gone for 2 weeks, I can already see a great improvement from the previous visit, which means, I now have the hope I need to qualify this horse for future greatness. He's the perfect child mount. Someones child will be lucky to have him in the future. Here's to you, Mouse! My happy go lucky equine friend.

 

Another Saturday morning...

And, I'm in the house on the computer. Still having this excruciating pain in my right leg. Nerve damage is almost always harder to recoup from than sprains or strains. Having been to several Doctors about this, telling me one thing after another, wanting to pump me full of nerve blockers and pain pills. ACK! I finally decided to rebel against western medicine and do what I thinks right for me. Firstly, I got off the pills. Cleaned up my diet, and I've been working out for about 2 1/2  months. Sounds great doesn't it? Well, not exactly. I'm reasonably exhausted from work, tired from the lack of real sleep and depressed because I can't seem to get a good handle on my physical condition. My diet has changed dramatically, the exercise I do daily has left me feeling better than this time last year. One step at a time...Okay, so now it's time to go outside and get started on equine related stuff.

Jewels

It's been a long time since I've written in my blog. Don't know how it got away from me, but I'm going to try and keep up with it better now. There's so much to do in a day. I have a new horse now, and it's been almost a year since I bought her. An APHA registered mare, 9 years old last month. She's 14.1 hands tall, with a heart as big as Texas. Even with the weight I carry, she can pack me around all day and seemingly never tires. I named her Jewels. It sort of fits her personality.

When I first got her, she was spooky and unsocial, having been in a pasture with horses that picked on her, she became quite skittish to handle. It took me a few months to get her to settle in enough I could catch her without a problem. We spent many days in the round pen, teaching her to send and come to me. Now she's the first one out of the pasture to greet me. I began riding her consistently about 3 months ago. She's a bit to fast on her feet yet, but I've been working on the stop and go to slow her pace down. She's coming along quite nicely now.

God loves all his creatures...

Makayla and Happy...

You got to love kids and dogs.

O' Christmas Tree...

I never thought I'd have a white Christmas tree, with purple and pink decorations. Though I thought I'd never have a little girl, either. he he! My Granddaughter certainly has an interesting look on life.

Holy cow...

It's been almost a month since I posted anything. There's not been much going on in the way of outside activities. I'm still not able to ride or mess with the horses either. My leg is still bothering me. There is only a nagging pain left, and it drives me bonkers. Plenty of medication to screw the ole stomach up too. ack! I'm going to have to get some pro-biotics after I'm through to get my stomach back in good working order. And, being a fat lady doesn't help the matters any better. I've managed to gain 9 pounds from the steroids this past month. I'm lucky I haven't put on more. I'm just not built to sit idle. The smell of food seems to attract the poundage. ha ha! Any who... we're off to the grocery store to get some food that won't simply attach to my ass. Atleast I can walk for short distances now, without the excruciating pain. Eating food that Ronnie cooks is lethal to my body. I'm going to have to take control of my own weight management. Awww well, he means well. : )

Still sick and tired of being sick and tired!

It's the second week in a row. I've been down in my lower extremities with muscle aches and pains. Three ping pong size muscle cramps. The massage therapist has been slowly working these little buggers out. The pain, while massaging these areas are excruciating. I'm quite sure this happened when I was under my horses. You have to give Farriers the props they deserve. It's a physically challenging occupation. And most of the ones I've encountered are nearly half my age and much stronger than I ever was at their age. I'm not one to give up though. I did plug away early this morning on my mare. I pulled up the mounting block close to her, placed it near her front leg, sat my happy ass down on the block and rasped away at the over grown heel. Thank God for the small favors he has bestowed on me in my hour of stupidity. She stood quietly and patiently while humoring my need to "get'er done" mode. I can't say enough about this mare. She certainly has a easy way of doing exactly what I need at the right time.

Sick and tired of being sick and tired!

I've taken one more hit to the ole body recently. On Friday, my leg gave out. My first intial reaction was, it was my knee. However after evaluation of my predicament, I leaned more to it being located in the hip region. I could hardly walk at all. Ron dug out the crutches in the storage shed. It helped tremendously. After a lot of rest and flat of my back for the entire weekend, I decided it was time to see a Dr. I had already contacted the Dr.'s office on Thursday because I knew something wasn't quite right. So, Monday, it was off to the Chiropractor. I mulled through all of his questions and realized after much deliberation, it wasn't my hip either. He said " Your back is out of line and you've pulled some muscles. Yikes! It's off to therapy and a message therapist for 3 days to help with the unwinding of some of the muscles attached to my lower spine. Little did I know that this would cause a chain reaction into my lower leg area. Any how, my life is getting better again with the second go around of therapy. I have one more visit of Friday. I feel pretty good at this point, but I certainly need more ajustments.

Home hoof care!

We finally broke down and bought some tools to do our own horses hooves. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time. I simply got tired of farriers and their talk of natural hooves, with no decent results. I've finally got Jerzey rocking along on all fours without any issues with lameness after trimming. Yay! She's traveling heel first, except for the club foot on the right front. That foot is going to be challenging without some knowledgeable help. I've never owned a horse with this particular problem. When I bought her almost two years ago, I was aware of the problem, but chose to overlook it. I've never felt, for any reason to throw away a good opportunity, just because things weren't perfect at the time. Her recovery seems to be quicker since the shoes had been removed nearly 90 days ago. A horse, the previous farrier claimed, would never be sound barefoot.

Left Front

Bottom Left Front

Right Front (Club)

Bottom Right Front (Club) 

Right Rear

Bottom Right Rear

Left Rear

Bottom Left Rear

We obviously still have a ways to go. How ever, the results from our last trim are, leaps and bounds from the previous professional results. No lameness issues and heel first landing. And!, no friggin stumbling! I'm not sure where to go from here, but as long as I learn to read my horses posture better, how their hooves land on the ground and no limb soreness, I'm confident I'll be moving in the right direction. Jerzey is even riding comfortably over rocky terrain. Something she never did, even with her shoes on.  

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.

Here stands, nosey...

  Handsome is a real nice character. He doesn't let to much shake him up. Standing around, while working in the stalls and the grounds around the pasture, he looks on, as though he's over seeing our project. I can't say enough good about this horse. Having bought him two years ago last month. He's been the perfect first horse for Makayla. I can't say he's bombproof, because I don't think any horse is, but he's as near bombproof as a horse gets. I guess the only real concern I have a times is, he pulls back on the lead rope sometimes when startled by something. I do suspect he might have a vision problem in one eye. And it only happens on the one side rarely. He's nearly 18 years old, so it's about time for the old age to set in.

Procrastination at its best...

   I've been procrastinating again. So, what's new, eh? ha ha! It's been along week at the work front. Long hours and in dire need of a vacation. The weather is getting better as days go by. It was in the 50's last night. Winter coming around the corner, I've noticed the horses coats are changing. They almost look fluffy in the early morning hours. They've become darker and have a shine to them again. The hot summer really took a toll on all the critters around the place.

   Since it's been quite cooler, Ronnie decided to use his energy playing with the new "old" tractor. It sure comes in handy for cleaning out the open stalls. It's something we had normally done by hand. I can't believe it took less than fifteen minutes to accomplish what would have taken us a couple of hours to do by hand. We've been looking in to getting a load of sandy loam for the stalls. Ronnie leveled and graded the excercise pen shortly after we got the tractor so it will drain better after a heavy rain. Luckily it did rain one night last week and no water stood any where. Oh yea!