I Miss My Horse

I told a friend, the other day, that I missed my horse.

Being at college that statement is not a very surprising one. A lot of students around here state that they miss their pets.

My friend smiled at me and told me that break is coming up, and that means I should get to see her soon!

I nodded.

She then added knowingly, "That's not the horse you were referring to, was it?"

She was right.

I do miss Lady. I have not spent nearly as much time at home with my pony as I would like. I miss her sassy glares and her tolerance of my presence. I like to imagine she misses me as well. Though its far more likely she just misses the treats I bring...

But when I stated I missed my horse. Well.

Mya.

Honestly this is a relatively new emotion. You can imagine for awhile the thing I felt when I thought of her was sadness mixed with pain.

Grief.

But I was also relieved that she was no longer suffering. It is so hard to watch your pet suffer.

But now, I feel like those feelings have started to diminish.

Now I just miss her.

I walk through a tack store and I end up saying things like, "Oh hey! Mya's loves those brand of treats! I should get a bag," or "That color would look great on Mya." I miss spoiling her.

Mya was truly "my" horse. Perhaps it is the connection we have with our first horse, or perhaps she was just truly special. But I miss that connection. With Mya sometimes it felt like we had almost a telepathic connection. In all reality we were just in tune with the way each other worked and moved.

She was truly my horse.

And I miss that.

I'm not saying she didn't have her flaws. She did. I had mine too. I regret not doing so many things with her. If I let myself I would just beat myself up in side about so much of that. But the past is the past and I cannot change it. For all our flaws, I think the few short years we spent together were remarkable. She taught me so much. I honestly due believe she made me a better person. I thank her for that. She was a gift to me. She was a beautiful gift.

Sorry if this post was horribly depressing. I was just feeling very nostalgic! I'm hoping to write up another post very soon to let you all know how Lady is doing. I ordered her a new winter blanket the other day which I am dying to try on her. If she ends up looking as adorable (and slightly annoyed) as I think she will, it should make for a great picture! 

Boots and Blues

Writing on this blog has gotten a bit harder these days. The reason is quite obvious I suppose. But I also sometimes feel like I just don't do anything worth while with horses these days to write about.

I feel like I've lost touch.

I haven't really ridden in months. I haven't really ridden a horse I own in about a year.

But what I have come to realize these last few weeks is that my calling with horses wasn't to be an Olympic rider or even a good rider. But what if my calling with these animals was simply to give unwanted horses a loving home. I don't know what would have happened to Mya if I hadn't taken her. And while we only had three short years together and I made a lot of mistakes, I like to think that I gave her a happy place to live out her final days.

And that thought makes me more content. I am not here to be a great trainer or rider. I am here to provide a horse who no one else wanted with an environment suited to a happy content horse. And knowing I made a difference in at least one horse's life makes it worth it.

Mya taught me a lot. More than any horse ever has. And I am still learning from her. I truly believe that one feisty bay mare has made me a better person. Maybe that was her purpose.

The mistakes I made with my first horse have taught me a lot of lessons. And I think Lady is happy to benefit from those mistakes.

She has now been wearing the boots for several weeks and I have seen a huge improvement. It has made THAT much of a difference. Just the other day I went to let her out into a different pasture (like many of you I'm sure, I rotate pastures) and she went through the gate and took of galloping. I was astonished! I have never seen her gallop before! Complete with bucking head tossing and the works! I was kind of afraid she was going to hurt herself. But nope! She was just happy!

Here is what they look like on her.

So let me say, if you have a severely foundered horse that normal shoeing is not helping, hoof boots work.

Pasture pony looking shiny! :D

The only downside to these is that they get wet easily and they tend to rub their legs. Because they get wet you have to take them off every day to clean them out. You want to make sure now fungus or anything grows in there and infects the hoof. I've dealt with white line disease before and I am avoiding it at all costs. I put gold bond medicated foot powder inside the boots and that seems to be working well. The rubbing has been a bit of an issue though. I try to keep a close eye on it and even put vet wrap around her legs most days to protect them. I did some research and actually found pastern wraps that are specifically for that and I ordered them. (but my package appears to be lost in the mail so we're still working on that...) But over all using hoof boots has been the best thing for Lady yet. I've been happy with the results.

Her eyes aren't running, that's where I applied roll-on fly spray a few minute before.

Moving Forward

First I want to say thank you for all of your kind comments and wishes. They really made my day. Loosing a horse is not easy but you all made it a little better. So thank you.

Lady and I are doing well.

She doesn't seem to mind having the pasture all to herself. Which is really good since I was concerned as to how she would react being on her own. She and Mya were close and the place I got her from had several horses. So I was concerned that she would be lonely with Mya gone. But she doesn't really seem to mind being out in the field by herself. She is eating and relaxing like normal. The only difference I've noticed is that she acts more interested in people. I guess with horses not around she reluctantly resigns herself to the company of humans instead. With I find slightly amusing but don't mind in the least. We're spending some good quality time together.

I've actually decided to switch her over to hoof boots. Her previous owners over fed her and let her founder (Laminitis) pretty badly so she has terrible feet. Over the past year we've tried shoeing but it really doesn't work and the shoes irritate her feet. So, after quite a lot of research, I've decided to get rid of metal shoes and switch her over to hoof boots. For turnout right now she wears a pair of EasyBoot therapeutic hoof boots.

I just got her feet trimmed up today and she now has both boots on the front feet. And I have to say, I'm already seeing a huge difference! Hopefully her lameness issues will continue to clear up, but things are looking pretty promising.

I also want to order her a separate pair of boots for riding. The one above is more designed for turnout than riding, and it would be good to have at least two pair of boots anyway in case she looses one or one breaks. I'm leaning towards a pair of Cavallos. They come with gel inserts which I'm sure Lady would love.

Does anyone have experience with hoof boots and foundered horses? 

Any advice you could recommend?

In Memory of Mya

I thought you all would want to know. Many of you have followed our story from the beginning when I first brought Mya home.

Mya was put to sleep on June 11.

Awhile back I had talked about her having some respiratory problems. After numerous rounds of antibiotics, vet exams, and me asking every horse person I knew about her problems I decided that I would simply have to take her to the best to find out what her problems were.

Her only symptoms were that she suffered from recurring nose bleeds and an occasional respiratory infections.

We ended up trailering her two hours to an equine hospital at a veterinary school.

The people there were very kind and they thoroughly knew what they were doing. Because it was a vet school there were not only the head doctors examining her but several students as well. They knew what they were doing, which I was reassured over. It was the best place I could have taken Mya.

As it turns out, her reparatory problems got so concerning the doctor ended up having to do a tracheotomy on her before they were able to do any serious examining. Then they did a scope on both sides of her nose and then xrays.

They discovered that Mya had a serious form of cancer. They have no idea was causes it in horses.

Mya was not going to recover. I decided that the best thing for her was to have her peacefully put down.

She was an amazing horse right up until the end. The doctors were amazed that she was still functioning as her sweet spunky self. She never lost heart or her spirit.

She was truly a remarkable horse. I will never forget her.

A Bareback Ride and A Little Photography

I had a funny little adventure the other night. I went out to bring the horses up to the barn the other night, and normally they'll meet me close to the barn. But this time they were way out in the other corner and didn't see me, so I had to walk out to get them. Since it was a bit of a walk, when I got out there I randomly decided I would just hop on Lady bareback and get a ride back to the barn. Lady is a great horse to ride bareback and she's pretty chill. We had a lovely little ride. I just let her walk slowly and graze where she wanted to. It was quite nice. Just chilling in the dusk with Mya following along behind. Everything was going great until we got close to the barn. There is this low hanging bushy tree over there, and I don't know if Lady just decided if her back was itchy and she needed a scratch or what but she decided to walk directly underneath it. She scraped me off backwards rolling off her rear. Somehow I managed to land on my feet. It was actually quite funny and I was just laughing. Lady then stopped and looked at me like "what? me?". It was quite amusing. That horse has the funniest personality and attitude.

I also went out the other day and took some pictures of them relaxing in the shade out in the pasture. Mya was such a diva posing for all my pictures. Lady well... she tolerated my camera just barely. :D

Lady's mane has grown out to be a really lovely strawberry blond color. Its so pretty!

Grace the Mustang

I've written about this barn several times before. I'll generally drop in to see the horses when I am vising family near this particular stable. The people there are all super nice and I love the horses. Some of the best trained horses that I have ever ridden are at this barn. The lady that owns the place is just a really great trainer.

The first time I visited I rode a good natured quarter horse named Cash. He and I got along great. He was such a gentlemen.

I've ridden an appaloosa mare named Roxy twice. (You'll probably recognize her from earlier posts.)

And this time I got to ride the farm celebrity, a very smart 5 year old BLM mustang named Grace. She's not only a well trained mustang (with only two years in civilization) she is also a bit of a trick horse! Her owner showed off some of her tricks right before we left to go home. I was impressed. Grace is such a good natured and smart horse! Definitely shows just what good horses mustangs can be.

While I rode Grace, my cousin rode Roxy. The point of that day was just to exercise the horses. They want to get them in shape for the upcoming show season. Another girl was also using Grace as a lesson horse later in the day, so I was supposed to get Grace warmed up so she would be super calm later when the other girl rode her. So basically we just exercised them at a walk, trot, and canter for about an hour.

And then at the end just for the fun of it we decided to see if we could make a drill team. We attempted to ride a pattern but failed miserably. But is was hilariously fun! We had a good laugh over it.

Anyways, I can now say I've ridden a mustang! I really did like that horse. It seriously makes me want to adopt one!

Grace the Mustang

 

 

 

 

 

Roxy

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bareback Riding and Nasty Weather

The winter weather has really gotten us down lately. Snow, ice, rain, and then a foot of mud. Consequently I have had almost zero opportunities to work with my horses. The situation has just been nasty in general.

But I do believe things are starting to look up.

The last few days have actually been nice and decently warm, so the mud isn't quite so bad.

I was going through a bad case of riding withdrawal, so I decided that I would ride whatever the circumstances.

So I decided I would just throw Lady's halter on her and go for a bareback ride.

I've kind of made it my personal goal lately to learn to ride bareback. I mean I've ridden bareback before here and there. But I really want to learn to ride it confidently and at more than just a walk.

(Perhaps I've just watched too many old western tv shows, but those guys are seriously way cool.)

Anyways, so I've ridden Lady a couple of times recently with just a halter. Walk is easy. I'd done that before and had it down. I really wanted to perfect my trot. I had felt pretty insecure and like I was going to be jolted right off. So that is really what I worked on. A few strides here and a few strides there. I'm quite happy to say that I think I've gotten pretty good at it! I've discovered that I actually really like riding bareback, and I'm happy to say that I'm not bad at trotting like that now. So that what we've been doing lately when there hasn't been a foot of mud or snow or ice etc etc etc.

I don't have an pics of the whole bareback thing, but I did go out today and just take some pics of them in general.

Mya pretends to be a hound on a scent and Lady is "thrilled" that I am taking her picture. :D

And my dog is super cute. I mean how can you resist that face?

*Yawn*

I hope you all are braving winter successfully, hopefully spring is almost here! I do believe I am starting to see some green grass outside...

Blog Hop: A Rose

 

     

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

Every horse seems to have at least three names:  the "real" one, the barn one, and that special one.  What are some of your pony's names?

 

I was excited about the theme of this blog hop when I read it. I love naming things, so yay! 

 

I will name just about anything. Its bad. I named my scientific calculator Cassidy. (I'm a bit of a math geek.) I have a Tardis from Doctor Who and a teddy bear on my key chain. Therefor I named the bear Lucinda the Time Traveling Teddy Bear. Like I said, its bad...

So of course I loved the idea of a blog hop about names. Cause I certainly have a tendency to call my horses a lot of different things.

Lets start with Mya. She doesn't have a show name because I've never shown her and she's not registered or anything that I know of. So we'll just start with her barn name, Mya. And then there's the nicknames. Pony, because she is big. Beastie, when I ride her because she is crazy. Myer and Oh Me Oh Mya. I also gave her a middle name. Eureka. Cause you know, I found her.

Then there's Lady. I actually changed her name when I got her. It was Penny. At the time I didn't particularly like it, but now that I think about it she does have the coat of a copper penny. So I get it. But I changed it to Lady just the same. We considered calling her Lucy, but the majority liked Lady better. So then I said we could make Lucy her middle name. It ended up that it was just shortened to Lou. And thus we have Lady Lou. More often than not, I just call her Lou Lou now. (I'm sure she lovesss the name.) I also refer to her as Ladybug from time to time.

Beastie and Lou Lou. :D

 

Collectively, I refer to them as "the ponies".

Oh Look! Snow!

I certainly wasn't expecting it to snow. Last night everything was just warm and drizzly. But, what do you know, I wake up this morning to a world of white!

The horses were already up at the stable, hiding in the run-in stall. Guess they weren't exactly over joyed with the snow. But it was cute to see their two little heads sticking out. "We are not coming out so you come in."

They perked right up when I started dishing out breakfast. Food does wonders.

The weather in general has been pretty nasty lately. Mostly just a lot of rain. (Hey, I'd rather it snowed than rained so yay!) But with all of that I just haven't been able to do much outside. I will be happy when the weather gets warmer, or less mucky, and I can get back to working with my ponies.

Kentucky Derby Star

I made a new friend last week! And I might add he's a bit of a celebrity in the horse world.

I was lucky enough to get the chance to meet the winner of the 2011 Kentucky Derby!

Meet Animal Kingdom!

The great Animal Kingdom!

Every now and then I get the opportunity to attend various events and my personal favorites are the ones that have to do with horses. So I was naturally thrilled when I got the chance to visit this stud farm. Animal Kingdom wasn't the only famous stallion I met there, but he was certainly my favorite. (Discreet Cat and Street Sense are two others names I can think of that were present.) But, wow. All the horses were absolutely amazing and gorgeous! I was seriously fangirling.Way too much awesomeness going on.

But needless to say I was very excited when I heard that this horse was going to be there because he is one of the few racehorses that I actually knew my name. I remember watching the Derby on tv the year he won.

I'm not a huge racing fan or anything. I'll watch the Triple Crown once a year and thats about it. But I do love OTTBs, and its on my bucket list to own an ex-racehorse and retrain it. I think they are super talented animals.

So, ya, I have to say this was a pretty cool experience.