The Good and The Bad

     I guess horse ownership has its ups and downs. Honestly, at the moment I'm pretty frustrated. Lady is pretty lame right now. Its frustrating because I have down so much in the way of hoof care for my horses and yet both of them have gone lame in the past month. At least Mya is doing better now. But Lady is really sore on her left front hoof. I think she have a stone bruise, which might have turned into an abscess. My farrier recommended soaking her hoof in warm water with epsom salts so that is what I did. She is so sore she didn't even want to move around her pasture so I put her up in the corral/paddock area (where the stall is) and gave her some hay. At least she's happy about hay. When I left she was happily munching away. I just wish she wasn't lame in the first place, and its not from lack of trying on my part. At this point I am pretty sick of hoof care. Next horse I buy is going to have perfect feet. I love my horses dearly but I just wish they didn't have so many problems with their hooves.

Lady Learns

  
 
     I feel like nowadays the majority of my time with the horses is spent working on their feet. How is it possible that I ended up with two horses who both have terrible hooves! Lady, due to the fact that she'd been foundered by previous owners, has to be shod on all four feet. Particularly the front hooves. Mya is only shod on the front, and that is because she's had trouble with white line and cracking. Two years ago Mya had large cracks running up the middle of her front hooves, but with lots of attention and care her left front is now completely solid. The right, well, was. That is until she somehow manage to throw a shoe and take a chunk out of it. Which wouldn't have been so bad except that it got fungus of some kind in it. The farrier then had to cut away a lot of the hoof wall to expose the fungus. Now I regularly have to soak her right front hoof in a solution and then put medicine on it. I'm really hoping the fungus is dead and it will stay dead. I'd love to be doing other things than constant hoof care! But I don have to say I've spent some good quality time with the ponies because of this and I have learned a ton.


     I've made some breakthroughs with Lady's training recently. As you probably know, when I got Lady back in May one of the biggest things missing from her training was lunging. She had absolutely no concept of how to do it. She pretty much didn't know groundwork in general. So since I have had her that is one of the things we have worked on a lot. The other day I had her out in the round pen and we were doing the regular free lunging work when suddenly it seemed like something just clicked in Lady's brain. She started paying attention and actually listening. Before she was just trying to avoid me or halfheartedly obeying. But this time I could tell she was fully listening to me. She picked up the trot with just me saying the word and clicking. That was the first time she had responded like that. Before I always had to bring up the lunge whip to reinforce the command. But this time she didn't need it. She knew what I wanted without me having to make exaggerated motions. I have to admit I got really excited. It was so cool! That was also the first time she really did "join-up". She was following me around like a puppy dog. It was really amazing. Its like Lady finally accepted that we should work together.

In other news, she now lunges beautifully. (Though we're still working on the canter. She still needs a lot of work with that gait.)

Trail Ride in the Rockies

     Colorado. One of the most gorgeous places in the USA. You can't beat those soaring mountains and jaw-dropping cliffs. I was lucky enough to be able to visit Colorado again this summer, and like last summer I had my eye on another trail ride. We weren't out looking for a riding stable (actually we were looking for a ghost town, but that's another story), but we happened to be driving down this dirt road (yes, a dirt road) when we saw some people out riding horses. A little further on we came across the stable they were from and what do you know there was a sign out front that offered trail rides! Of course we had to stop and check it out. The people were super friendly and the horses were nice looking so we decided to sign up for a ride.

     I made a couple of new friends that day. The first was the horse I rode. He was a pretty appaloosa gelding named Cricket. We got along just fine, Cricket and I.

Monsieur Cricket

      The second was the lady that took us out to the trails. She was super nice and had actually just moved to Colorado the month before. She told me that she was an english rider who trained horses, taught lessons, and specialized in dressage. When I told her about what I did and the horses I owned she was really encouraging. I really appreciated that.

     The ride itself was absolutely gorgeous. From breathtaking views of the mountains to a forest that looked like something out of a fairytale it was amazing. I enjoyed every minute of it.

Roxy Goes to a Show

   
      My cousin Katie who lives several states away also loves horses. I really like having a cousin who loves horses like me. It great that I have someone that I can spend time just talking horses with. She rides western, and does kind of a working student thing at this barn. She trades cleaning stalls for lessons. Its really neat. This summer she got the chance to lease the horse she rides in lessons and did several shows with her. Roxy, the horse, is an appaloosa mare and I have actually ridden her before. She's a really fun horse to ride. Anyway, Katie and Roxy's biggest event of the summer was their local 4-H horse show. Where they would be staying at the fairgrounds for a week to show. Since they were going to be there all week and she didn't want to be there by herself they asked if I would drive up to keep her company. Of course I said yes. A whole week in the horse barn at a county fair? How could I refuse! So off I went on an eight hour drive. (I guess you could say I'm pretty dedicated to horses.)
     When I got there they had already moved Roxy to the fairgrounds the day before, and since they had just gotten back from the barn from taking care of her they didn't need to go back until morning. The next morning was the first day of showing. Classes started at 9 a.m. and we had a ton to do first to get ready. That meant we had to get up at 5 o'clock in the morning. Ya, it was a bit early. But hey its horses so it was worth it! When we got down to the stable the first order of the day was to feed Roxy. Then while she was eating we polished the tack. I got the job of cleaning Katie's riding boots. I must say I think I'm a pretty good tack cleaner! After that (and Roxy had finished her breakfast) was just touching up the horse. Since she had worn the pink cover thing the night before she was pretty clean.

 Basically all we had to do was paint her hooves and put her fake tail on. (Yes, she wears a fake tail. Weird, right? That's what I thought. I didn't really know that people did that in western pleasure. I guess I know now!) And saddle her up of course. Then it was a long walk over to the arena. (Why they didn't put the barn next to the arena I will never know)

 The two of them did 4 classes that day. They did amazing! They got first place in each class. The first day of showing was for first year 4-H members. So I think it means for people that hadn't shown 4-H before. Anyways, we were all pretty excited for them.

     Day 2 they didn't have any actual shows. We still spent all day at the barn since Katie had to take care of Roxy. She also practiced and rode Roxy in the arena during a practice session. (It was like lunch break so they said anyone could go and ride in the arena.) After that we didn't have anything to do for a bit until Roxy needed more water so we went and sat in the livestock show barn and watched a pig show. I had now idea there were so many different types of pigs...

     Day 3 it was back to showing. This time it was the open shows so all the kids were in them and the competition was a lot more stiff. Still Katie and Roxy did great. I was pretty excited for them. They did an amazing job! I don't exactly remember what she won, but she did place in all but one of her classes. So they did really well considering these were the people who had been doing this for many years.

There were about 19 people in this class.

     All in all it was a tiring but super fun week. I feel like I learned a ton about horse showing that I didn't know before. I hope they do it again next year!

The Prelude

     I've been a bad blogger.

     I know.

     But honestly I do have a good excuse. I've basically been out of town for the last three weeks. (except for like a day or two) Not that I haven't been having wonderful horsey styled adventures; I just haven't had my computer to write about them with! So really I do have a decently good excuse, more or less... I owe you all about four posts. Like said above I actually have done a lot of stuff with horses even though I have been out of town. 

     I reckon Mya and Lady are secretly thankful about the whole thing. They've had a lovely summer vacation out on the grass. Just basking in the sun and eating delicious green salads. I guess in the morning I'll have to break it to them that the vacation is over. They're gonna adore me for that... I love having mares. They have such personality... and sass... But hey there's pros and cons to everything right? Like it or not the girls are going to have to get back to work. We've got places to go and people to see! (if horses could read blogs, I could just see their expressions) Yes, ponies, its time to get your games faces on.

     Anyways, "stay tuned" for blog posts coming about what I've been doing. I've just got to sort through all those pictures I took first...

Challenge #5

So, I haven't done one of these in a ridiculously long time. Honestly I completely forgot about it. But have no fear, the 30 Thing Horse Challenge is back! Sadly, so far I've only made it to number five. Oh well, here she goes anyway.

Challenge #5

The Last Time You Rode Your Horse and What You Did.

I took Mya out for a ride last night. We decided to go on a trail ride again to relax and have a change of pace. Mostly we just rode around in this huge field and enjoyed the cooler evening weather.  Riding in the later evening during the summer is one of my favorite things. The setting sun makes everything so peaceful and beautiful. Anyways, that is what we did. Thus ends challenge five. I am going to have to remind myself to do more of these...

Hey, Hay!

     Yesterday we had an adventure getting the horses' winter hay. We've been so busy and that was really the only day we had time to go pick up some bales. Even though it was cloudy and had a possible chance of rain we decided to go for it anyway. It was a slightly nerve racking drive on the way home as we hoped it would start raining on our large stack of hay bales in the back of the truck. But thankfully we succeeded on getting all the hay bales home and stacked in the barn without anything getting wet. Now the horses can be happy knowing they have some nice grass hay to munch on this winter.

     As a bonus after our hay adventure we had time to go riding. One of my horse loving cousins, who helped me with the hay, rode Lady while I rode Mya. We decided it would be fun to get out of the round-pen and go for a trail ride. This was the first time that Lady and Mya had been on a trail ride together. The great thing about them is that they get along really well. That makes me happy; I don't know what I would have done if they didn't like each other. The ride itself went pretty well. The only eventful thing that happened was Lady spooking at a gate that was painted red. Since she'd never been on this trail before I think she did okay with it. All she did when she spooked was spin in a circle and stop, no running off. She was a good girl about it. I mean, hey, red gates can be pretty scary sometimes can't they? Other than that she did awesome and I think it was a pretty good first trail ride for her. I'm hoping to take her out again this evening once it cools off.

Lady is on the left and Mya is on the right.

Off on our adventure!