So, I've been meaning to rant about this for a while now, and I'm just now getting around to it.
My horses' feet look TERRIBLE. I'm really upset about their condition. I understand that it's summer, and the flies and stomping cause them to break up. I get that. Soooo the least of my problems right now.
Bella's feet look like they haven't been done for 12 weeks. The worst part? I noticed that they looked this way after 3 and a half weeks. They've never grown this fast, even when she went 8 weeks without getting new shoes. Now, her shoes are twisting, the nails are all popping, and her toes are so long that I feel like a horrible mom. I'm about ready to grab some nail cutters and pull them all myself, except I fear her toes are so long that that will only make the situation worse. Everyone else's feet are in various stages of crappiness as well.
I think I'm going to bring up my issues with the farrier (if he shows up) and give him this chance to redeem himself, and get a few more numbers in the following six weeks. I paid attention to some of my friends' horse's feet at the show this weekend, and I think I'll go for recommendations this time, instead of the equine newspaper. I HATE farriers!!!
On a better note, my dad and I are taking a trip to Lexington in October to go watch the show jumping finals at the WEG. I'm pretty excited, even though tickets are soooo expensive! For two 'best available' tickets to the three finals (team, individual, and top four jump off) it was almost $700! That's crazy. I could go compete there for less! Thankfully, I have a lot of family in the area so we're hopefully going to have a place to stay.
I went and rode for my (hopefully) future boss yesterday afternoon. I thought it went terrible; she trains her horses much different than the way I'm accustomed to riding. It will be a serious adjustment, and one that I'm nervous to make. However, she seemed pretty pleased with the whole thing, and said she has a really good feeling about me. I hope that means I have the job, because I could really use the money! As my last 'hoorah', I think I might head up to Saugerties next weekend and hang out with some friends, my trainer being one of them.
I feel like such a jerk, because Amanda is so excited to take a lesson with Manuel, and he just keeps flaking out. I'm beyond caring about it for my own sake, I mean, my horse maxes out at 3'6", and this weekend I think we proved we don't need any outside assistance with that height. But for him to skip out on Amanda is really crushing for me. I know what it's like to want an opportunity like that, and I really hope I can give it to her at some point. She's still coming out to ride Patrick quite frequently, and I'm excited that she still enjoys him. She does a really fantastic job with him. Bailey has also been doing really quite super.
Anyways, I think some woman is coming out to see Patrick this Sunday. She just wants to lease him, and I don't think that she'll be interested, but oh well. Maybe she knows a friend of a friend...it's always worth the free advertisement, I suppose...
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
Just a few of those pictures I promised
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Ah, what a day!
I don't think I could have asked for a better day. Well, okay, it could have been about 15 degrees cooler, but we can't have everything, right?
The morning started out pretty well. The jumper ring actually started fairly close to the designated time, and I was pretty pleased with that. We all know that horse show motto, 'hurry up and wait'. Thankfully, I had very little hurry or wait today.
The show grounds were pretty dead yesterday, so I was excited to see that there were quite a few more trailers. There's really no point in trying to school your young horse when no one shows up to make things interesting! So before I knew it, I had Patrick out of the trailer (and Bella stood perfectly after I took her friend out of the trailer!) and getting tacked up. Before anything could go right, he decided to throw out his (only) curveball of the day. While buckling his noseband, he reared up, flipped over, and smacked right into someone's mini-van, all totally out of the blue. After he righted himself, he quite literally stood there and looked at me like nothing was wrong. It was really rather strange, because when he wants to act up, he acts up. It's never just a rear and then nothing...beats me. Thankfully, horse, humans, and mini-van all came out of the encounter in tact. I mounted from the ground, afraid he was going to do something stupid, so I didn't want anyone else nearby. However, he stood perfectly and walked like a gentleman right down into the schooling ring. Talk about an odd start to the day!
He jigged around the schooling area a little bit, but overall he was quite controlled. I jumped a little cross rail a few times (the schooling area at this farm is dreaful...) and just went into the ring for our first trip. There were so many people in the warm-up and so little space, I just decided winging it in the ring alone was better than having someone land on him because they couldn't call their jump.
In our first course, he pittered out on the first fence. It was a little single oxer, and quite honestly, I don't think he knew we were in the ring to jump. He was too busy staring at everything outside the arena to even notice the jump. I gave him a little smack behind the saddle to say, 'hey dude, there's a jump here and we're doing business now', then rubbed his neck, talked to him a little, and started again. This time there was no questions asked. He popped right on over it and continued right on his merry way. There were a lot of wobbles, weaves, and funny distances where we pittered out and jumped like a deer, but we made it around the whole course!
The second course was absolutely fantastic. He got a little rushy into the triple line and pulled the first rail, but I could have cared less about that! The third trip was even better, only he got a little too honest, and started getting a little gung-ho. Twice, I did a straight-line halt, backed up a few steps, and then continued. I wasn't out for ribbons, and I wanted a confident ride with no fighting. It did the trick, and I think he was super pleased with himself. I know all the girls from the farm were happy for him! Everybody was really proud, especially my sister and I. My old boss even came out to see him go!
I do have to say, having my very good friend and old college roommate there to hand me a gatorade after each trip was a God-send. It was a blistering, stagnant 95 degrees in the sun, alllllll day:(
After I watched Amanda do two of her trips in the 3'0" jumpers, I pulled Bella out and started getting her ready for the 3'6" schooling jumpers. Of course, Patrick did not like being alone, broke his halter, dented the roof of the trailer twice with his head, and scuffed up his face. Finally, my dad just had to give up on his ideas of seeing me ride Bella, and stand in there with him. I hope he's sore tomorrow. Those dents certainly looked like they hurt, and I have very little sympathy. I know what he's going to be practicing this week...
Anyways, Bella had three amazing rounds. Several times, I made a poor judgement call, and she helped me out enormously. Our first and third trips were nearly flawless as far as my personal expectations go, and I was thrilled to bring home a blue ribbon and a red ribbon:) And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the reason I just can't sell her!
All in all, it was a really great day. There are pictures (and hopefully videos!) coming! Stephanie took some really great shots, and my sister got some, too:)
How was everyone's weekend?
The morning started out pretty well. The jumper ring actually started fairly close to the designated time, and I was pretty pleased with that. We all know that horse show motto, 'hurry up and wait'. Thankfully, I had very little hurry or wait today.
The show grounds were pretty dead yesterday, so I was excited to see that there were quite a few more trailers. There's really no point in trying to school your young horse when no one shows up to make things interesting! So before I knew it, I had Patrick out of the trailer (and Bella stood perfectly after I took her friend out of the trailer!) and getting tacked up. Before anything could go right, he decided to throw out his (only) curveball of the day. While buckling his noseband, he reared up, flipped over, and smacked right into someone's mini-van, all totally out of the blue. After he righted himself, he quite literally stood there and looked at me like nothing was wrong. It was really rather strange, because when he wants to act up, he acts up. It's never just a rear and then nothing...beats me. Thankfully, horse, humans, and mini-van all came out of the encounter in tact. I mounted from the ground, afraid he was going to do something stupid, so I didn't want anyone else nearby. However, he stood perfectly and walked like a gentleman right down into the schooling ring. Talk about an odd start to the day!
He jigged around the schooling area a little bit, but overall he was quite controlled. I jumped a little cross rail a few times (the schooling area at this farm is dreaful...) and just went into the ring for our first trip. There were so many people in the warm-up and so little space, I just decided winging it in the ring alone was better than having someone land on him because they couldn't call their jump.
In our first course, he pittered out on the first fence. It was a little single oxer, and quite honestly, I don't think he knew we were in the ring to jump. He was too busy staring at everything outside the arena to even notice the jump. I gave him a little smack behind the saddle to say, 'hey dude, there's a jump here and we're doing business now', then rubbed his neck, talked to him a little, and started again. This time there was no questions asked. He popped right on over it and continued right on his merry way. There were a lot of wobbles, weaves, and funny distances where we pittered out and jumped like a deer, but we made it around the whole course!
The second course was absolutely fantastic. He got a little rushy into the triple line and pulled the first rail, but I could have cared less about that! The third trip was even better, only he got a little too honest, and started getting a little gung-ho. Twice, I did a straight-line halt, backed up a few steps, and then continued. I wasn't out for ribbons, and I wanted a confident ride with no fighting. It did the trick, and I think he was super pleased with himself. I know all the girls from the farm were happy for him! Everybody was really proud, especially my sister and I. My old boss even came out to see him go!
I do have to say, having my very good friend and old college roommate there to hand me a gatorade after each trip was a God-send. It was a blistering, stagnant 95 degrees in the sun, alllllll day:(
After I watched Amanda do two of her trips in the 3'0" jumpers, I pulled Bella out and started getting her ready for the 3'6" schooling jumpers. Of course, Patrick did not like being alone, broke his halter, dented the roof of the trailer twice with his head, and scuffed up his face. Finally, my dad just had to give up on his ideas of seeing me ride Bella, and stand in there with him. I hope he's sore tomorrow. Those dents certainly looked like they hurt, and I have very little sympathy. I know what he's going to be practicing this week...
Anyways, Bella had three amazing rounds. Several times, I made a poor judgement call, and she helped me out enormously. Our first and third trips were nearly flawless as far as my personal expectations go, and I was thrilled to bring home a blue ribbon and a red ribbon:) And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the reason I just can't sell her!
All in all, it was a really great day. There are pictures (and hopefully videos!) coming! Stephanie took some really great shots, and my sister got some, too:)
How was everyone's weekend?
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Exhausted is only the beginning
Today was just plain tiresome.
I woke up at 5:30 to get Bailey ready for her first trip off of my farm. She loaded up great, and got off the trailer really well. I handwalked her for about 20 minutes or so, and then tacked her up.
There were your expected snorts and jumps, but nothing out of control. All things considered, she was a star!
We started out walking around the hunter ring, because it was dead quiet. The first few times someone took a jump near her, she jumped out of her skin (in a contained way), but she settled right back down. Once a kid almost jumped on top of us, I switched to the jumper/pony ring. For some reason, she loves ponies. Maybe they're her safety blanket since she gets turned out with Scooter? Strange thought...but she settled down almost immediately and let me start working her. She was even better at the show than she was at home. She was stretched out on the bit, and really paying attention. Even her bends were near perfect! Go figure, right?
So needless to say, I was THRILLED. She even stood still for a half hour or so calmly munching grass while she dried off. Getting back on the trailer was a bit of an event. She didn't want to leave all the grass and her new friends, but with the help of a friend, we managed to get her on in about 5 or 10 minutes.
After she was settled, I jumped Bella and Patrick around to school them up for tomorrow. Bella's feet look absolutely dreadful. They're infinitely too long in the toe, and one front foot has a different angle than the other. I'm going to give this farrier one more shot, but there's simply no way she should be that long after 4 weeks. I'm almost nervous to show her tomorrow, but she seems perfectly comfortable...just really long. Urgh. I really don't want to have to find yet another farrier!
So tomorrow is Patrick and Bella's day to shine. There are a whole bunch of people coming out to watch them, so I hope they keep their cool!
Oh, and Patrick officially has a sale flyer posted at the concession stand:)
I woke up at 5:30 to get Bailey ready for her first trip off of my farm. She loaded up great, and got off the trailer really well. I handwalked her for about 20 minutes or so, and then tacked her up.
There were your expected snorts and jumps, but nothing out of control. All things considered, she was a star!
We started out walking around the hunter ring, because it was dead quiet. The first few times someone took a jump near her, she jumped out of her skin (in a contained way), but she settled right back down. Once a kid almost jumped on top of us, I switched to the jumper/pony ring. For some reason, she loves ponies. Maybe they're her safety blanket since she gets turned out with Scooter? Strange thought...but she settled down almost immediately and let me start working her. She was even better at the show than she was at home. She was stretched out on the bit, and really paying attention. Even her bends were near perfect! Go figure, right?
So needless to say, I was THRILLED. She even stood still for a half hour or so calmly munching grass while she dried off. Getting back on the trailer was a bit of an event. She didn't want to leave all the grass and her new friends, but with the help of a friend, we managed to get her on in about 5 or 10 minutes.
After she was settled, I jumped Bella and Patrick around to school them up for tomorrow. Bella's feet look absolutely dreadful. They're infinitely too long in the toe, and one front foot has a different angle than the other. I'm going to give this farrier one more shot, but there's simply no way she should be that long after 4 weeks. I'm almost nervous to show her tomorrow, but she seems perfectly comfortable...just really long. Urgh. I really don't want to have to find yet another farrier!
So tomorrow is Patrick and Bella's day to shine. There are a whole bunch of people coming out to watch them, so I hope they keep their cool!
Oh, and Patrick officially has a sale flyer posted at the concession stand:)
Thursday, July 22, 2010
I am a busy beaver
It's been a while since my last post, and SO much has happened!
On Tuesday, Amanda came out to ride for me. I was almost positive she'd be perfect for what I need, but now I'm know I made a great decision. First, she jumped Patrick around. She seemed to really enjoy him, and he was so good for her. She was quite brave, and willingly jumped anything and everything; she even went down the triple, and he's still a bit inexperience at that. When I asked her what she wanted to finish up on, she asked to jump the coop! I pulled the poles off the top and set it up for her. She rides in the hunters and equition, so her position is very forward, and Patrick took advantage of her the first time around. When she came back to it again, she was much straighter and more aggressive, and he jumped right over it without hesitation. It was amazing to watch my little boy all grown up!
After Patrick, I wanted to jump Bella around a little bit, just to start prepping for this weekend. I hopped her over everything, and she was jumping super. Her rhythm was dead on, and my eye was really there for me. Since she was going so quietly, I put Amanda up on her. Bella is something of a superstar at my old barn, and all the girls love her. I hope she gets to make a few of the other girls jealous! She jumped her over just about everything (minus the big coop), and I made the liverpool it's full 4 feet wide and set it at about 3'3". I'm not sure how much experience Amanda has over 3'0", but she jumped it beautifully!
She thanked me afterwards (and quite honestly meant it, which is rare in kids these days!) and went off to ride her own horse while I finished up on Bailey.
Yesterday, Bella had the day off because she was just so good on Tuesday and it'll be a busy weekend for her. I did a light flat on Patrick, just to get him stretching out, and I flatted Bailey again. She's really starting to get strong, which means she's quite good at picking fights when she wants to. I don't like taking so much contact with her mouth, but it's to the point where I almost have to, or she goes balls-to-the-wall extended, so to speak. Thankfully, usually when I take up contact and really push her into it, she calms down, backs off, and rounds up (at least for a few strides, before she decides to test me again).
Last night, I realized just how good Patrick was. Amanda texted me and asked if I needed any more help riding this week. I had planned on working them all myself, since I have to take them to the show this weekend, but Patrick is only doing the 2'0" division and I know the jumps won't be the issue, if anything. So I told her she was more than welcome to come flat him this afternoon, and she was at my house promptly at 11am. We rode Patrick and Bella together, and I gave her a mini-lesson to help get her seat positioned more correctly to ride my horses. She's a very pretty rider, but she has a very American seat and sometimes lets her shoulders get in front of her seat. This makes all of my horses back off and go veryyy sluggish, because they aren't being engaged. By the end of the ride though, she had caught on and Patrick was very stretchy. I was extremely pleased:)
To round out the afternoon, I did another lunch session with Bailey on the trailer. She's more than willing to hop right in there now (one fantastic thing she inherited from her mama). Then I got myself covered in berry pink and grape purple spray paint as I painted two more poles. They are gray/pink/purple and actually go quite nicely with my flower boxes. I also painted two more standards white, but they need another coat because I used cheapy $0.97 white paint. And then, ladies and gentlemen, I started cleaning my tack room for the first time in about 4 years. My goal is to paint and wallpaper it this summer. I know, I'm probably dreaming...especially if I get this job. Speaking of which, I've already created a list of horsey things I need to buy once money starts coming in...cross your fingers for me!
Picture update coming soon. I need to show you all my jumps, and I know there will be photos from this weekend's show!
On Tuesday, Amanda came out to ride for me. I was almost positive she'd be perfect for what I need, but now I'm know I made a great decision. First, she jumped Patrick around. She seemed to really enjoy him, and he was so good for her. She was quite brave, and willingly jumped anything and everything; she even went down the triple, and he's still a bit inexperience at that. When I asked her what she wanted to finish up on, she asked to jump the coop! I pulled the poles off the top and set it up for her. She rides in the hunters and equition, so her position is very forward, and Patrick took advantage of her the first time around. When she came back to it again, she was much straighter and more aggressive, and he jumped right over it without hesitation. It was amazing to watch my little boy all grown up!
After Patrick, I wanted to jump Bella around a little bit, just to start prepping for this weekend. I hopped her over everything, and she was jumping super. Her rhythm was dead on, and my eye was really there for me. Since she was going so quietly, I put Amanda up on her. Bella is something of a superstar at my old barn, and all the girls love her. I hope she gets to make a few of the other girls jealous! She jumped her over just about everything (minus the big coop), and I made the liverpool it's full 4 feet wide and set it at about 3'3". I'm not sure how much experience Amanda has over 3'0", but she jumped it beautifully!
She thanked me afterwards (and quite honestly meant it, which is rare in kids these days!) and went off to ride her own horse while I finished up on Bailey.
Yesterday, Bella had the day off because she was just so good on Tuesday and it'll be a busy weekend for her. I did a light flat on Patrick, just to get him stretching out, and I flatted Bailey again. She's really starting to get strong, which means she's quite good at picking fights when she wants to. I don't like taking so much contact with her mouth, but it's to the point where I almost have to, or she goes balls-to-the-wall extended, so to speak. Thankfully, usually when I take up contact and really push her into it, she calms down, backs off, and rounds up (at least for a few strides, before she decides to test me again).
Last night, I realized just how good Patrick was. Amanda texted me and asked if I needed any more help riding this week. I had planned on working them all myself, since I have to take them to the show this weekend, but Patrick is only doing the 2'0" division and I know the jumps won't be the issue, if anything. So I told her she was more than welcome to come flat him this afternoon, and she was at my house promptly at 11am. We rode Patrick and Bella together, and I gave her a mini-lesson to help get her seat positioned more correctly to ride my horses. She's a very pretty rider, but she has a very American seat and sometimes lets her shoulders get in front of her seat. This makes all of my horses back off and go veryyy sluggish, because they aren't being engaged. By the end of the ride though, she had caught on and Patrick was very stretchy. I was extremely pleased:)
To round out the afternoon, I did another lunch session with Bailey on the trailer. She's more than willing to hop right in there now (one fantastic thing she inherited from her mama). Then I got myself covered in berry pink and grape purple spray paint as I painted two more poles. They are gray/pink/purple and actually go quite nicely with my flower boxes. I also painted two more standards white, but they need another coat because I used cheapy $0.97 white paint. And then, ladies and gentlemen, I started cleaning my tack room for the first time in about 4 years. My goal is to paint and wallpaper it this summer. I know, I'm probably dreaming...especially if I get this job. Speaking of which, I've already created a list of horsey things I need to buy once money starts coming in...cross your fingers for me!
Picture update coming soon. I need to show you all my jumps, and I know there will be photos from this weekend's show!
Monday, July 19, 2010
What a loooong day...
I don't think today could have dragged on any longer! It was, however, productive.
First off, I went to Homely Depot with my mom and bought some more paint. They didn't have any 'Oops!' paint, but she offered to buy me some spray paint. I bought enough to do two red/white/blue poles, and two pink/purple/gray poles. I'm still up in the air about my remaining four standards. I have two navy and two yellow. I think the last sets need to be kind of generic...I also added two neon orange/black poles to the mix. I really wanted to paint something neon orange...
Anywho, I got around to painting the two red/white/blue poles before I hopped up and rode. Both Bella and Patrick got fairly extensive flats today, and I hope to jump them around some little stuff tomorrow. Mid-Patrick, the woman from this job ad returned my phone call. I was a little worried, because it did turn out to be this small event barn that I was thinking of. However, the woman was extremely nice on the phone, and had a really great sense of humor (I can always get along with someone like that). She had already lined up several interviews, and asked if she could really inconvenience me and have me come out that very afternoon.
For any normal person, that would be an insane hassle. Thankfully, for me, I make my own hours, and told her I'd be right out! Turns out, it's a ten minute drive from my house and sits right on the Liberty Reservoir. It's a really small farm, 10 stalls and no more than 15 horses at any time. She has about 20 students, all low-level event riders, and everyone that I met seemed like your typical young rider, friendly, nice, and horse crazed. She was a woman who knew what she wanted, which I truly love in the horse industry. I hate working for people who aren't sure how they want things done, and change on a whim. She had a set list and an order for doing things, and it was all your basic barn stuff. Turns out, a girl I used to ride with already works there and she's happy with her position. Also, another woman I used to ride with worked there for several years. Margot, the barn owner, knows most of my past employers/trainers, and was familiar with my background as a jumper rider. She informed me that it's all very laid back, she wants someone happy with their job, and is very flexible with scheduling. That last part was what really hooked me.
So I think I'm probably going to be offered the job. She said she had a lot of other people to interview, but that it was more about going through with the semantics, because she really thought I'd be great for the position. Yay! I gave her a few references, minus my trainer, who has yet again disappeared, but told her that I'd give her his info as soon as I get his business number. Urgh. He's so frustrating.
After all of that went down, I came home to feed my horses. Of course, to make my day longer, Quinn decided to bolt his feed down, despite only getting a little over a handful of pellets and having three salt block chunks to break it up, and he got a wonderful case of choke. Thankfully, I've dealt with this several times before in a few of our older horses. That did not make it any more fun. I did everything my vet usually tells me to do: banamine, massage the neck. If that doesn't work, jump him over tiny fences to try to dislodge the mass. No luck. Next, if it still doesn't work, squeeze the throat fairly hard to try and work it out. Squeeze the windpipe to induce coughing. Nothing. Finally, I did what I hate doing, but usually works: I stuck the hose in his mouth a few times. It loosened it up enough that after standing for a few minutes, he began to walk around, and eventually to graze. Needless to say, after an hour of this, I was hot, drenched, and tired. Thank you Newton, it had to go wrong, didn't it? I think it's time to ask my vet for some ace.
Now, on a good note, Amanda is coming to ride Patrick tomorrow! I'm so excited. I hope she likes him! And the girl I used to ride with that I saw at my interview is having some issues with her young horse. I offered to let her bring him over to my place and I'd help her with him. I hope she decides to do it! I think that could be a pretty cool experience, and hopefully rewarding for her!
I'm going to go get some grub and sleeeep!
Keep cool!
First off, I went to Homely Depot with my mom and bought some more paint. They didn't have any 'Oops!' paint, but she offered to buy me some spray paint. I bought enough to do two red/white/blue poles, and two pink/purple/gray poles. I'm still up in the air about my remaining four standards. I have two navy and two yellow. I think the last sets need to be kind of generic...I also added two neon orange/black poles to the mix. I really wanted to paint something neon orange...
Anywho, I got around to painting the two red/white/blue poles before I hopped up and rode. Both Bella and Patrick got fairly extensive flats today, and I hope to jump them around some little stuff tomorrow. Mid-Patrick, the woman from this job ad returned my phone call. I was a little worried, because it did turn out to be this small event barn that I was thinking of. However, the woman was extremely nice on the phone, and had a really great sense of humor (I can always get along with someone like that). She had already lined up several interviews, and asked if she could really inconvenience me and have me come out that very afternoon.
For any normal person, that would be an insane hassle. Thankfully, for me, I make my own hours, and told her I'd be right out! Turns out, it's a ten minute drive from my house and sits right on the Liberty Reservoir. It's a really small farm, 10 stalls and no more than 15 horses at any time. She has about 20 students, all low-level event riders, and everyone that I met seemed like your typical young rider, friendly, nice, and horse crazed. She was a woman who knew what she wanted, which I truly love in the horse industry. I hate working for people who aren't sure how they want things done, and change on a whim. She had a set list and an order for doing things, and it was all your basic barn stuff. Turns out, a girl I used to ride with already works there and she's happy with her position. Also, another woman I used to ride with worked there for several years. Margot, the barn owner, knows most of my past employers/trainers, and was familiar with my background as a jumper rider. She informed me that it's all very laid back, she wants someone happy with their job, and is very flexible with scheduling. That last part was what really hooked me.
So I think I'm probably going to be offered the job. She said she had a lot of other people to interview, but that it was more about going through with the semantics, because she really thought I'd be great for the position. Yay! I gave her a few references, minus my trainer, who has yet again disappeared, but told her that I'd give her his info as soon as I get his business number. Urgh. He's so frustrating.
After all of that went down, I came home to feed my horses. Of course, to make my day longer, Quinn decided to bolt his feed down, despite only getting a little over a handful of pellets and having three salt block chunks to break it up, and he got a wonderful case of choke. Thankfully, I've dealt with this several times before in a few of our older horses. That did not make it any more fun. I did everything my vet usually tells me to do: banamine, massage the neck. If that doesn't work, jump him over tiny fences to try to dislodge the mass. No luck. Next, if it still doesn't work, squeeze the throat fairly hard to try and work it out. Squeeze the windpipe to induce coughing. Nothing. Finally, I did what I hate doing, but usually works: I stuck the hose in his mouth a few times. It loosened it up enough that after standing for a few minutes, he began to walk around, and eventually to graze. Needless to say, after an hour of this, I was hot, drenched, and tired. Thank you Newton, it had to go wrong, didn't it? I think it's time to ask my vet for some ace.
Now, on a good note, Amanda is coming to ride Patrick tomorrow! I'm so excited. I hope she likes him! And the girl I used to ride with that I saw at my interview is having some issues with her young horse. I offered to let her bring him over to my place and I'd help her with him. I hope she decides to do it! I think that could be a pretty cool experience, and hopefully rewarding for her!
I'm going to go get some grub and sleeeep!
Keep cool!
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Back to work!
Ah, vacation, I miss you! But more often than not, I was ready to come back and ride!
So today was my first day putting my nose back to the grindstone. Let me tell you, one week off and I was DEAD by noon!
Despite the heat, humidity, and stagnant air, I had a fairly good, productive day. I fixed my jumps up (most had been knocked over) and set a few new things. I relocated my single vertical so I can jump it off the other lead, and set up some more canter poles at 2.60, which is .20 meters shorter than Patrick is used to. I figured I should start challenging him again. Onward!
Everyone got a good, solid flat today, and I thought I was going to die. Side cramps combined with heat exhaustion is not a fun mix! Even my legs were all loosey goosey, not cool guys! Thankfully, my horses picked up the slack. Patrick was super about the shortened canter poles, and figured them out pretty quickly, provided I could keep my leg on long enough to find him a distance.
Bella was her usual self, calm, quiet, and fairly laid-back. She's so difficult to ride when you're out of shape because she's just so round. I'm going to be sore tomorrow, you can count on it!
Bailey did a lot of walk work today. She's finally beginning to learn that leg pressure doesn't always mean 'go forward', and by the time she was tired and less 'jumpy', she was starting to show the hint of a bend around my leg. I even trotted her over some ground poles and a little 1ft jump! She clacked her feet against them more often than not, but she didn't mind going over them, even when they're painted neon orange and black. I hope that's a good sign!
Anyways, this is all in preparation for this coming weekend. There's another show at my old farm, and I plan to bring all three of my training horses there. Bailey will go to school on Saturday morning, and Bella and Patrick will show on Sunday in the jumpers. I'm going to take Patrick in the 2'0" stuff (and maybe a 2'6" if he's stupendous!) and Bella will move back into the 3'6" stuff, provided all goes well this week. I finally got ah hold of my trainer while I was in North Carolina. He's going to try to come up this week to help me school my two jumping horses, and he's going to ride Bailey. I have a fear that she'll become a one person horse, because she's so leery about strangers. So I decided I needed someone as good as, or better, than me to hop up on her. Hopefully he keeps his word and comes out. I could use the tune up.
Also, tomorrow afternoon I'm going to call this farm looking for a barn manager. I'm not sure if I'm interested; there's little information provided in the ad. However, I figured it can't hurt to inquire about their facility, and maybe I'll get lucky and it will sound promising! I hope it's a low key H/J facility that does some local 'A' rated stuff, that way I can get my horses out to the shows without taking time off from work. If it's too time consuming or not a competitive barn, I think I'll have to pass on it. It would have to be really good to get me away from my own training program.
And lastly, Patrick is officially listed on Dreamhorse.com as 'for sale':( I'll be so sad to see him go, but I know he needs someone who can really appreciate what they have in him. He's listed at $8,000, which is a bit more than I expect to get for him right now, but if I've learned anything about selling horses online, it's ask for a lot more than you expect to get. Plus, I did a search on horses in the area, and judging by what I saw, it's really not that far out there. Go figure. Hopefully a girl can get lucky!
Oh! And Bailey started trailer training today! She walked right in and ate her lunch:) Yay!
So today was my first day putting my nose back to the grindstone. Let me tell you, one week off and I was DEAD by noon!
Despite the heat, humidity, and stagnant air, I had a fairly good, productive day. I fixed my jumps up (most had been knocked over) and set a few new things. I relocated my single vertical so I can jump it off the other lead, and set up some more canter poles at 2.60, which is .20 meters shorter than Patrick is used to. I figured I should start challenging him again. Onward!
Everyone got a good, solid flat today, and I thought I was going to die. Side cramps combined with heat exhaustion is not a fun mix! Even my legs were all loosey goosey, not cool guys! Thankfully, my horses picked up the slack. Patrick was super about the shortened canter poles, and figured them out pretty quickly, provided I could keep my leg on long enough to find him a distance.
Bella was her usual self, calm, quiet, and fairly laid-back. She's so difficult to ride when you're out of shape because she's just so round. I'm going to be sore tomorrow, you can count on it!
Bailey did a lot of walk work today. She's finally beginning to learn that leg pressure doesn't always mean 'go forward', and by the time she was tired and less 'jumpy', she was starting to show the hint of a bend around my leg. I even trotted her over some ground poles and a little 1ft jump! She clacked her feet against them more often than not, but she didn't mind going over them, even when they're painted neon orange and black. I hope that's a good sign!
Anyways, this is all in preparation for this coming weekend. There's another show at my old farm, and I plan to bring all three of my training horses there. Bailey will go to school on Saturday morning, and Bella and Patrick will show on Sunday in the jumpers. I'm going to take Patrick in the 2'0" stuff (and maybe a 2'6" if he's stupendous!) and Bella will move back into the 3'6" stuff, provided all goes well this week. I finally got ah hold of my trainer while I was in North Carolina. He's going to try to come up this week to help me school my two jumping horses, and he's going to ride Bailey. I have a fear that she'll become a one person horse, because she's so leery about strangers. So I decided I needed someone as good as, or better, than me to hop up on her. Hopefully he keeps his word and comes out. I could use the tune up.
Also, tomorrow afternoon I'm going to call this farm looking for a barn manager. I'm not sure if I'm interested; there's little information provided in the ad. However, I figured it can't hurt to inquire about their facility, and maybe I'll get lucky and it will sound promising! I hope it's a low key H/J facility that does some local 'A' rated stuff, that way I can get my horses out to the shows without taking time off from work. If it's too time consuming or not a competitive barn, I think I'll have to pass on it. It would have to be really good to get me away from my own training program.
And lastly, Patrick is officially listed on Dreamhorse.com as 'for sale':( I'll be so sad to see him go, but I know he needs someone who can really appreciate what they have in him. He's listed at $8,000, which is a bit more than I expect to get for him right now, but if I've learned anything about selling horses online, it's ask for a lot more than you expect to get. Plus, I did a search on horses in the area, and judging by what I saw, it's really not that far out there. Go figure. Hopefully a girl can get lucky!
Oh! And Bailey started trailer training today! She walked right in and ate her lunch:) Yay!
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