Hey all! I want to thank everyone who has followed this here blog full of my ramblings, successes and failures. I appreciate you!
I’m moving the blog to a new one effective now. A post about Eeyore’s lameness is up there currently. I haven’t used blogger in forever so I’m still trying to figure out the formatting and such. Head on over to: http://www.moonlitpastures.blogspot.com. I gave it the farm name figuring why not?
The reason for the move is pure laziness on my part. I posted a bit ago that I’ve used up my media limit here and while I could go back and delete all the old videos, upload to YouTube and re insert in the original posts….that’s never going to happen. Ever. I don’t have the motivation.
So it was either stop using media which…ugh no. Stop blogging….also no. Purchase another account here. Move to blogger for free.
This blog will remain for at least 9 more months. I’ve already paid for this year so why not let it sit. But I won’t pay to keep it going in the future so it may disappear. I’m not sure how that works. Nothing I’ve said is earth shattering or that important.
If you care to, change the blog in your reader to http://www.moonlitpastures.blogspot and join me as I continue with my ramblings full of pictures and new YouTube video links.
You know what? I just deleted this entire post and I’m starting over. Why? Because the first five paragraphs were me defending my choice to take a lesson yesterday and screw that shit. Everyone makes their own choices and weighs the risks and benefits. I work in healthcare and I know the stats in my area. I’ve independently researched the virus, it’s effects and the real mortality rate and I’ve made my own choice. I won’t defend it and I won’t apologize for it. Shamers be warned. I won’t tolerate hate.
With a spattering of half days on my schedule thanks to a dwindling clientele who need to be seen at this time, I scheduled a lesson up at Trainer’s open air facility yesterday. Then Eeyore got hurt (he is still lame today but not fatally so so he should be on the mend. It’s hard to tell with him because he is a huge wimp) and I figured it would be canceled. Trainer didn’t let me off the hook that easy though and instead offered up her Appy mare to ride with the restrictions that I had to use her personal tack and not enter any of the buildings.
I’ll admit to being a tad nervous. I haven’t ridden any horse except Eeyore in 2 years and not that many prior to that. I was game though and soon found myself astride a very leggy, young Appy mare.
Trainer was a cold hearted killer from the start. In fact, she watched me mount and had me immediately dismount and do it again because I sat down a tad too heavy. I knew I was under fire from the get go. No more excuses because I was on a fire breathing Eeyore. This mare is well behaved and honest and now it was time to focus on me.
It took me a bit to adjust. The mare is lazy and requires a lot of leg to get going but then once there you can maintain. With Eeyore, his rhythm and pace are all over the place with no two strides the same. It’s a constant dance of moving him up, then bringing him back. Not so with her. I got her where I wanted her and then relaxed and let her go. It was….odd.
We did some flat work to warm up then started with a gymnastic line. Trainer apparently really liked what she saw on the flat because right before we started jumping she ran to get her phone to video. She never does that!
Anyway the line was a trot pole, vertical, two canter poles set one stride apart and then a gate. I was to trot in then let her canter the rest. It was scary at first. I’m not super brave and I’m definitely not trusting. She was honest though and did no wrong. The biggest thing I needed to learn was to get the trot in where I wanted and then….do nothing. That was hard. Eeyore loves to jump and gets very rushy and bully like in front of a jump so it’s a lot of sitting back and holding. With the mare though, all I had to do was set her up and flow.
It was pretty cool in fact. We did it a few times to get my relaxing and trusting her before we moved to a small course.
I have no media of the course. Maybe she didn’t take any. Maybe it sucked that bad she didn’t want to share it with me, who knows?
Started with a vertical, sharp right bend to a stack of barrels, continue right bend to four stride combo, then a sharp left bend to a gate. The first time I was a bit everywhere. My steering was nowhere to be found and I stuffed her through the turns. We made each jump but it was icky. The mare’s canter is weird. It’s not the rocking horse canter Eeyore has. It’s like there is a sideways motion included or something and I honestly had a rough time getting used to it.
As we cantered around the course, I always felt off balance and unsteady. Some of it was the saddle that was not my beloved deep seated BC, but most of it was trying to figure out her motion.
Trainer had me do it again and this time went way better. I really like the mare. Maybe not her wonky canter, but her brain is fantastic and you can tell Trainer has been the one to get her going under saddle. She really is foot perfect and is only 6. Trainer backed her at 5. We talked about all the things I need to do better (stop hunching my shoulders, stay more centered in the saddle, look ahead to where I want to go, stay in two point longer on the back side of the fence, etc..) and I think the plan for now is to take more lessons on the mare so I can work on myself. I’ll still ride Eeyore at home, once he is sound again, but for now it’s going to be me centric in lessons for a bit.
The Great Muzzle War has ended folks. Sadly I lost although I’m not sure there is a winner here as Eeyore is currently on stall rest from his latest muzzle induced injury and I may need to call the vet out soon if he doesn’t start to show signs of improvement.
The first injury occurred the second day he wore the darn thing. He came in with the entire right side of his nose swollen twice the normal size. I panicked thinking he would suffocate on his own stupidity, but it quickly went down and he was fine by the next morning. I still gave him a few days without it, so point for Eeyore.
Laying down and grazing. It doesn’t get much lazier than this folks.
Round #2 happened last week. He looked a little funny coming in for dinner and then I noticed it. He had somehow managed to get the bottom two velcro loops undone which loosened the bottom half of the muzzle. Ok, kinda smart dude. But then he got the stupid bottom lip of the muzzle STUCK IN HIS MOUTH and couldn’t get it back out. Who knows how long he stayed with the muzzle stuck inside his mouth. I almost gave him a point for this, but it still did the job of not letting him gorge on the spring grass, so I’m taking it. 1-1.
All went calmly for 5 days until yesterday. He was chilling by the water trough instead of at the gate with everyone else at dinner time. Odd. I looked closely and noted that the halter was no longer over his nose, it was hanging around his throat only. And the muzzle was missing. He was happily eating all the grass he wanted. I went to get him, cursing his name slightly, and then my heart dropped out of my chest. He was not putting any weight on his front left leg. He limped miserably and slowly back to the barn for dinner and inspection and there he remains today.
Lush pastures make my heart happy. It also makes my horses fat.
Best guess as to what happened: the muzzle was found inside the water trough and the spicket that fills the trough was torqued 90 degrees the wrong direction. I’m betting he wedged himself into the small space between the wooden pole protecting the spicket and rubbed his face on it to lever the darn muzzle off. He succeeded in ripping the muzzle off and into the trough as well as removing the bottom half of the halter. I’m guessing he then tweaked the front left leg trying to get out of the spot he wedged himself into. He has a very angry muscle attaching the upper leg to his chest and a swollen “knee”/carpal joint. He got bute and will remain on stall rest for the weekend. If he isn’t better Monday, I will call the vet.
Point for Eeyore. He wins. I’d rather a fat horse than a dead one.
This now raises the question of what do I do both short and long term to keep him fit and protect against laminitis/founder? He shows no signs of either but he is obese and the lush spring grass won’t help any. He needs managed sooner rather than later. I really wish I was at a boarding barn and could throw him in a lesson program or ask a barn rat to hop on him a few days a week when I can’t ride. But that isn’t the case and no way can I perform enough wife mathematical gymnastics to make it make sense to go from free care to $600/month.
Gosh but I love this Doofus
Dusty and I spent the evening stewing over various short term options first:
1). Use the arena as a dry lot. This was the most obvious to pop out at us, but it also quickly got thrown away. Yes, there is no grass to eat, he would remain outside and it is a large enough space for movement. It also has no shelter, no water source and I have spent hundreds of hours turning it into a nice arena. The thought of hay and poop in it makes me want to cry.
2.) Stall him during the day/out at night. The solution most barns employ is simply reducing time in pasture. It goes against all my own personal horse management beliefs to leave him in a 12×12 box for 12 hours a day. He also cribs and is ulcer prone.
3.) Fence in the barn yard to create a dry lot. Not an official one with perfect footing because we don’t have time/money for that at the moment, but the grass is a weird variety that doesn’t grow very tall and the horses don’t like it much. A water source would be easy to come up with as it is in front of the barn, but shelter would be an issue. Thankfully it isn;t super hot at the moment.
4.) Sell him and buy a hard keeper who could use the grass. Only partly kidding here. It crossed my mind. I won’t do it because I adore him but he could try even a little bit to make my life easier.
At the end of it all, I think he is going to get the barnyard for the short term once he can leave his stall again. It only needs one cross line of electric strung from the barn to the existing wooden fence to make it a smaller area without any of the barn equipment reachable. I can drag a spare trough for water and hang a hay bag on the fence. It will be a bit of a pain to get in and out of the barn and use the tractor, but hopefully we get to the long term plan soon and reclaim our barn yard.
The barnyard. We can run a line of electric from the right corner of the barn to the fence that is behind my back as I took this. The grass is currently better than in this older picture, but not by much so it would work nicely. The issue is that we’d have to keep the barn closed to prevent his access but that is easy enough to do.
The long term plan is harder. I went down some pretty deep rabbit holes researching my options here. One even included buying a bunch of sheep as they are known to eat the pasture down enough to limit horse use and keep weeds at bay. But they seem to be a PITA to keep up and ignore electric altogether, so that won’t work.
The truth here folks is two fold: I LOVE green grass and large spaces for movement is of utmost priority for me in the way I manage my horses. It makes me immensely happy to watch Gem pick up a full blown canter and race the others across the pasture. This happens daily. They love the room too. I also get joy out of looking out at my farm and seeing fields of green. I don’t want large patches of dead dirt staring back at me. I also don’t want a dead laminitic horse, so I have to come up with a happy medium.
My solution? One that really makes the Hubby unhappy. Oops. Sorry Honey. You see, he has spent the last 2 years moving fence line. I’d come up with a plan, he would spend hours moving the long fence rows and then a few months later I’d realize and error in my planning and make him move it somewhere else. He is tired of moving fencing. My plan includes a whole lot of fencing.
We are going to build a Paradise Track System around the property. It is going to take some serious planning and maneuvering because I would like it to include as much of the acreage as possible versus creating three separate ones within each pasture. It would be super simple to just place an inner fence in each pasture to create an outer track and an inner field, but that isn’t what I want long term. If I’m going to do this, I want it to be great. We have woods we can incorporate into the track, plenty of natural protection and easy access to water sources everywhere. If done how I imagine, there should be enough grass to allow some grazing without gorging, lots of room to roam still and I can take them off the track and use it for conditioning. A win-win.
Poor Hubby though. It is going to be A LOT of fencing.
The Roaming Rider 