Boarder thinks I'm Torturing her horse

It was beautiful here in East Tennessee today! Temp was around 60 degrees but the wind was blowing pretty good so you still needed a jacket. Steven and I were hoping to get a ride in. After the morning feeding, I noticed that Ronan had pulled his right shoe....again. Called T, our farrier, and he can't make it out until Monday. So much for a weekend ride....I might just suck it up and find my Easyboots.

We went to the Co-op to buy some shavings and grain. When we got back, we decided to turn the horses out into the big pasture on the side of our house that isn't used for grazing. We led two horses out and the two others followed. Once we let the two out, the third followed but the forth couldn't find the gate. We were in a small paddock that leads to a bigger paddock trying to herd him out of the gate while he's frantically running about screaming at his buddies who were already enjoying the lush grass. I finally just try to catch him to lead him out of the gate when his owner pulls up. I'm say, "Perfect! She's going to think we are torturing her horse!" I finally catch him and turn him out, and he canters off to be with his friends. We walk down the the driveway gate to meet our boarder. I tell her that he couldn't find the gate to get out with everyone and she says, "Oh, I thought you were just running him." Great! She does think we were torturing her horse! I explain what happen and she seems satisfied. Ugh, crazy horse. I guess we will have to lead all four out of the gate since he can't seem to find it!

Cross-rail jumping when we first starting cantering jumps

There are several things wrong with my position in this video. My lower leg is swinging back and forth in the canter and my hands are extremely low. My stirrups are too long and I do not give Ronan enough release over the jumps. This video was shot before I had taken any jumping lessons with Ronan. I think I've come along way! I will try to upload some current jumping video on here soon!

Maggie's Story

My best friend K from the first grade had horses. I always loved to spend the night at her house. We would ride from sunrise to sunset. Finally, my parents agreed to buy me a horse. K's parents told us never to buy the first horse you look at. We arrived at the first place and looked at a Morgan x QH Mare. She was around 15 years old and had lots of experience with children. We also looked at an American Saddlebred Mare that was 21 yrs old and had the same quiet disposition. K's parents looked at mine and said, "I know we told you not to buy the first horse we looked at....but you need to buy BOTH of these horses!" So we did! Bitsy, the American saddle bred, would be my brother's horse and Maggie, the Morgan QH would be mine. Maggie was probably 15 hh, sorrel with a thick flaxen mane and tail. She had a perfect diamond shaped star. Her coat was thick and wholly, even in the summer she wouldn't shed it all off. We kept the horses at K's house because we did not have fencing at our place yet. One day, I remember going into Maggie's stall to pick out her feet and telling my mom that it smelled really bad. My mom had no clue that this could mean anything other than it probably always smelled bad! Meanwhile, Bitsy had an accident while pulling a carriage and had to be put down.

Because I was so young, I don't recall exactly when Maggie was diagnosed. We were told that she had Canker (Note: The article in this link is one description of canker. Some of the article fits, some doesn't. Maggie was kept outside and only came in her stall to eat. The barn was not the cleanest but wasn't overly muddy or anything. )Of course, being new horse owners, we didn't know what that meant or how to treat it. Our farrier was very good but didn't know much about treating canker.

We finally moved Maggie home so we could soak and treat her feet daily. We visited every equine veterinarian in South Alabama, each having a different treatment, none would offer Maggie any improvement. We treated her for almost 2 years. At the end, we considered putting her down ourselves...but loved her so much to give up on her. We considered taking her to Auburn University. They could try to cut ALL of the canker out, which would leave her unable to stand at all for who knows how long, and it would cost $1000...money my family did not have after spending so much on treatments for the past 2 years. Our last option was to give her to some people who were going to attempt some old Indian techniques and treatments on her. They assured us they would humanely put her down if they could not get any improvements. We never heard what happened to her, or if she improved at all. I'm guessing that she was eventually put down considering her condition. Back then, canker wasn't widely known among horse professionals and no one knew how to correctly treat it. I'm sure if this would have happened now, we could have saved her.

I will never forget what Maggie taught me. She was so kind and careful with me. She took me down many dirt roads, around barrels, and trails. She taught me how to ride and how to be responsible for someone other than myself. I know she is running in the great green pastures of heaven.

Horse Introduction

The Story of Twiggs

While we were in college, I boarded Ronan at a barn in Birmingham, AL called Jackson Stables. It was a wonderful barn, friendly people, and AWESOME mountain trail riding. A, the barn manager at the time, convinced the owner to buy several TWHs, most still on pads and just out of the show ring. The first one they brought home was Twiggs. She had been previously rescued twice by A so she held a special place with her. Twiggs was 16 hh (without pads), extremely lean to the point of being slightly underweight. She was black with only a few white hairs on her back, obviously from some bad tack fit some time back. She also had some white hairs on her lower legs. The back of her pasterns were scarred from soring and if you ran your hand down any part of her leg, you could feel scars, bumps, and lumps from years of abuse.

She was taken off the pads about a week after arriving at Jackson Stables and was given turnout, which she was NOT use to, in the large arena. She soon settled down and somehow, became Steven's trail riding mount. He rode her all winter and spring. Once we decided to leave for TX, he approached A and the owner of the barn (they owned Twiggs together) about buying her. A agreed to sell only to Steven because she knew Twiggs would be well taken care of. When we moved to Dallas, we began pouring high quality feed to Twiggs. She put on weight nicely and is now in perfect condition. Her feet are in much better shape as well. Since she was on pads for most of her young life, her feet have been built up so much. She almost looked like she was walking on stacks, with heels much too high, toes long, and so much frog that we were constantly treating thrush. Since pulling her shoes and trimming her with a Natural Balance trim, she has improved dramatically. We are planning to breed her this Spring.

I can't imagine what Twiggs has been through in her life. She most likely was a repeated victim of soring and stewarding. However, she will never have to indure anything remotely close to that now! She is in the snow picture here.

Horse Introduction

Ronan

I bought Ronan in May of 2007. He was the first horse I purchased on my own, without the help of my parents. He belonged to a woman who wanted an older, quiter trail horse. Ronan, being 4 at the time, was very active but well-behaved. The woman was a little nervous around him, probably because of his size (15.3 hh horse with 5'2 lady) and because he was so energetic. I rode him in walk and trot when I bought him. I could tell that he'd gotten away with going back to the barn when he wanted. I corrected him several times and received a small protest each time. Finally, he gave up and accepted my leadership. I knew then, it would be a match. He didn't know much...forward, left, right, whoa....and that's about it. He didn't respond much to leg aids much less seat aids. After a summer schooling him in the saddle and on the ground, he'd progressed so much that we were jumping cross rails, performing leg-yeilds and shoulder-ins, turns on the haunches, and backing. Ronan has the most personality of any horse I've ever met. He learns super fast and I have taught him several tricks in a matter of 30 minutes or so. His current trick is catching! He will literally open his mouth wide for you to toss a treat in. I will post video soon! As of now, we are jumping around 2 ft - 2'6 ft but my lessons aren't continuous. I'm hoping to get back into the routine when the weather warms and show on the local East Tennessee Hunter Jumper Association circuit.

This picture is from our second horse show. We were in an open walk/trot English class (this was before we worked extensively on getting the correct lead)

Ronan is a Grade Quarter Horse. I asked about his breeding and was told he was "pasture horse to pasture horse." I'm sure he was the result of some backyard breeding but considering, he has excellent conformation aside from being slightly cow-hocked. I do not know his real birthdate but I use the day I bought him because I was told he had just turned 4. So, this may 11th, he will be 6 years old. The before winter, I measured him to be 15.3hh but I've been praying he would make it to 16hh. I will measure him soon to find out if he had one last growth spurt left!! He is a dapple grey with a blaze you can hardly ever see. He's very athletic and fast. He has his moments but for the most part, he's well-behaved and reliable.

Here are two of my former students from when I was teaching at Jackson Stables in Birmingham, Alabama. Ronan is a great lesson horse.

My next post will be an introduction for Twiggs, my boyfriend's Tennessee Walker.

A moment

Over the past few days, I have spend a considerable amount of time browsing through horse blogs. I've found several that really offer great advice and articles such as http://shameinthehorseshowring.blogspot.com/ and http://www.regardinghorses.com/ . However, I've stumbled upon a couple that are quite humorous. I love how high school kids think they know enough about horses to criticise conformation, riding abilities, selling abilities, and anything else involving horses on their blogs....

Aside from that, I'm going to try to NOT be one of those blogs that constantly criticise everything going on in the horse industry but I can assure you there will be those moments!

And for my first moment...

I sold a western saddle to this guy back in July or August of this year. He seemed like an honest man, quite young (30s prob.) who had a few horses...I could tell he was new to the idea and probably did not know what to look for when buying a saddle. When he arrived at my barn, I showed him the saddle and he nodded yes, he would like to buy it. I began taking off my accessories which, I admit, I should have already done. I had a fairly big set of saddle bags attached to the back, an old breastcollar that I had won barrel racing when I was younger, and a neoprene girth. I know some people include accessories with their saddles but I had advertised this saddle as is and for 100 bucks, so he wasn't getting anything extra! I told him that he would need a saddle pad and a girth to use the saddle. He gave me a confused look and I explained what the girth was for. He also asked me to suggest a bit so I grabbed a simple tom thumb and a d-ring which were hanging near by and explained what these bits were used for and what he should probably look for in a mild bit. He paid me and left. The next day as I'm leaving work, he calls to say he "assumed" the saddle bags came with the saddle (note: I never mentioned anything about saddle bags in the ad nor were they in a picture, etc) I told him that if he really wanted them that bad, I would sell them to him extra for 5 bucks. He came by later and bought them. Now, this incident really didn't bother me.....the guy obviously didn't really know what he was buying.....BUT, a few months later, I started seeing my old saddle appear in several ads on craigslist, on horses listed for sale. At first, I didn't think much of it but as I continued to see more and more horses listed, I began to realize what was going on. Turns out, my clueless saddle-buying friend, who didn't know what a girth was for, was now buying and selling horses for a living. His ads would say things like bomb proof, excellent bloodlines, papered, show horse, child's horse, etc. He would even have his children riding ponies barefoot and in shorts. Every time I read one I would cringe! Surely someone who had no clue what a girth was could not obtain enough knowledge within a few short months to proclaim a horse to be bomb proof or child proof, or a show horse for that matter!! He even went as far as putting little sparkly, myspace looking glitter text, on his horse ads. BARF! So many times I've wanted to call him and say You have NO right to be trading horses like this...you no nothing about them. You shouldn't have even bought a horse much less become a horse trader! Idiot! Unfortunately, he has not posted in several weeks but I will show you a post by him as soon as I find another one!

Ok I'm sure your tired of me venting so I'll stop.........but he sucks!

The S word

Growing up in Lower Alabama, I did not experience many significant snowfalls . We would have a dusting here or there but never anything more. When I moved off to college, I experienced some snowfalls up to about an 1" maybe 2". Now that I'm in East Tennessee, we've been lucky enough to have several this year, none as big as yesterday though when we got almost 3". I'm sure you Northerners are saying, whoop tee doo....3 inches.....but it's a lot for us!

When Southerners get snow, it's always a BIG deal. Our local afternoon country radio personality, "Our Cowboy Pal Gunner" issues a "Light bread and milk alert" and gives us his "horse forecast" when snow is expected in our area.

The "Light bread and milk alert" is issued when snow is forecasted in the South. Everyone panics and runs out to buy milk and bread as soon as the weather guy says the S word.

But according to anyone who survived the blizzard of 93 in Birmingham, Alabama, it's down right necessary because "ya neva know when ya might get snowed in"..................

The "horse forecast" has become one of my favorite East Tennessee traditions! Gunner, the radio guy, has a horse named Prince that hates snow. Therefore, he will get nervous and misbehave when snow is on it's way. So, if the weather guy says the S word, everyone tunes into WIVK to see what Prince has to say....since I've lived here, he has yet to be wrong!

So, I left work early yesterday, excited to get out to the barn. The horses have been cooped up for several days because of the winter weather so I decided to let them out one at a time for 15 minutes each, just to stretch their legs a little and see what they thought about all of the white stuff. Twiggy was first and decided to test out the snow's traction by running from one end of the paddock to the other at a dead gallop and performing perfect sliding stops at each end.

Ronan was next (and he's filthy)....he just wanted to see if he could eat it!

Here are some other pics I snapped while I was out!

Hope you guys have a great day and have fun in the snow!!