Training Updates

 

It’s either feast or famine around this blog lately.  I either hit you with multiple posts in a week or zip, zilch, nada for weeks at a time.  Sorry about that!  Here’s what you’ve missed:

1.  Jethro was adopted and just left today.  The kids were also trying to sneak Amigo into the trailer without me noticing.  It didn’t work, but it was amusing to watch them lead him around with just their arms around his little neck.

2.  Traveler went for his fourth ride and first trail ride ever on Wednesday.  He was AMAZING!  Read all about his ride on Tamara’s blog.  Traveler heads over to my pony foster next week for daily riding and further training.  Then, it’s likely he already has a home waiting for him with Jethro’s adopter!

 

3.  At the same time Traveler heads to the foster, Chip will be headed to the vet for some much needed brain surgery.  Then he’s off to the foster as well for training.

4.  Did I tell you the story of Whiskers?  She was actually rescued by a friend, but turned out to be too dangerous and unpredictable for her to keep at her barn with larval humans running around.  She’s three, but I wasn’t going to start her training this year because we had so many other youngsters.  However, she kept hanging out around the round pen, watching everyone else and  looking left out.  So just to see how crazy Tamara really is, I asked if she wanted to work with Whiskers and see if she accepted the saddle as well as I thought she would.  Whiskers never batted an eye when she was tacked up, so Super Crazy Volunteer laid across her back, then swung on up.  Whiskers went berserk!

 

 

Can’t you tell?  I know it’s not a video, but that’s what happened.  Whiskers stood statue still, just swishing her tail at flies.  Tamara dismounted, untacked, and called it a day.  Now that we know Whiskers accepts pretty much anything, we’ll start her ground work and teach her voice commands and cues.  Once that’s done, the rest will obviously be pretty easy.

5.  Jasmine is doing so well that we’ll probably take her out on trail for the first time this week.  I’ll take pictures this time because I just know she’ll do awesome!

 

6.  Quill.. what can I say about Quill except that he’s incredible?  We should have him out on trail soon, too.

 

I never imagined having this many Maverick-wanna-bes in the herd!

Traveler’s first ride

 

Tamara wasn’t even going to get on Traveler the other day.  She’d already been there for a few hours, worked four other horses, and it was HOT.   Let me tell you a bit of a secret… it’s a LONG walk from the round pen to the driveway where she had parked.  After she was done with the last horse and had him untacked and turned loose, she was cursing herself for not leaving Quill tacked up and just letting him carry her saddle and bag down to the car.  Luckily, Traveler was standing right outside the round pen and he volunteered his happy fat butt to carry the saddle.  So I grabbed him and we threw the saddle on.  Then it was pretty silly not to go ahead and work with him.  So she put the bridle on him.  Since he has much the same attitude as Quill and she’d already done some ground work with him, we decided she should just mount on up and see what happens.

A whole lot of nothing happened.

 

 

Which is a big bonus since she forgot to put her helmet on before mounting up.

 

I let him follow me around the pen for a few minutes until he got his sea legs under him, then we called it a day.  Except that he still got to carry the saddle and bag down to the driveway for Tamara.  He’s such a gentleman.

 

Traveler will be going to the same foster that took River and Casper.  I can’t wait to see little Lexi riding him.  I think she’s really going to love the little guy!

Just a few pony pictures

 

I don’t think I’ve ever been clinically depressed in my life, but the past few months have seen a new side of me, a side I don’t think I like.  It’s been terribly difficult for me to find the energy to do anything except feed the horses.  When Amigo was born I had to force myself to get the camera and take some pictures of him.   I felt like I was far underwater, just trying to swim to the surface for air.  All I could concentrate on was flapping my arms in hopes of reaching the surface before I drowned.  I didn’t want to ride, take pictures, blog, start any seeds for the garden… none of the things that usually get me going this time of year held any interest for me.

This morning when I rolled my weary body out of bed I decided that enough was enough and took the camera with me when I fed.

Sky and Quill were very thin when we got home in February.  Their hips and backbones were sticking up under their thick winter coats and they were lethargic.

 

Being so young, they recovered quickly.  Quill still has a little weight to put on, but he’s starting another growth spurt right now and not only growing out, but also growing up again.

 

Had Tabby been fed properly this winter, she’d already be back to normal.  But when we got home, she didn’t look that much better than when we took her back from her adopters.  I’d still like to see another 150lbs on her.

 

I only wish they could all be like Dallas (except for the covered in mud part)!

 

Traveler is another one that didn’t lose much weight over the winter.  He was still plump and round when we got home.  Greedy little pony still thinks he needs all the grain in the world and runs me over at every feeding.  Good thing he’s cute and cuddly.

 

Ditto for Jewel.  That mare could stay fat just by looking at food. 

 

Molly was fat when she came back from her foster home, but quickly lost weight and became ribby when Gilbert refused to feed her because he said he didn’t like her.  She picked up weight quickly and is ready to start carting me down the trails whenever this weather warms up again. 

 

Now if this four day migraine would go away and spring would come back to town, I could be happy again. 

I need you

Remember Farm Days at Tractor Supply last year?  We’ve been invited to participate again, this time in the Spring version on May 8th.   And since I really have nothing else to do, I said sure, I’ll be there.  With bells on. 

Would someone please shoot me now?

The first thing I had to do was find someone to feed the quarantine farm the morning of the 8th.   That was easier than I thought it would be.  Thanks, Michelle!

The second thing was to get Anne working on the flyers and handouts.   That was also easy.

Now comes the hard part… deciding which horses to take!  I only want to take horses that still need a home and I don’t want to take any of the Fairmont horses since there’s a chance they may still go back to the asshat that starved them.

So here’s a list of the potentials to take to Farm Days this year.  I’ve narrowed it down, but need help in making the final decision.   Traveler, Thunder, Mick, Quill, Cinnamon, Milo, or Maggie.  I can only take two, and I think I REALLY want to take Mick.  He’s turned in to such a hunk and I just love him like crazy.

Mick – 3yr old Quarterhorse gelding.  Can be sweet, but still a little shy.

 

Traveler – approx. 2yr old gelding mutt.  Absolute pocket pony who loves attention (and cookies).

 

Cinnamon – 8(ish) Arabian mare.  Very shy, but warms up to people quickly when cookies are present.

 

Thunder – 8yo TNW cross gelding.  He’s very friendly, but was only castrated five months ago and still thinks he’s a stud.  He’s very herd bound and may be an idiot when taken away to a strange place without Lakota.

 

Maggie – 2yr old QH filly.   She can be rather rude and I’m not sure I trust her not to bite little fingers when faced with so many cookies in one day.   And geesh, talk about a growth spurt!

 

Quill – 2yr old TB/Arab cross… maybe?  Very sweet and mannerly and would undoubtedly adore every little human that came to see him.

 

Milo – 3yr old QH gelding.  Sweet, mannerly, and not likely to take anyone’s fingers off.

 

So tell me… who should I take??  Please make my decision for me, I am completely incapable at this time. :)

Stress

There are days when I look at my life and wonder how the hell I get through the day.  I’m sure we all have those feelings some days, but we muddle through the best we can and tell ourselves that tomorrow is a new day.

Of course, that new day could bring complaints about horses like this in Monongalia County:

 

Or articles like this.

 

Or a new day could mean coming home to find Calvin dead in the house without any wounds or sign of struggle.  I buried him next to Woogie a couple of hours ago.

 

At least my day started out pretty well.

 

Hopefully, tomorrow really will be a new day and not just a sequel to this one.

Updates

Marilyn the pig was killed in her pen last Tuesday.  She had long clean gashes in her sides and her haunches had been chewed on.  There were no wounds around her head or neck.  I’m thinking our friendly neighborhood big cat that attacked Sadie last year is back.  Something had to have jumped the 6’ dog kennel panels that had surrounded the pigs.  Bacon Butt escaped by breaking one of the boards on their shelter.  I found him loose with the main herd on Wednesday morning.  Until yesterday, he’d been hanging out in the yard with Timmy.  Then I came home from town yesterday to find the neighbor’s starving inbred pack of dogs surrounding Bacon Butt, who was lying on the ground grunting, twitching, and bleeding out.  The dogs took off when I got out of the truck and I used one of Glenn’s rifles to put poor piggie out of his misery. 

 

I have still not been able to get any answers from Marion County about those horses in Fairmont.  Has anyone else called the sheriff’s department and had any better luck?  I’ve asked PETA to get involved by putting pressure on the sheriff’s department and hopefully that will make a difference.

 

 

Crazy breeder down the road is keeping blankets on her horses in this beautifully warm and sunny weather, just to hide the fact that they’re starving.  Maybe I should throw a blanket on Jolie to hide the fact that she’s filthy.   Damned grays.  They always have to roll in the mud.

 

Doc is coming out next Tuesday to castrate Maverick and Sky, even if the weather sucks.   Mav is getting a little too horny with the warm weather coming on.

 

Traveler and Timmy finally have some updates over on Rescue Recoveries, so please go check them out.  Those will probably be the last updates until they shed out in another month or so. 

 

It’s raining testicles!

 

Sorry, but it is.   Doc finally made it out today to make some geldings and he got Buddy, Quill, Traveler, and Timmy done before dark.  Buddy was the most difficult of the four because one testicle hadn’t descended completely and we had to roll him over on his back so Doc could fish for it.  Each time he’d get a hold of the slimy little bugger, Buddy would suck it back in.  Even in his drugged state, he did his best to hold on to what was his!

Quill was the easiest, as both danglies were right there, just waiting to be snipped.  He was done and back up eating hay in no time.  Timmy was pretty easy as well, but the old guy is taking a little longer to recover and is still out there snoring in the hay. 

Traveler… oh my.   The poor little guy.  First of all, he had a pretty nasty case of spasmodic colic on Saturday night.   There was no impaction, but he was experiencing spasms in his gut due to finally having some nutrients to digest.  He lay in the grass for about an hour and I sat with him to keep him from rolling, since I didn’t know that there was no impaction at the time.  He stopped breathing for a few minutes, closed his eyes, gave one final grunt, and I thought he was gone.   But I still felt a pulse, and a few minutes later he took a deep breath, sat up, and started grazing.  WHEW!  Doc said he may have just been in so much pain that he was holding his breath.  Poor fellow!!

Since then, he’s been doing much better and Doc felt safe gelding him today.   He did well, and was up and eating just as quickly as Quill.  He does have a mild heart murmur, but Doc thinks it may go away, much like Ellie’s did when she got back to normal weight. 

Now, here’s the real gut wrencher.   I didn’t mention this earlier because it simply made me way too angry.  The very fat and well-fed people that starved these horses told me that they had had them for two years.  It was obvious to me that there was no way in hell Summer and Traveler were two years old!  So it made me want to beat the living crap out of those people when they told me they had planted their big fat asses on Traveler to try and ride him!!!!  TWICE!!!!  

According to Doc, Traveler is just barely over a year old and Summer is between 8 and 10 months.

Yeah, let that sink in for a minute.

 

Oh, and Summer’s gums are receding due to malnutrition and her baby teeth are a mess thanks to her only having trees and rocks to settle the rumbling in her empty tummy.

 

Ready to go with me to lynch those white trash pieces of crap now?  I would suggest starving them for a few months instead, but they may appreciate losing a few pounds.

Cheyenne Goes Home

No, I don’t have a picture.  It was almost dark when she left and I suck.  Need I say more?

It’s been a very long day, so please don’t pick on me too badly for the short post.   Just go check out Summer and Traveler over on Rescue Recoveries – I’m still way too angry and exhausted to rant about that particular situation here.   Tomorrow I’ll get pictures of the other two geldings that came in today with Traveler and Summer, and I’ll also need your help naming them.   So put your thinking caps on and come up with something good, okay?