Horses – Page 10 – Five Acres with a View

I wouldn’t have believed…

I wouldn’t have believed it would be possible to drive seven splinters into your hand without noticing. I usually wear gloves around the barn and garden, so I was astonished to look at my right palm today and see it riddled with splinters. Fortunately, my friend was able to remove 6.5 of them, as Jack is too squeamish to be much help. I’ve covered the .5 that remains with antibiotic ointment in hopes that it will pop out.

In other news, I rode today. This is only noteworthy because I haven’t ridden since before Christmas. Even today, I didn’t really have more than about 1/3 of an arena in which to ride, counting the part of the arena that was only two inches deep in snow. And I didn’t ride my own horse, since she was too much in touch with her inner saddle bronc to be a horse I wanted to ride. However, Major, a Percheron cross that belongs to a friend, took good care of me, so at least I got some riding muscles used. He seemed fairly enthusiastic, probably because he hadn’t been ridden since Christmas. He is my favorite horse when I want to be baby-sat, even though he is the only horse who ever jumped me off. He was very green at the time, and my trainer said, as she picked me off the ground, “he looked as though he jumped higher than the standards.” Funny, the jump didn’t look that scary to us.

Dubious Mia

Taken on December 21, 2006.

Mia did not believe that I was serious about her leaving the mudroom this morning. After several attempts to call her, in which she turned around and went back inside, I had to put a leash on her and lead her to a part of the dog run which had been scoured bare by the winds. Fortunately, Lody loves to gambol in the snow, so I didn’t have to coax her out. Then, I went back inside and watched Magic and Rags playing by the barn through the bedroom window. It would have been a lot more charming if I hadn’t been worried about elderly horses fooling around like foals in dangerous conditions.

And it is still snowing.

Irish Horse

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This handsome gray was stabled in the yard which was overlooked by the self-catered cottage that we shared at the Clonshire Equestrian Center. I was told that this complex of buildings was built in the eighteenth century. The gray’s alert expression was caused by my taking photos right before dinner, and He Had Hopes, as did his stablemates.

Lily Relaxing

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R, one of my trainer’s students, is relaxing with Lily, at Prairie Springs Schooling Show on Saturday. Hap usually found some way to enliven even the dullest schooling show, but Lily has a lot less dramatic approach to life. Why fuss when you can eat grass? She and R were both wonderful, and I was quite pleased with all of their six classes together. Unfortunately, I was so intent on watching their classes, that I ended up with very few photos.

All This, For Me?

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Magic, a 25 year old semi-retired mare that belongs to a friend, came to board with us Labor Day weekend. We built her a little corral next to the barn, so we would have some place to put her when we stall the other two horses. I stayed with her today while the hay truck backed up to unload hay into the barn, even though I didn’t think she would be worried by it. She wasn’t.

Lily

Lily has been doing really, really well for me under saddle the past month. I had given up hoping she would ever do this well. She is doing so well that I have an almost superstitious fear of mentioning it: her improvement over last summer seems almost magical. Last summer, when she wasn’t cranky about saddle fit she was backing off from whatever bit I put in her mouth. I finally stopped riding her in anything but her western saddle and started using a mild hackamore instead of a bit.
Continue reading Lily

Cross Country

This morning, I went to watch some friends ride cross country at a pace held to raise funds for the Bijou Springs Hunt. I don’t usually like to post more than one photo a day, but didn’t want to leave anyone out. (Unfortunately, there was only one place I could get a clear shot of them jumping.) They rode as a threesome, and came in third in their division.

Sassy, an eighteen year old Thoroughbred mare who belongs to my trainer, was ridden by A. Sassy led most of the way during the pace. Most of Sassy’s experience has been in the hunter/jumper ring, so cross country is a new experience for her.

Major, a fifteen year old Percheron cross, was ridden by his owner, ME. As the most experienced cross country horse, Major stayed behind unless required to give the less experienced horses a lead over the jump. (Major is my favorite horse that I don’t actually own.)

Holly, a seven year old mustang cross, was ridden by her owner, L. Holly doesn’t have much experience doing cross country, but seems to think a five minute trip over jumps a much better deal than eight hour long trail rides through the mountains.

Candid

More comical than anything else, but at least Lily had her ears forward. She was probably expecting a treat at the time.

Rags, Again

This is beginning to feel like The Year of the Abscess. First, Hap, with the abscess under his jaw caused by a fractured tooth, which took several months to completely heal. Yesterday, the vet came out and opened an abscess which formed where Rags got one of his vaccinations three weeks ago on his butt.

I will spare my readers the details required to care for Rags’ abscess. Horse people will probably already know, and the process has a high ick factor. As far as my personal ick factor scale goes, only eye injuries rate higher.

I was feeling apprehensive when Jack and I went out to treat Rags this morning, after having watched Rags acting almost belligerent with the vet and her assistant yesterday. Fortunately, I suppose the area didn’t feel as sore this morning, because Rags was comparatively well-behaved. I told Jack to let him walk in a small circle, because I didn’t want Rags to feel trapped as I treated him. The abscess is on the near side, and I was able to treat it by standing on the off-side and reaching over, on the theory that if he was inclined to kick, he would kick to the near side.

When Rags had pigeon fever (aka dry land strangles) several years ago, I was able to treat his chest abscesses without help. I doubt I will be able to do that with this abscess, but at least he is cooperative enough that I shouldn’t have to go to Plan B, which involves getting Rags to my trainer’s place, so I have an experienced horse person to help.

Relief

I became worried when I first saw Rags yesterday (Friday) morning, and even more concerned when he refused his small breakfast of horse chow. Rags and Hap got their spring shots on Thursday, and although Rags has had painful reactions in the past, he has been fine the past couple of years. However, I had never seen a horse this miserable from shots before. It was easy to tell where the shot went in: he had a huge lump on his butt.

Continue reading Relief