Fun in spite of soaking ariats

Normally I HATE getting shoes or even socks wet. But I phoned an old endurance buddy last week and arranged a riding date and we went to Chatfield rather than mt Falcon since all horses were barefoot; I hadn't gotten my easy boot modifications done and ready to test yet anyways so I was happy to ride somewhere I could just go au natural as well.

It was great fun. We ended up going pretty slow as Lynn's friend's horse was a bit ouchy footed after the first hour but I didn't care. All horses took turns leading. Shade was pretty good about keeping a trot thru brushy areas where she couldn't see around the bend when she was leading which is great -- both she and I are prairie rats and tend to hesitate or slow when we can't see whats coming. We crossed the river 4 times. Shade was awesome. First crossing was shallow and she was hesitant and another horse had to step in and lead the way. Then it was a deeper crossing and the greener horses/less assertive riders weren't going in. So brave ms Shady Lady walked in. But its a good thing we were with experienced river crossers -- I was not doing real well focusing on the opposite bank and the water was faster than I'm used to and was I was getting a bit disoriented and Shade kind of froze too. But Lynn and Mari followed us into the water and then led the way to the opposite shore. I got my right boot soaking wet; well boots dry --I was NOT in any position to be sitting oddly trying to keep my feet up out of the water. Shade happened to be in the lead and went across a shallow crossing later on. Then after we had ridden a nice loop up on top we needed to cross the river again to take the nice footing trail Lynn suggested to get us home. This one had a grassy bank. Shade does not like mud. But Sonny was hesitant and Finlay did a 180 so I took Shade in front. She 180'd too and boy did I catch air. But Shade was not really worked up so I just asked firmly again and she went into the water. I was really trying to focus on the opposite bank but again we needed the others to pass us and actually lead us to the opposite shore. Got my left boot wet this time. Findlay let the way thru a wet/muddy section of trail shortly afterwords so I didn't have to see if Shade would lead through that.

I saddled RazzMo and took Ole for a quick spin that evening. I loff riding RazzMo, he is no angel but he is so dang smooth that no matter what he tries its nothing. Last night it was 'crow hopping' First time he has ever offered to buck and I am really thankful it did not occur to him to snap his butt up; with his strong back he could give probably give quite a rodeo. But with just deer hopping like he did it felt like nothing so I just got after him a bit and we went on our way the 2-3 times he tried it.

riding dates this weekend -YAY

Although I love just tooling around home and not having to trailer anywhere I am pretty excited to have plans to ride this weekend. This very nice english lady is going to come out and ride Lady on sunday, ooh I hope that goes well. Its really good feedback for me to see how Lady reacts to a different riding style.

And I called an old endurance buddy and we are hopefully going to meet at Mount Falcon on saturday afternoon. Oh I hope that works out!. Her horse is barefoot too so she will be pretty understanding for the footing. We might park up top. Bigger lot and no rocky hill to go up and down. So I'll probably only test front easy boots and my taping then gluing plan. Hopefully that works cuz I would like to have the extra protection at Shamrock although if I can't make it work I think Shade will be ok for 1 ride, maybe 2 if I rest her the middle day.

I guess I should have gone to a chiropractor years ago. I think this guy is going to fix me but the first part of the cure is worse than the disease had been. My neck was such a mess, the adjustment hurt and I've been getting sore by the end of the day. Even yesterday and I was taking ibuprofen and tylenol quite proactively. Today the irritation seems to mainly moved down, sore between my shoulder blades. I didn't help things dragging a water tank over to Lady and Sadie but I wanted to get away from needing to fill a small tub every single day. I got health certs for Lady and Shade for Sturgis ride end of July and just for Shade for 4th of July. It feels so odd to be planning to leave GreyMoun behind but his leg is not ready for much riding and since I'm only doing LD's on Shade on the 4th since she lost so much condition and is barefoot she should not need any security blanket.

Training log we rode 4.5 miles wednesday. Did quite a bit of cantering. I MUST quit dragging my feet and try to find someone who wants to ride at Mt Falcon/Green Mountain this weekend. Need to find an endurance rider who is not training real hard so they will be cool with trotting and cantering but not be too hindered if I lose easyboots etc. Mom is still dragging around sick. I am soooooo tired of that. She is to, but she still will not think outside the box of pills and surgery do doing things to actually get healthier instead of just treating whatever is currently the biggest problem. Sometimes it seems like she wants to be sick.

I'm slipping again

I had hoped the convenience of on-line journaling would keep me at it better. Not so much;

Lets see. Training log update. I rode Shade on thursday 4-5 miles. Rode 6 miles saturday and about 7.5 on sunday. I didn't trailer anywhere. Not enough ambition. I am NOT going to join the gaited club ride tomorrow I was feeling too stretched, I have not even called to find out how much leeway I need. I 'may' have someone who wants to come and ride Lady this weekend, need to get back to them. Lady got adjusted saturday. She was out. Rode her monday and she did back freely, did not really sense a big difference otherwise. When I was home I took her thru the yard and dinked cuz she would not walk home, had to corto. I mounted on her off-side from the block and she was pretty good for it so perhaps the withers adjustment has helped her feel better. She was also stuck in left hip. Duke and AJ got adjusted too. I really want to 'crack' the how to palpate horses part from the 'well-adjusted horse' how to do chiro book I bought. I don't want to do self-adjustments unless I move and cant get anyone where I settle, but it would REALLY be awesome to feel confident to say --Shade is fine, Grey is locked up a bit ..... and some of the stretches to set things up should be great to do before say the shoulders actually get locked up so I think the book is going to be quite useful but even with the book and having seen chiro's at work twice it is hard to figure out how to do the palpations. I cant get much of anything to move and don't want to get too forceful. But the book has useful diagnostics that don't even involve seeing if the spine moves properly to palpating so I'm glad I bought it.

*I* went to the chiropractor today. OUCH. I am going again on friday. If it hurts again like this I will have to force myself to even give it 3 strikes. I want to be pro-active and ward off bigger pain and problems down the road but not at a cost of hurting extra and hardly being able to focus and get anything done at work. I bought some goop to try keeping easyboots on Shade and must experiment some before the July 4-6 ride. I will only do the LD, and will have to see how many days we can get in. Shoes are so much easier. I bought a HRM watch piece and got things on for sunday's ride, so I have that extra information so I can not panic about hard breathing -or I can know heart rate IS also up and I have to ease off the pace.

Lady's trail ride

my butt is dragging, I was a bit nervous and didn't sleep as sound last night plus got up an hour earlier. But it was good. I met my friend Donna at Teller Farm trailhead and we rode Lady and Mason. Lady was not an angel, but was no worse than at home for mounting -takes a minute to convince her to stand. She pivoted away from a bridge on first go, so we waited for trusty Mason to lead the way across. Donna was a bit nervous, she had a bad ride there last winter, but she didn't let on to me and handled it well. Mason tested her a bit --he looses his power steering I think -- but she just circled him when he did and they were fine, except it was a workout ride for her. Lady was a bit impatient, no waiting for security blanket for her but she was not bad about it. I asked her to circle a few times, did a few stops and take 1 or 2 steps back. I'm trying to back her some each ride to build up her back muscles anyway. I think that is working her bump on her back is not showing as much. And since I had a photographer there is actually an image today.

random catch up on life.

I've been networking Lady more, keep forgetting to call a chiropracter. Perhaps some mental block as I don't really know that she needs one. But I AM very bad to remember to make ph calls of any kind but especially for setting up appointments for anything. I really hope I can get her a good home soon. I've been ignoring Grey Moun so much this summer its ridiculous.

I rode Shade 3-4 miles saturday, 6 miles sunday and 5 miles today tuesday. I'm still thinking about getting an ELISA blood test just to KNOW what she is allergic too. Aaak, I need to phone my vet and arrange a health cert for July 3 or I'll be paying thru the nose to the outfit in Fort Lupton.

Lady is doing well. I rode her in the mostly dry irrigation ditch saturday and took her about 100 feet thru a dip with 6" of water across the ditch. She was great for that, a little bit uncertain about stepping into the ditch where it was dry but not bad at all.

I got Sadie loaded in the trailer sunday and let her unload herself (she came out very nicely) but all 4 feet in the trailer wooHoo, its just a teeny bit more lessons and she'll be letting me close the door and all that jazz. Lady loaded for me on monday too. I have a riding date tomorrow. Donna and Mason are going to babysit Lady & I for her first trailer then trail ride session.

Work seems ok. I don't feel very efficient but it doesn't seem horrible. the new group keeps flattering me and saying how nice it is to have me. Heh, nice to come in after they've been very understaffed and were desperate for some help.

Mom convinced oral surgeon to operate on her today and 3 implants that were causing most (maybe -hopefully) all her pain have been removed (oops not removed, the surgeon just cleaned around them and removed the granulated 'rejection tissue'). They were being rejected by her body --not really with typical infection as I understood what mom said the oral surgeon told her. --but with medical stuff this can become very much like a game of rumor.

Loff my BayRab

Ha bet you thought this was another Shade post. I had planned to ride Lady today since I rode Shade yesterday, but it was cool and breezy and my new girth came yesterday so I wanted to try it out. Wanted to ride Shade but decided at last second to grab Grey Moun and pony Sadie. Girth works fine. Grey Moun would barely walk and was being snorty and stupid rather than setting a good example. But Sadie showed she has the BayRab mind that made me willing to buy a foal. We had a road grader pass us. Grey is prancing, trying to turn and me having to correct him and Sadie just watched it. She was mostly just curious and a good girl the whole ride in spite of Grey snorting at things. Grey sure is comfortable to ride in the LJ, Lady is kind of thin even with the extra wool pad I added. I start to feel it in my seatbones after riding her for 1/2 hour or so. I need to customize some padding for her.

musings on Shade

I rode Shade this morning, only 3 miles. Had to push her a bit early but she was feeling pretty good at the end of the ride. We walked plenty so I had lots of time to think about her recent illness and her allergies etc.

Shades CBC count was 40 for hematocrit if I recall correct terms. Normal is more like 30, Dr Mike said 40 is race horses on red blood cell #'s. Shade has always seemed to have some tendency to wind easier than Grey and Cindy did, wind meaning puffing hard. She has a very dished face and I remember worrying a bit if it might heed her endurance when she was a youngster. So I wonder if the high blood cell count is an adaptation to not being the best breather to begin with and if the probably narrower respiratory passages mean that having some allergy inflammation and mucous lining the sinuses affects her more than the next horse. She doesn't get any iron supplement (just the trace in the horse mineral mix) --we do have some iron in our water, the toilet tanks get rusty, but not a huge amount -never see rust flakes in water tubs or so on.

Luckily I don't have any goals of getting competitive with Shade so she doesn't have to be able to suck in enough O2 to canter a whole endurance ride and she is doing much much better since I pulled her off the questionable alfalfa hay, switching her to grass hay with some bales having some alfalfa in them and dropping all the cold remedy herbs JIC. Mom is so sick I can't really be MAD at her, I just should have been more snoopy when she volunteered to start giving all the horses some late afternoon hay --expanding from me asking it for Sadie due to the ulcers she had late last year. My anger is just very limited sympathy for mom's jaw pain --sort of a 'serves her right for giving the horses allergies with her penny pinching' attitude.

I need to take a bunch of pictures of Lady and try to get a good one for advertising. Dreamhorse having a $20 charge for photos is making me picky about getting a good pic. This will be helpful for other ads too. I sure hope I can get her re-homed. I'm still in the mode of looking for a buyer rather than trying to get a neighbor to stick her on pasture for grandkids to ride or rescue donation but dang I was horse poor with 4 equines + mom and dads that they don't do anything with so I really need to get rid of this 5th horse.

catch up post

First the good news. Shade is not sick. Friday I thought she was and started her on tucoprim again and almost cried. Mom's mini mare foaled and we set an appt for saturday 10:30ish for Dr Mike to check out the filly and look at Shade while he was out. The new filly is cute as a button. Mom however is wanting to get out of the mini raising business. I think thats fine and will put an ad on dream horse for her as well as mine for Lady.

Saturday, dr Mike took blood on Shade, he didn't think she was sick but wanted to get a CBC. He thought she had allergies. I was really feeling blue and scared, that she might need anti-histamines and never again be able to compete in endurance except maybe some winter rides. BUT I also thought well maybe she is just reacting to the garlic, cough free etc I've been giving her to get her over being sick (how ironic is that) OR its the *#*#@ moldy hay that mom has been salvaging, cuz 'its fine, it doesn't have white mold on it, its just dust' OH BROTHER. I separated her from the main group and she is not getting any alfalfa anymore, cuz I won't chance that the cleaner bales I had been picking out still don't have some molds and could trigger reaction now that she has a sensitivity. (if its that and not the cold medicines but I'm kind of leaning towards alfalfa mold allergies)

Sunday SHADE was MUCH BETTER!. Snoopy Dance. I wormed most of the crew. Need to get Cindy and CJ, they left and I wasn't going to try to run them down in the pasture. V has to do her mini's before Diamond and Frosty get re-united with them. She can use the ivermec liquid I bought but 'I' am the one with a job and a commute. I cant be doing all the crap for other peoples horses. Shade ran around before she let me catch her and no panting. I told her this wormer doesn't taste bad as she was giving me the usual resistance for oral syringing, I had to give Sadie 2 doses in Feb and she didn't mind the 2nd shot; OMG ROFLMAO, Shade made the funniest curled lip face after I dosed her. I swear she was saying. 'Well maybe a dumb baby doesn't think this tastes bad but I think its pretty crappy.' Later I rode Shade in the wind. She REALLY is much better. She was snorting at tumbleweeds and acting like a horse that hasn't had to work in over a month but she wanted to run up the hill and I let her, longer & faster than I had planned. She was puffing hard at the top when I finally made her slow down against her desire but she recovered to normal breathing fairly quickly.

Lady got wormed and was ok for it. I had the weight tape around my neck, cuz I took weights on the mini's and Sadie to get dosages. It was breezy and Lady was a bit snorty so I figured adding 100 lbs to the weight tape # I had from a few weeks ago should be plenty of cushion, I had to tuck the loose ends of the tape in my pocket to catch her. Well I was this || close to putting the lead over her nose, when she reared up moving away from me then I realized the tape was fluttering again and stuffed it completely in my pocket. Then I asked her to relax, rubbed her gums a bit and she was pretty good for taking the syringe. I don't know if that mare was just very aggressively NH or round penned worked by an idjit; or actually smacked around but she sure is nervous of anything flapping with a human on the ground. She's fine for plastic caught on the fence etc when being ridden so she is not just a scaredy cat of everything, only has that PTS type reaction with a person on the ground.

better news

Yesterday I was so scattered after all my farrier stuff. I felt so bad that I had horses out in the pasture instead of handy to catch and Sadie and Lady were pills etc. I'd had to give some feed to lure horses up so I could run down and shut the gate -while Robyn waited, I made myself move pretty quick but I still felt bad. Oh well I don't feel too horrible. She was not there more the 2 hours tops for $180. But I didn't give the horses any more grain.

This morning Shades nose was dry. And she felt energetic enough to drive RazzMo off the hay she wanted to eat. I'll give her feet and everything tomorrow to settle in but I decided I don't need to call in my vet until I see how she seems this weekend on a light ride. And my gyn appt is done. I only have to go every 2 years or so from now on and everything felt fine to the doc. so yay. I was kind of surprised he didn't feel my breasts for lumps. I guess the figure the mammograms are all thats needed. So I suppose I should really get on a schedule of self checks.

job vent

just a vent, no I am on the verge of quitting stuff. But they have had an operator must correct error situation for years. I start looking at it and the too busy to care about it for 2 years guru jumps in with an 'I can fix it better' different solution. Blech I hate people who have to one-up everyone all the time.

Oh well, I can live with it; I have collected all those 4 legged mouths to feed so I better be able to deal with a job that pays enough to feed them AND I get to come in at noon so I can get some recreation out of my investment at least once in while.

I don't feel like I'm over the hump .....

In fact I rather feel like I'm hanging by my fingertips. Shade was kind of dull this morning when Robyn was trimming her. Coupled with the fact that she hadn't grown a lot of foot --lack of exercise to increase blood supply will do that, siiggghhhhh I changed my mind and skipped shoeing her this cycle. Sadie was being a brat, I realized I haven't asked her to stand for Robyn without food before so I went a grabbed a flake of hay and then she got much much better but that was embarrassing. Lady was being a pill too. She was trying to 'kick' her leg away from Robyn and I went to put a shoulder twitch on her--which usually fixed Grey and Shade if they are being pills but Lady got all freaked out and went spinning around at that point. If she wont behave herself to get worked on I wont get much done for the $65 chiro fee + trip charge! #*#@*@! silly mares.

Mainly I am just almost in tears over Shade. I don't know whether to give her a long round of tucoprim, get Dr Mike to give her another immunestem shot; give the garlic more time to work; Take her off garlic and cough free for a while plus wait on tucoprim dosing...... I was waiting to hear how quick the chiro lady vet could come to decide whether to call Dr Mike and she didn't call me back and I forgot to call Dr Mikes office ........ I hate not having any plan.

I'm feeling like I'm dropping a lot of eggs at work too, blech. And I am going thru another phase of being tired of my chat board. I'm outgrowing it I guess but I keep wanting it to be 'more' for me than it is. Well it is what it is and I need to get myself wired to either take it for that, or I need to drop it but its really stupid to be frustrated with it. Its not going to change.

of expenses and loose fingers

Ugh. I looked at pics of paso fino's yesterday and now I think Lady needs a chiro adjustment. Well I will get her one and see if she calms down, maybe beg some kids to try her out and raise her price up quite a bit. Folks either want an incredible bargain or need to spend enough money to feel like they bought a good one I think. Then if she doesn't go I'll have to go to the rescues and see if they can home her somewhere. I had this horrible thought intruding sunday morning when I was composing my first cut ad for craigslist and wondering how to specify what kind of owner needed. Kept getting 'you' for who should own this horse. Well I threw it back at the universe with 'only if you bring the human to ride her into my life' Not a thing wrong with her but I already feel bad for not spending enough time on my arabs.

Today someone posted an article on the epidemic of abandoned horses on a chatboard. I should have run from that with my hands tight across my mouth but nooooo, I had to jump in and re-state my opinion that the shutting down of plants is what has made things really inhumane for the horses. The article quoted Temple Grandin a bit and she feels much the same way but she isn't starting any flame wars. It just makes me sooo crazy that people who profess to care about the welfare of horses in general have passed laws and shut down plants so that horses end up trailered for many 100's of miles in double deckers. I have seen video clips of slaughter as done in the U.S. and Canada and it was not horrible. I'd hope to be able to just put my own horses down, but honestly if I was so close to a plant that I could lead the horse in and reassure it the bolt itself seemed quite humane.

Sentimentality can be such a mean emotion in its consequences. From people wont put their pets down to this predicament for so many 1000's of horses here.

aaack I missed my eye doc appointment

I should have refused a monday appointment. I'm horrible to forget them.

I had to call and find out when my gyn. appt was. Its thurdays afternoon. Better not miss that one, get it done for another year or so.

Gosh I wish I was out of it because I spent the weekend going on a long trail-ride. I did ride Shade for the 3rd time. I even let her sneak into a trot for just a bit. Some snorting but no sneezes let alone coughs. I do believe I can start really riding her by or before the weekend. So I think my sanity survived the stress test :P I also rode Lady on saturday and put an ad on craigslist for her. No emails yet so I guess I have lots of refining work. I looked up Paso Fino pics to see if her funky back is just a PF thing and looks like not. So maybe I will have to shell out for a chiro.

In non-riding home news I didn't check anything at work all weekend and it felt so GOOD to be leaving it at office. I had mentioned to mom that maybe we should get some 07 hay (because prices might be high this year) Well she heard from our regular hay grower that his grass crop is going to be skimpy this year so I grabbed some hay ads from craigslist and the fencepost internet classifieds and mom made the calls so we got hay from 2 places. We had to clean out the little hay shed on saturday so they could back in a flat bed trailer and stack. (we helped them a bit even though we didn't have to) I could hardly wait to hit the shower that night.

Sunday in addition to riding Shade I was chasing around, dunking hay sweepings (hey being so tight helps me afford to feed so many). I left a gate open where the mini's were and Black Diamond, mom's 2 year old mini stud got out and slipped thru the fence to where Lady was, she is quite a hussy. HooBoy, Diamond thinks he is all that and a side of fries. When mom bellerred at me that I left the gate open & BD got out I ran and closed the pasture gate so the big geldings couldn't get in on the act, then grabbed a halter and caught Lady. I knew Diamond would follow where I took her. So I led her over and was going to put her in the arena which the mini's have the run of, but with the hay shed doors open I couldn't get the gate very fast and Lady and Diamond started kicking at each other, then the dogs were going to rescue me from Diamond when I bellowed at him to quit. I abandoned the arena plan and put Lady in her old pen with Diamond hot on her heels and then led her out and closed the gate and nabbed him. Threw his halter on and put him in the mini's area.

Then I hosed the sweat and dirt off Lady --she and BD had been running around pretty good and let her graze in the farmyard while she dried off. Got my fun ride on Shade. She cracked me up. She was full of herself; when I put her away she sprinted 1/2 way to the pasture to join Cindy and the geldings and then hit the brakes --she had forgotten to roll.

Then I tackled the grass hay stack in the big hay shed that accommodates stack wagons. Darned outlaw hay threw me. I need to stick to riding horses. I was trying to throw 6 bales up from the top of the partial 2 layers to fill in up top --stack was a mess because I had been taking bales off the top when we had other hay that I was saving for V and diet horse stacked in front of it. I knew the partial vertical double layer I was standing on was not real stable and sure enough when I was trying to dig in a bit to lift a bale up it toppled under me. It was only 3 bales high and I landed on my back without any bales landing on me and twisting a knee or something so I was able to climb back up on the outlaw and finish leveling up with the top bales from the very back layers of hay and then come down my ladder. But I informed mom that I 'was done' and she could rake up the loose hay to either feed or mulch with if she wanted to clean the floor any. I put Duke away from the back yard and held AJ to graze for 10 minutes while she did that. Boy did the shower feel good sunday evening.