I decided last night that none of the horses really Needs to have supplements or grain twice daily and I am feeling burned out and need to scale back and start getting to bed earlier.
This will help but I am just overall feeling like I'm surrounded by incompetent twerps. Well I guess whenever I feel tired I tend to get cranky about the idiot factor at work. Idiocy like we have geo-thermal heat and 'green' plumbing in the bathrooms which means we can't have hot water to wash our hands but just the lukewarm crap from the geo system and we have to flush twice half the time because the low flow systems won't grab the paper if wasn't in the bit of water at the bottom of the loos. We have solar panels on our roofs but the lights in the parking lot are just on traditional AC lines so we will have a dark lot until they get around to digging to replace conduit because putting solar lights up would just be too easy.
Idiocy like we so so striving to be green that they took out the coffee machine and replaced it with a nespresso and Keurig systems because of course all those stupid little cups that have to be tossed rather than composting coffee grounds and filter paper doesn't matter if the coffee machine was a nuisance to the admin(s) that dealt with it.
Idiocy like most of the employees embrace the CAWG non-sense instead of applying a little skeptical scientific thinking and they hire an org president who thinks attributing some slogan to that butcher Che Guevara gives the slogan extra authority or gravitas or something.
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
feeding Lady up for winter
It is good that I felt obligated to my leaser and fetched Lady home for winter. She does need to put on 20-30 lbs. I was a bad horse-mom. I thought she would be on lush pasture so I only sent just a little grain to give her some joint supps in when she was caught to ride. Then it was out of sight out of mind and I didn't tell DL that Lady normally gets a lb of grain daily when she is on hay not grass when Mason was harassing her when they tried to have her share the huge pasture so they put her in a nice paddock. Plus I think that the ranch hay is more diet hay and all the regular horses there get 3-4 lbs of grain instead of the 1-2 lbs mine get since our hay is pretty rich for being grass hay.
I'm sure DL would have asked me or just fed more grain if she noticed Lady dropping weight but Lady is one of those horses that is very hard to judge their weight. She has a big belly, probably had a foal or two years ago and then years of eating hay has left permanent gut fill, plus she has kind of fat pocket or 'crest' on her neck -- but she always has backbone sticking up. One really has to feel her ribs and look and feel closely around her tail head and the hip bones etc to judge her body condition and I didn't tell DL any of that.
Lady still looks great at first glance, even to me when I picked her up. but she was standing with her body curved at home later and I noticed ribs so then I did the full check and she is not bad, but is thinner than I like, especially as winter approaches. Lady isn't minding getting a little extra grain and some 30% fat supplement for now. I'll have to show DL the places I check for weight loss or gain if we can coordinate and do camp again next summer.
* So today I'm feeling Lady's ribs going, hmmm I thought I felt more rib yesterday. She really really is very hard to judge her body condition. But can definitely stand to gain a few lbs and is enjoying extra groceries.
I'm sure DL would have asked me or just fed more grain if she noticed Lady dropping weight but Lady is one of those horses that is very hard to judge their weight. She has a big belly, probably had a foal or two years ago and then years of eating hay has left permanent gut fill, plus she has kind of fat pocket or 'crest' on her neck -- but she always has backbone sticking up. One really has to feel her ribs and look and feel closely around her tail head and the hip bones etc to judge her body condition and I didn't tell DL any of that.
Lady still looks great at first glance, even to me when I picked her up. but she was standing with her body curved at home later and I noticed ribs so then I did the full check and she is not bad, but is thinner than I like, especially as winter approaches. Lady isn't minding getting a little extra grain and some 30% fat supplement for now. I'll have to show DL the places I check for weight loss or gain if we can coordinate and do camp again next summer.
* So today I'm feeling Lady's ribs going, hmmm I thought I felt more rib yesterday. She really really is very hard to judge her body condition. But can definitely stand to gain a few lbs and is enjoying extra groceries.
Monday, September 9, 2013
I did ride the last 3 days...
I've gotten in short rides on Sadie the last 3 days. I so want to call it quits on the weed spraying but my obsessive dislike of the goatheads is making it hard when I'm seeing where I missed weeds in the ditch. OTOH only a few of those missed ones are anywhere close to the driveway and I really should turn some energy to de-cluttering the house and plus try to get enough sleep that I'm not nodding off at work until I get my later in the day energy spike.
So I should probably ask dad to do any winterizing on the backpack sprayer and put it up for the year. The flies are going gangbusters it seems. I'm trying hard to remind myself that they are not so thick they are buzzing in the feed room and garage and very few are getting in the house so I have actually kept the population lower than in many past summers. There is only so much that can be done with bait stations and I don't want to take out the bees or neutral bugs with any kind of broad scale pesticide application.
Lady is home, yesterday I went and picked her up and DL rode with me in the pasture where Mason is boarded. I had forgotten hoof boots for Sadie so we contented with a short ride with just a bit of trotting up on top the one spot that didn't have rock. Sadie did pretty good, she had several steps of 'ow rock' shifting her weight suddenly off that foot but was not ouchie every step and it didn't hurt her to figure out she should look for rock free spots to set her feet down. Lady was noisily happy to see Sadie again and Sadie was whinnying back vigorously as well. Lady is not nearly so happy to back in with Razz but as before she is OK. Lady either doesn't look out for Razz or move away as quickly as Sadie who just shrugs, moves off, and goes to the feeder Razz just left so Razz is running her a bit and did give her a bite on her rump but they've done that before. Razz doesn't corner her, or kick so she is just going to have to live with the slightly abrasive herd dynamics they have.
Saturday and this morning I took short rides down my ditch road spot with Sadie and did a little cantering in the empty field. Ole has been excited to come even though the ditch doesn't have water any more, I think they are done for the year. Thursday Ole goes to the vet for getting his lump(s) removed, so its good to see him feeling more lively than he seemed mid-summer when I was wondering if he was healthy enough for it to make any sense having veterinary surgery on him to remove a precancerous lump. Its sad that I feel like the vet clinic is kind of money grubbing so I don't completely trust them when they say precancerous and so on. I guess they are honest, they just have a "best treatment" mentality vs. "what is really cost-effective and fairly safe" which I feel like would be good enough for pets.
So I should probably ask dad to do any winterizing on the backpack sprayer and put it up for the year. The flies are going gangbusters it seems. I'm trying hard to remind myself that they are not so thick they are buzzing in the feed room and garage and very few are getting in the house so I have actually kept the population lower than in many past summers. There is only so much that can be done with bait stations and I don't want to take out the bees or neutral bugs with any kind of broad scale pesticide application.
Lady is home, yesterday I went and picked her up and DL rode with me in the pasture where Mason is boarded. I had forgotten hoof boots for Sadie so we contented with a short ride with just a bit of trotting up on top the one spot that didn't have rock. Sadie did pretty good, she had several steps of 'ow rock' shifting her weight suddenly off that foot but was not ouchie every step and it didn't hurt her to figure out she should look for rock free spots to set her feet down. Lady was noisily happy to see Sadie again and Sadie was whinnying back vigorously as well. Lady is not nearly so happy to back in with Razz but as before she is OK. Lady either doesn't look out for Razz or move away as quickly as Sadie who just shrugs, moves off, and goes to the feeder Razz just left so Razz is running her a bit and did give her a bite on her rump but they've done that before. Razz doesn't corner her, or kick so she is just going to have to live with the slightly abrasive herd dynamics they have.
Saturday and this morning I took short rides down my ditch road spot with Sadie and did a little cantering in the empty field. Ole has been excited to come even though the ditch doesn't have water any more, I think they are done for the year. Thursday Ole goes to the vet for getting his lump(s) removed, so its good to see him feeling more lively than he seemed mid-summer when I was wondering if he was healthy enough for it to make any sense having veterinary surgery on him to remove a precancerous lump. Its sad that I feel like the vet clinic is kind of money grubbing so I don't completely trust them when they say precancerous and so on. I guess they are honest, they just have a "best treatment" mentality vs. "what is really cost-effective and fairly safe" which I feel like would be good enough for pets.
Saturday, September 7, 2013
The neighbors probably think I'm off my rocker
I was spot spraying goatsheads in the pasture again today. *I* myself think I'm foolish spraying so late in the year, but there were some that were still growing and blooming so I feel like I've cut off some burrs from forming even though a great number have already set. I just couldn't bear not trying to reduce the # of burrs where it was possible that spraying would help.
I want to see about renting a no-till grass seeder and buying some grass seed to plant this fall too. I'm just tired of having the weeds everywhere and I guess also I want to tackle some farm improvements this year when it feels like it makes more sense to just wait until next year to haul Sadie to rides. There is no ride less than 6-7 hours drive away for the rest of the year; partly offering to take the draft cross was an excuse for "oh now I can't go to those rides I committed to ride M." I'm sneaky with myself sometimes.
I want to see about renting a no-till grass seeder and buying some grass seed to plant this fall too. I'm just tired of having the weeds everywhere and I guess also I want to tackle some farm improvements this year when it feels like it makes more sense to just wait until next year to haul Sadie to rides. There is no ride less than 6-7 hours drive away for the rest of the year; partly offering to take the draft cross was an excuse for "oh now I can't go to those rides I committed to ride M." I'm sneaky with myself sometimes.
Thursday, September 5, 2013
belay that,
I guess I am going to be taken up on my offer to ride the draft cross for 2-3 weeks. Me and my impulsive offers. Oh well it will not be a bad thing. Not as good as if they were using a trainer, mainly because I suck at explaining things so while I'm thinking the cross will be fine, as he was when I rode him for a mile or so the one time, I won't be able to give nearly as much info for them to apply when he goes back. Oh well I guess I can write about what I did every time I ride or long line him and pass those notes along.
I'm going to give them two options. A) I take him this weekend when I pick up Lady. Bring him back in 3 weeks and show them how to long line him. Then they can long line him for a week before R is cleared to ride per her Docs orders and while he settles back in and start out with long-lining him for work and the first rides being just cool-down sessions so he gets the idea of R is the boss but riding is the easy thing.
B) I take him starting in 2 weeks and they can come out and ride at our place at least once before he goes back. I really don't know which would be better. He might be nicer for R away from the environment where he has started doing his bit of acting up, but then he might revert back at his home base more easily than if he gets some boot camp and then she does some long lining there before she starts back to riding. This is why I'll just give them the choice, they are pretty good at the animal psychology and at least it won't be have been my call if it doesn't work out perfectly.
I'm going to give them two options. A) I take him this weekend when I pick up Lady. Bring him back in 3 weeks and show them how to long line him. Then they can long line him for a week before R is cleared to ride per her Docs orders and while he settles back in and start out with long-lining him for work and the first rides being just cool-down sessions so he gets the idea of R is the boss but riding is the easy thing.
B) I take him starting in 2 weeks and they can come out and ride at our place at least once before he goes back. I really don't know which would be better. He might be nicer for R away from the environment where he has started doing his bit of acting up, but then he might revert back at his home base more easily than if he gets some boot camp and then she does some long lining there before she starts back to riding. This is why I'll just give them the choice, they are pretty good at the animal psychology and at least it won't be have been my call if it doesn't work out perfectly.
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
WooHoo, pretty sure my offer of bootcamp is going to be ignored
I can feel good about making the offer and not actually have to carve out time to ride a horse that I don't own. I'm certainly not going to push it; I think sometimes the family feels like they are being pressured and that is not what I want. Probably they are going to be just fine to work through things with the sometimes difficult horse; and I can go back to reminding myself to bite my tongue and not say something snarky about the first owner 'dumping' him on them. They do have amazing skills at reading critters and shaping general animal behavior so they are not in same boat as rookie owners who cannot draw on the pool of general animal behavior knowledge would be.
I only know that the mom posted a few things that led me to think first owner had given them some expectations that she'd pick them up to join in some trail rides and has not done that so I really should not be assuming she was not 100% frank about her issues with the horse. I do hope it works out for them to take Lady again next summer because it was really nice having her (and her leaser) off my plate for several weeks. Lady is not a huge amount of work so I was surprised how much more peaceful I felt when she was gone, even though I had got to a point of feeling like the leaser coming out to ride was a stress added to my morning rides rather than a fun bit of riding company.
I only know that the mom posted a few things that led me to think first owner had given them some expectations that she'd pick them up to join in some trail rides and has not done that so I really should not be assuming she was not 100% frank about her issues with the horse. I do hope it works out for them to take Lady again next summer because it was really nice having her (and her leaser) off my plate for several weeks. Lady is not a huge amount of work so I was surprised how much more peaceful I felt when she was gone, even though I had got to a point of feeling like the leaser coming out to ride was a stress added to my morning rides rather than a fun bit of riding company.
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
catching up on riding log
After riding Wednesday I skipped Thursday and Friday and just did insect and weed control stuff before work.
Saturday I rode about 6 miles, did some canter in the field that isn't planted. Its pretty good footing not an intense workout like a deeply cultivated field. It was pretty fun.
Sunday dad and I went to White Ranch open space and did some trail riding. My fun day for the weekend. Sadie and Razz both did pretty good. Sadie led a lot at the start but she got hesitant at some technical stuff and dad made Razz take the lead the last third of the trip. Met lots of bikes and some hikers, everyone was very polite, just as I remembered this place being years ago. I had some energy at the end of the ride, even after removing hoof boots from Sadie so I decided it was time for her to go back to riding in the 2nd stall rather than getting to have the very back which I'd been doing to make loading extra easy.
Monday I just sprayed and did some hoeing and bagging of goatsheads.
Today I took a three mile quick ride, then had to have dad drive me back to search for Ole (well I could have just driven myself but I'd had a lead on him and I wanted dad to drive in case I ended up walking trying to spot if Ole had got the lead hung up) He was making his way home so we just gave him a ride the last few hundred yards. I should have made him stay home I suppose since it was fairly hot but he really wanted to go and he is OK, just took a few more minutes of my day.
I suggested to the folks that have Lady that they should send their draft cross to the trainer his former owner used to use for a tune-up before the 12 year old girl takes up riding again after breaking her collarbone. Collarbone was not a horse-fall injury but the horse had been acting up a bit with her before she was injured and they posted on the horse board that he did some little "twist and jump" and dumped a little gal that was riding him on Saturday. They had invited friends out so the daughter 'could ride vicariously.' Lady was very good for various tweens riding her, so that is good.
But I also volunteered that if their budget was too tight, I could take him for 'a short boot camp' session when I brought Lady home since I saved having to feed her a fair amount of hay while they've had her. I can barely believe I did that. I try to maintain a personal policy of not riding other peoples horses as I am no trainer. But the horse does not need training, I don't think even remedial training, he is just taking a bit of advantage and could use several rides from someone who will not allow, let alone make, any excuses of "he is grumpy because he is itchy from deer flies, or he was jealous of Lady...." if he acts out in any way. Plus no deer flies at our sand hill so his itchies would probably clear up. I thought of offering to come ride him there, even making up some excuse of having to come early and stay later at work for collaboration with european and asian counterparts but could take a long break midday and he is much closer than going home --- but he lives on 300 acres and I'd wear myself out if I had to hike up the steep hill to catch him to ride, if they can't just send him to a trainer and have the girl take a lesson or two which would be the very best option but are open to having someone with decades of riding experience give him a wee tune-up I'd rather just haul him home, ride him 4 times a week for a couple weeks then haul him back.
I am on of several people on the board that has been vicariously reliving childhood horse love via this girl and we are all inclined to want to ensure that nothing happens to dampen her love of riding and I'm a bit worried that with the collarbone and lay-off, the horse might be too strong for her to manage if she has to start with a horse that needs to be worked through anything the first few times she is back in the saddle.
Saturday I rode about 6 miles, did some canter in the field that isn't planted. Its pretty good footing not an intense workout like a deeply cultivated field. It was pretty fun.
Sunday dad and I went to White Ranch open space and did some trail riding. My fun day for the weekend. Sadie and Razz both did pretty good. Sadie led a lot at the start but she got hesitant at some technical stuff and dad made Razz take the lead the last third of the trip. Met lots of bikes and some hikers, everyone was very polite, just as I remembered this place being years ago. I had some energy at the end of the ride, even after removing hoof boots from Sadie so I decided it was time for her to go back to riding in the 2nd stall rather than getting to have the very back which I'd been doing to make loading extra easy.
Monday I just sprayed and did some hoeing and bagging of goatsheads.
Today I took a three mile quick ride, then had to have dad drive me back to search for Ole (well I could have just driven myself but I'd had a lead on him and I wanted dad to drive in case I ended up walking trying to spot if Ole had got the lead hung up) He was making his way home so we just gave him a ride the last few hundred yards. I should have made him stay home I suppose since it was fairly hot but he really wanted to go and he is OK, just took a few more minutes of my day.
I suggested to the folks that have Lady that they should send their draft cross to the trainer his former owner used to use for a tune-up before the 12 year old girl takes up riding again after breaking her collarbone. Collarbone was not a horse-fall injury but the horse had been acting up a bit with her before she was injured and they posted on the horse board that he did some little "twist and jump" and dumped a little gal that was riding him on Saturday. They had invited friends out so the daughter 'could ride vicariously.' Lady was very good for various tweens riding her, so that is good.
But I also volunteered that if their budget was too tight, I could take him for 'a short boot camp' session when I brought Lady home since I saved having to feed her a fair amount of hay while they've had her. I can barely believe I did that. I try to maintain a personal policy of not riding other peoples horses as I am no trainer. But the horse does not need training, I don't think even remedial training, he is just taking a bit of advantage and could use several rides from someone who will not allow, let alone make, any excuses of "he is grumpy because he is itchy from deer flies, or he was jealous of Lady...." if he acts out in any way. Plus no deer flies at our sand hill so his itchies would probably clear up. I thought of offering to come ride him there, even making up some excuse of having to come early and stay later at work for collaboration with european and asian counterparts but could take a long break midday and he is much closer than going home --- but he lives on 300 acres and I'd wear myself out if I had to hike up the steep hill to catch him to ride, if they can't just send him to a trainer and have the girl take a lesson or two which would be the very best option but are open to having someone with decades of riding experience give him a wee tune-up I'd rather just haul him home, ride him 4 times a week for a couple weeks then haul him back.
I am on of several people on the board that has been vicariously reliving childhood horse love via this girl and we are all inclined to want to ensure that nothing happens to dampen her love of riding and I'm a bit worried that with the collarbone and lay-off, the horse might be too strong for her to manage if she has to start with a horse that needs to be worked through anything the first few times she is back in the saddle.
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