It's like a bad book where you know the plot 2 chapters into reading it. You think to yourself: "this is stupid, I should totally put this book in that trash can over there and then find something else mindless to waste my time". Instead you read it anyway.. hating yourself afterwards.
That is the mule and I. I know how it ends every single time I let her out of the stall and into the pasture with my boys, but I like pain I guess. At least she's *starting* to warm up to me. Starting. She got out again on Sunday through a hole in the rear of the property that I never fixed because my horses never go back there. (hi run on sentence how are you today?) Veronica does. Veronica does whatever it is Veronica wants. Sunday, she took my boys with her. I've never cried over Memphis before.. but on Sunday, I was a bawling babbling idiot. I was terrified something might have happened to him. I wanted my Memphis home and wanted him home like yesterday.
Fortunately, with the help of some neighbors we found Memphis and the other two knuckleheads and I walked them back home. And with the help of a neighbor we fixed the fence. In fact, I'd never strung fence in my life until Sunday and my sweet neighbor patiently showed my husband and I how to do it. Let's just say with a "trained professional" showing us the right way... the way I thought it out in my head was like way off. Way way off.
Then there was last night. Last night was just frustrating and it wasn't even her fault as it took forever before I could eat dinner. My normal nightly routine is as follows:
1. Come home and let dogs out
2. Walk in the house and put stuff down
3. Pull out the meat I defrosted the night before and place in oven
4. While meat is cooking go outside and take care of the horses
5. Come back in to the meat almost done and cook veggies
6. Pour a glass of wine and eat some dinner
Oops pork I defrosted smelled "off".. I don't do off smelling meat. I should have used the off smelling pork as my omen of what was to come. Throw a bag of crab in the oven with some brussel sprouts as my back up dinner. Put on my hiking boots (I REALLY need muck boots) and a pair of pajama pants. Zip up hoody. Grab key to the shed. Put collars on dogs. Take dog transmitter. Go outside. Everything is going great! Grab a pound of feed, grab a flake of hay, and make my way to the stall.
Until I get to the stall. I can hear Veronica making *squish* noises as she walks. Look down. SHIT. First thought was SHIT. Her stall is a soup of water/mud/shavings/shit/piss that is about 2 ft deep. ARGH!!!!!!!!!!! HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN?! I put her hay in her hay rack and try to make my way to her grain bucket. Now I'm 2ft in shit water. Cuss words follow as my pajama pants aren't going to make it back after being exposed to that mule soup up past my ankles. Those pants are dead to me now.
I decide to try to get the slurry a out of the stall. The good thing about Veronica is that she shits in the same spot: on the gate. So it tends to pile up right there. Normally, this makes it easy for me to clean as I just have to roll it down the hill, but last night it mixed with the water and made a mini dam. So I grab the shovel that I leave up against the stall for cleaning out and start removing her "dam" thinking it would allow the soup to flow out of the stall. Crap. Literally. Not working. I decide to shovel the soup out, no that doesn't work either because its too soupy. Ok, I will just scrape it out. Ha! It works! I scrape the area in front of the gate.
Great! Look over to where her grain goes. Shit. Need to do it again on this side. I start scraping the soup mix over to the spot I just scraped out and then have to scrape that mix out the gate again. Woo its working.
Shit. Now I have to get the far corner. Start scraping that corner to the place in the middle I just scraped to the gate side and scrape it out the gate. Wooo. Now Veronica can stand in mud instead of slop. Then it starts to rain again and I figure out a gutter is backed up and water is coming back in.
Veronica cannot stand in this. That is a recipe for thrush. How to make thrush:
Have a horse stand in wet conditions.
That's an easy recipe. I mean there are probably other recipes for it out there, but at the moment I have this one to work with. I text my neighbor. I walk Veronica to his house and put her in the paddock.
My neighbor, bless his heart, once again has my mule at his house.
I have lost a pair of pajama pants. I learned not to touch my face when working with mule soup. My hiking boots are never going to be the same. (again I need muck boots)
But damnit, Veronica is at least not standing in 2 ft of nasty.
PS: I fixed the gutter downspout
Thursday, November 19, 2015
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Comical Mule is Comical....
I brought Veronica home on Saturday after about an hour of working to catch her. Turns out I just needed to act like I was leaving or something and she suddenly wanted to be caught. Go figure. Did you know that mules generally get attached to their people pretty easily? Yeah she's sort of attached to my neighbor.. I digress.
Her home for the next two weeks is a 18 foot by 6ish foot stall. I need her to set her little brain to this is home, or at least hopefully set it to that. If she really does is another matter, but for the time being it sounds good to me. The front of the stall that is the door is a standard livestock gate. I have hung her food bucket here. To the left of that gate are carriage bolts that hold the gate on and I have her 5 gallon water bucket hanging there. The hay holder is on the back wall opposite the gate. Now that you know the layout of the stall, we can talk about my mornings that are starting to evolve.
Veronica now is getting used to the feeding schedule, which is in the morning and at night. Since she has no forage at the moment she is getting a little less than 2lbs of grain twice a day and 3 flakes of hay. That should be more than plenty for a equine her size. She now slightly nickers? not sure what I would call the noises she makes when she hears me coming, but she gets EXCITED.
Let me tell you who else is excited about what is going on... Butters. My fat pony. He has figured out in the mornings the feeding routine and generally waits by his food bucket at 6:30am nickering away at his displeasure that his life is confined by this stupid fence that doesn't allow him uninhibited access to the grain he desires. Since Veronica has appeared he has quickly figured out that she gets grained before him. How dare I. Seriously, how dare I not feed him first.
So now he waits by her stall door in the mornings. Seriously, it took his fat butt 1 day to figure out that he needs to be in front of her stall instead of his bucket. Here is where the comedy is coming into play... he tries to get in the stall with me in the mornings. The stall that already contains 1 mule. Why? In Butters mind, the tragedy of me not feeding him first can be fixed if he gets in the stall with me to eat Veronica's feed. My morning routine is like a horrible comedy. "Butters get back" "Butters I swear to God" "Butters this isn't your feed" "Butters that's ENOUGH"
This morning I carried down the hill the 5 gallons of water, the feed, and 1.5 flakes of hay. I put the water bucket down to unlatch her gate being careful that she doesn't ram the gate open when I do in her excitement of food. All the while I have Butters standing just outside of my range of smacking with my hand nickering at me. I enter the stall, Veronica is EXCITED. Like pacing OMG ITS BREAKFAST TIME! I set the water bucket down right in front of the gate, still holding the grain, turn around to put her hay in the holder, and Veronica knocks over the 5 gallons of water all in her stall. She then takes off in a panic at the bucket issue. So much for "mules don't run from danger"
I'm pissed she spilled the bucket and at the same time trying to figure out if she's going to kick while I'm in a confined spot. Then there is Butters. Sweet Butters. Who is now pushing on the gate door, Veronica is coming back to the feed bucket, and Butters is trying to shove his fat head in-between the bars of the gate to get to her feed. Veronica bites Butters, Butters squeals in protest, I drive off Veronica so I can put the feed in the bucket and exit the stall.
Butters is now in my face. Breathing like a fat guy that just walked up a flight of stairs and sighs like "well?" Yes, Butters, go to your feed bucket. I will feed you now. Here have your .5lbs of grain and water slush. Jerk.
Her home for the next two weeks is a 18 foot by 6ish foot stall. I need her to set her little brain to this is home, or at least hopefully set it to that. If she really does is another matter, but for the time being it sounds good to me. The front of the stall that is the door is a standard livestock gate. I have hung her food bucket here. To the left of that gate are carriage bolts that hold the gate on and I have her 5 gallon water bucket hanging there. The hay holder is on the back wall opposite the gate. Now that you know the layout of the stall, we can talk about my mornings that are starting to evolve.
Veronica now is getting used to the feeding schedule, which is in the morning and at night. Since she has no forage at the moment she is getting a little less than 2lbs of grain twice a day and 3 flakes of hay. That should be more than plenty for a equine her size. She now slightly nickers? not sure what I would call the noises she makes when she hears me coming, but she gets EXCITED.
Let me tell you who else is excited about what is going on... Butters. My fat pony. He has figured out in the mornings the feeding routine and generally waits by his food bucket at 6:30am nickering away at his displeasure that his life is confined by this stupid fence that doesn't allow him uninhibited access to the grain he desires. Since Veronica has appeared he has quickly figured out that she gets grained before him. How dare I. Seriously, how dare I not feed him first.
So now he waits by her stall door in the mornings. Seriously, it took his fat butt 1 day to figure out that he needs to be in front of her stall instead of his bucket. Here is where the comedy is coming into play... he tries to get in the stall with me in the mornings. The stall that already contains 1 mule. Why? In Butters mind, the tragedy of me not feeding him first can be fixed if he gets in the stall with me to eat Veronica's feed. My morning routine is like a horrible comedy. "Butters get back" "Butters I swear to God" "Butters this isn't your feed" "Butters that's ENOUGH"
This morning I carried down the hill the 5 gallons of water, the feed, and 1.5 flakes of hay. I put the water bucket down to unlatch her gate being careful that she doesn't ram the gate open when I do in her excitement of food. All the while I have Butters standing just outside of my range of smacking with my hand nickering at me. I enter the stall, Veronica is EXCITED. Like pacing OMG ITS BREAKFAST TIME! I set the water bucket down right in front of the gate, still holding the grain, turn around to put her hay in the holder, and Veronica knocks over the 5 gallons of water all in her stall. She then takes off in a panic at the bucket issue. So much for "mules don't run from danger"
I'm pissed she spilled the bucket and at the same time trying to figure out if she's going to kick while I'm in a confined spot. Then there is Butters. Sweet Butters. Who is now pushing on the gate door, Veronica is coming back to the feed bucket, and Butters is trying to shove his fat head in-between the bars of the gate to get to her feed. Veronica bites Butters, Butters squeals in protest, I drive off Veronica so I can put the feed in the bucket and exit the stall.
Butters is now in my face. Breathing like a fat guy that just walked up a flight of stairs and sighs like "well?" Yes, Butters, go to your feed bucket. I will feed you now. Here have your .5lbs of grain and water slush. Jerk.
Monday, November 2, 2015
Lot's of horsey things yesterday!
My three equines have kept me busy this weekend! I finally started working on the lower stall for Veronica to be moved into. It took me FOREVER to get through that stall. On the outside it just looked like pallets were in it lining the floor, which in reality that is all that was in it. The pallets unfortunately have been there so long that they rotted on the bottoms. This left me with pulling pallets out and half the time the screws/nails stayed in the ground. The time consuming part was pulling the pallet up and then going back through the dirt to find all the screws. Two hours later a 10ft by 4ft stall was finally as clean as I could get it. I only have to make sure the electrical is off (why did they put a line that was accessible to horses in there when they had horses in there I'll never know) and nail flat some nails in the wall and the stall, sans shavings, is ready to go. Butters approved of the stall immediately and stood in it for hours for whatever reason.
Yesterday morning I woke up with the determination to mess with Veronica. I visited her on Thursday night and she was downright nasty at the fence. This is most likely just not bonding with anyone on top of being alone in the pasture. I cut up some apples yesterday morning and then walked down to the house she is at. (my totally awesome neighbor) She was ancy at the gate right off the bat and my only real fear was her rushing through the gate once I got it unlocked. Thankfully, she did not rush the gate and allowed me to enter. I then just walked to the center of the pasture and then stopped and stood there. I sing to my horses and so just sang the first thing that popped in my head: Sesame Street. Took her a while. I never walked towards her, never asked her to come over, never pressured her to do anything.
I did notice that when I first turned her out with my boys she nervously ate grass. Constantly ate it when I had her turned out with the boys. She did the exact same with me, to the point of circling me and eating grass. I just quietly let her continue on until finally she got close enough to smell my boots. She backed off and came back to smell my pants, backed off and came back to smell my hands, and finally smelled my jacket. At that point I reached out to touch her and she let me for a second before moving away. This was not a quick process as she needed to know I wasn't going to rush her or hurt her.
By the end? Breakthrough. She was following me everywhere and I could touch her anywhere. We even did some slight pressure and release exercises (like backing for instance) before I called it quits. She is a super super sweet mule. Hopefully she settles back in with my boys in the next two weeks so I can let her in my pastures.
After working on the stall and in the garage with Joe putting away his car parts I decided, screw it I'm riding. Butters was first up. I had Joe catch him, halter him, and bridle him as Joe really doesn't know how to do most of that stuff. Joe did great! Now, we are going to call this ride Disasters lol. Butters needs to be ridden, we all know that. I and him are both out of shape; as I'm still trying to refind my seat again, while Butters is trying not to be fat. Hindsight I should have ridden just up and down the hill of the front pasture, but noooooooooooooooo I decided to try to go back to the shed which is very uneven terrain. Did I mention I was bareback and I don't 100% have my seat yet?
Butters had my number lol He took me up the side of a hill when I wanted to go down the base of it since it was less steep. Butters was going the normal route him and Memphis use to walk between the pastures, which puts us both on a slight incline. After near fall off, I stayed on and we continued towards the rear shed. All is well. Then back to the pasture we started off in, Butters picked up the pace around another steep incline and boop! Off I went. I was dying laughing and Butters was probably like "Hooray! Stupid human is gone!"
Round two was my neighbor brought over his wide tree saddle. Now, let me preface this with this saddle fits much better than the one I use on Memphis, but I have a tendency to not tighten the girth enough. Ever. I've had people get on me about it, but I just can't over tighten it or get close to that point. Do you see the disaster forming? So I get in and it's actually a really comfy saddle and all is well. Then I ask Butters for more speed.... shit went downhill. The saddle was slipping and I got it back to center and when I turned Butters around it completely slipped. I went off and Butters also went off.. galloping... around the pasture... with the saddle underneath him. Sigh. 2 issues here to point out 1. is the saddle wasn't tight enough 2. Butters is really too fat for a saddle to fit completely correctly.
Joe was like OMG get him! I'm like "He'll stop running, he can't get caught on anything". Took him a few minutes of freak out before he stopped. Slowly went over to him and got the saddle undone. Poor fella was terrified and rightfully so. I gave him a apple and lots and lots of reassurance that it was ok. I think for the time being we are going to stick with the bareback pad. He needs LOTS of saddle time. Lots. The goal now is to just walk up and town the hill. Boring, mundane, and boring. But for him and I this will be good. I'll get my seat back faster and he'll loose some weight. I can also do this at night when its dark since this pasture if clutter, rock, and hole free.
Finally, I got Memphis saddled. I wish I had a crazy story about him... but I don't. He was perfect. Like always. :) I love where he is now in how he's trained. Getting on him is like a sigh of relief. I know when he will freak out, know how he refuses anything, and know what he will do and won't do. LB even took him around with me leading.
Long post, but yesterday was a long day. Hopefully, I can get 2-3 days in this week after work in the dark. I also need to set aside one day just for grooming and that's it. Let them know that catching isn't always going to mean work.
That's all I got here for the day. Don't feel like editing this so deal with it. :D
Yesterday morning I woke up with the determination to mess with Veronica. I visited her on Thursday night and she was downright nasty at the fence. This is most likely just not bonding with anyone on top of being alone in the pasture. I cut up some apples yesterday morning and then walked down to the house she is at. (my totally awesome neighbor) She was ancy at the gate right off the bat and my only real fear was her rushing through the gate once I got it unlocked. Thankfully, she did not rush the gate and allowed me to enter. I then just walked to the center of the pasture and then stopped and stood there. I sing to my horses and so just sang the first thing that popped in my head: Sesame Street. Took her a while. I never walked towards her, never asked her to come over, never pressured her to do anything.
I did notice that when I first turned her out with my boys she nervously ate grass. Constantly ate it when I had her turned out with the boys. She did the exact same with me, to the point of circling me and eating grass. I just quietly let her continue on until finally she got close enough to smell my boots. She backed off and came back to smell my pants, backed off and came back to smell my hands, and finally smelled my jacket. At that point I reached out to touch her and she let me for a second before moving away. This was not a quick process as she needed to know I wasn't going to rush her or hurt her.
By the end? Breakthrough. She was following me everywhere and I could touch her anywhere. We even did some slight pressure and release exercises (like backing for instance) before I called it quits. She is a super super sweet mule. Hopefully she settles back in with my boys in the next two weeks so I can let her in my pastures.
After working on the stall and in the garage with Joe putting away his car parts I decided, screw it I'm riding. Butters was first up. I had Joe catch him, halter him, and bridle him as Joe really doesn't know how to do most of that stuff. Joe did great! Now, we are going to call this ride Disasters lol. Butters needs to be ridden, we all know that. I and him are both out of shape; as I'm still trying to refind my seat again, while Butters is trying not to be fat. Hindsight I should have ridden just up and down the hill of the front pasture, but noooooooooooooooo I decided to try to go back to the shed which is very uneven terrain. Did I mention I was bareback and I don't 100% have my seat yet?
Butters had my number lol He took me up the side of a hill when I wanted to go down the base of it since it was less steep. Butters was going the normal route him and Memphis use to walk between the pastures, which puts us both on a slight incline. After near fall off, I stayed on and we continued towards the rear shed. All is well. Then back to the pasture we started off in, Butters picked up the pace around another steep incline and boop! Off I went. I was dying laughing and Butters was probably like "Hooray! Stupid human is gone!"
Round two was my neighbor brought over his wide tree saddle. Now, let me preface this with this saddle fits much better than the one I use on Memphis, but I have a tendency to not tighten the girth enough. Ever. I've had people get on me about it, but I just can't over tighten it or get close to that point. Do you see the disaster forming? So I get in and it's actually a really comfy saddle and all is well. Then I ask Butters for more speed.... shit went downhill. The saddle was slipping and I got it back to center and when I turned Butters around it completely slipped. I went off and Butters also went off.. galloping... around the pasture... with the saddle underneath him. Sigh. 2 issues here to point out 1. is the saddle wasn't tight enough 2. Butters is really too fat for a saddle to fit completely correctly.
Joe was like OMG get him! I'm like "He'll stop running, he can't get caught on anything". Took him a few minutes of freak out before he stopped. Slowly went over to him and got the saddle undone. Poor fella was terrified and rightfully so. I gave him a apple and lots and lots of reassurance that it was ok. I think for the time being we are going to stick with the bareback pad. He needs LOTS of saddle time. Lots. The goal now is to just walk up and town the hill. Boring, mundane, and boring. But for him and I this will be good. I'll get my seat back faster and he'll loose some weight. I can also do this at night when its dark since this pasture if clutter, rock, and hole free.
Finally, I got Memphis saddled. I wish I had a crazy story about him... but I don't. He was perfect. Like always. :) I love where he is now in how he's trained. Getting on him is like a sigh of relief. I know when he will freak out, know how he refuses anything, and know what he will do and won't do. LB even took him around with me leading.
Long post, but yesterday was a long day. Hopefully, I can get 2-3 days in this week after work in the dark. I also need to set aside one day just for grooming and that's it. Let them know that catching isn't always going to mean work.
That's all I got here for the day. Don't feel like editing this so deal with it. :D
Friday, October 30, 2015
Butters Rides!
I got the option of not getting my husband and kiddo from work yesterday. This meant that I would be home about 45 minutes earlier and I took full advantage of this. I decided to get half my homework done yesterday at work so I could go home to try out Butters.
Taking it back in time just a little, when I bought Butters I did ride him, but I'm going to guess he was not comfortable with the tack that he was using. He was in a standard D-ring and had no control. I don't ride in anything but shanked bits, so remembering the amount of contact needed on a bit like this was a conscious effort, which could be part of the control issues. He also had a curb chain on the D-ring... . He didn't ride GREAT but I figured, what the hey, he should make a great little guy with some work.
So out to the field I went yesterday with a halter and lead rope to find the horses. Once found I let them "catch" me; meaning I just sat down on the ground. Of course Mr. Memphis was the first over to say hello and try to eat my hair. Butters just stood there like "oh hell no I see that halter", but let me go up to him to halter. Note to self, a pony halter is a little too small and a horse halter is a little too big. Sweet Butters.
Last night was the first time I've had the time to scramble up on him. Memphis was not pleased that it was Butters getting ridden, but I think Memphis will survive. Since I have no saddle that fits Butters and I don't want to buy a wide tree saddle for him just to have it not fit in a year, I bought a bareback pad to ride in. Took me a second to scramble up onto him but once I was up, we were off! I rode him in one of Memphis' first bits, just a shorter shanked bit with a port. (Memphis likes ported bits) At first I rode with some pressure on the reins and he balked so I released all pressure and rode on a very loose rein.
He still shook his head. That tells me that either he hates the amount of bit or his teeth need to be floated. I'm going with a mixture of both. I might see if a Wonderbit or Kimberwick would be better for him and get rid of the port all together. I wasn't planning on having the vet out till next spring, but if I need to, I'll get him out sooner to float his teeth.
Other than that, Butters is very willing. I didn't let him go above a walk as I wanted this to be a positive riding experience for him since he doesn't really know me and hasn't been in work for a long time. If I have daylight tonight available I'll try again. Or ride Memphis.. Memphis loves to go go go. :)
Taking it back in time just a little, when I bought Butters I did ride him, but I'm going to guess he was not comfortable with the tack that he was using. He was in a standard D-ring and had no control. I don't ride in anything but shanked bits, so remembering the amount of contact needed on a bit like this was a conscious effort, which could be part of the control issues. He also had a curb chain on the D-ring... . He didn't ride GREAT but I figured, what the hey, he should make a great little guy with some work.
So out to the field I went yesterday with a halter and lead rope to find the horses. Once found I let them "catch" me; meaning I just sat down on the ground. Of course Mr. Memphis was the first over to say hello and try to eat my hair. Butters just stood there like "oh hell no I see that halter", but let me go up to him to halter. Note to self, a pony halter is a little too small and a horse halter is a little too big. Sweet Butters.
Last night was the first time I've had the time to scramble up on him. Memphis was not pleased that it was Butters getting ridden, but I think Memphis will survive. Since I have no saddle that fits Butters and I don't want to buy a wide tree saddle for him just to have it not fit in a year, I bought a bareback pad to ride in. Took me a second to scramble up onto him but once I was up, we were off! I rode him in one of Memphis' first bits, just a shorter shanked bit with a port. (Memphis likes ported bits) At first I rode with some pressure on the reins and he balked so I released all pressure and rode on a very loose rein.
He still shook his head. That tells me that either he hates the amount of bit or his teeth need to be floated. I'm going with a mixture of both. I might see if a Wonderbit or Kimberwick would be better for him and get rid of the port all together. I wasn't planning on having the vet out till next spring, but if I need to, I'll get him out sooner to float his teeth.
Other than that, Butters is very willing. I didn't let him go above a walk as I wanted this to be a positive riding experience for him since he doesn't really know me and hasn't been in work for a long time. If I have daylight tonight available I'll try again. Or ride Memphis.. Memphis loves to go go go. :)
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Oh that Veronica Vaughn....
On the horse front a few thoughts, I'll list each one for each horse.
Memphis:
Rode him down to the neighbors the other night to drop off some feed. Memphis was fine.. UNTIL ... he realized A.) that he was far away from home and B) there was a mule in the pasture next to him. The second I dismounted, Memphis lost his mind. There was no coming back. I ended up walking him in hand back home because it was raining and I wasn't wanting to fight him undersaddle on pavement in the rain. The goal the past two days since then has been to ride once again but this time going *just* to the edge where I feel him start to get ancy and turn around for home. The problem has been the rain. IF its not raining tonight the goal is to just ride him around home. I feel the need to reset his mind a little that riding isn't bad since we did not have a good night together after he decided to freak out. This is fault of mine as I haven't worked with him in 3 months, he just got rehomed, and just got a new buddy. He's been able to be a horse for a long long time in horse time.
Butters:
Butters just needs to be worked. He barely ever has anything good to say to me other than he pins his ears about everything human related 99% of the time. I'm working on him but time has been a large factor in what I can and can't get done right now. I want to ride him, but at the moment I only have one bridle that has a curb chain on it so I'm having to either share a bit with him and Memphis or ride one of them without the chain. I'm not keen on that idea as Butters needs all the stop he can get. Memphis not so much, Memphis prefers to RUN through anything when he gets ancy and I can deal with that, but I don't really know Butters. I've got a new chain ordered so once it comes in next week I'll make a devoted bridle for Butters.
Veronica Vaughn:
And then, lets turn our attention to Veronica, our new mule. Who, 2nd day home, got out. The neighbor got her and she is currently living in his pasture till I can get the stall cleaned out on Saturday and move her there for about 2 weeks to reset her brain to home. She's a cute little 2 year old that is surprisingly calm. Big sweetheart. She's got another one to two years before I will break her as she needs to grow grow grow still. But she is adorable.
Memphis:
Rode him down to the neighbors the other night to drop off some feed. Memphis was fine.. UNTIL ... he realized A.) that he was far away from home and B) there was a mule in the pasture next to him. The second I dismounted, Memphis lost his mind. There was no coming back. I ended up walking him in hand back home because it was raining and I wasn't wanting to fight him undersaddle on pavement in the rain. The goal the past two days since then has been to ride once again but this time going *just* to the edge where I feel him start to get ancy and turn around for home. The problem has been the rain. IF its not raining tonight the goal is to just ride him around home. I feel the need to reset his mind a little that riding isn't bad since we did not have a good night together after he decided to freak out. This is fault of mine as I haven't worked with him in 3 months, he just got rehomed, and just got a new buddy. He's been able to be a horse for a long long time in horse time.
Butters:
Butters just needs to be worked. He barely ever has anything good to say to me other than he pins his ears about everything human related 99% of the time. I'm working on him but time has been a large factor in what I can and can't get done right now. I want to ride him, but at the moment I only have one bridle that has a curb chain on it so I'm having to either share a bit with him and Memphis or ride one of them without the chain. I'm not keen on that idea as Butters needs all the stop he can get. Memphis not so much, Memphis prefers to RUN through anything when he gets ancy and I can deal with that, but I don't really know Butters. I've got a new chain ordered so once it comes in next week I'll make a devoted bridle for Butters.
Veronica Vaughn:
And then, lets turn our attention to Veronica, our new mule. Who, 2nd day home, got out. The neighbor got her and she is currently living in his pasture till I can get the stall cleaned out on Saturday and move her there for about 2 weeks to reset her brain to home. She's a cute little 2 year old that is surprisingly calm. Big sweetheart. She's got another one to two years before I will break her as she needs to grow grow grow still. But she is adorable.
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
2 years!
This is a long time to get a good update in! Took me a bit to remember my password and then link this to my other gmail account for easier finding in the future.
So! Lets update a little since it looks like its been 2 years since the last update! Memphis was moved in May to a new facility for pasture board. When I moved him it was a tough decision since he had been at the same place for 5 years and remained relatively healthy the entire time. I just finally got to the point where I was ready to move forward with his training and felt he needed to be a horse again. He has blossomed.
In August my husband and I decided to move to a new house in the country with acreage so that I could have Memphis at home. I brought him home with a new friend last Saturday. I will continue this blog from here at this point. The road to what Memphis has become has been a rocky start but he has turned into a well mannered horse that I can trust.
The new horse is named Butters and I welcome him to our household. He needs a little work but will make a great horse in time. We are going over ground work right now. He is broke to ride, but I like mine to be a little more trusty on the ground before I ask for much under saddle. He does nothing bad per sey, but he does need to do a few things when I ask for it, like backing or moving over. That is what we will be doing the next few nights.
It feels good to be writing about horses again.
So! Lets update a little since it looks like its been 2 years since the last update! Memphis was moved in May to a new facility for pasture board. When I moved him it was a tough decision since he had been at the same place for 5 years and remained relatively healthy the entire time. I just finally got to the point where I was ready to move forward with his training and felt he needed to be a horse again. He has blossomed.
In August my husband and I decided to move to a new house in the country with acreage so that I could have Memphis at home. I brought him home with a new friend last Saturday. I will continue this blog from here at this point. The road to what Memphis has become has been a rocky start but he has turned into a well mannered horse that I can trust.
The new horse is named Butters and I welcome him to our household. He needs a little work but will make a great horse in time. We are going over ground work right now. He is broke to ride, but I like mine to be a little more trusty on the ground before I ask for much under saddle. He does nothing bad per sey, but he does need to do a few things when I ask for it, like backing or moving over. That is what we will be doing the next few nights.
It feels good to be writing about horses again.
Friday, April 26, 2013
From Sunday to Weds
Lots of things to chew on and think about, especially the way that I type on here about what I've accomplished and what I have left out in my posts. I tend to not post every little thing that is done between Memphis and I and only post out a few specific highlighted items that stand out in my mind. I am going to slow this down a little and work a little harder to put back in the specifics of each ride, each interaction, and each time I do anything that relates to a horse.
On the outside looking in at what is posted it becomes clear that there is a need for more details about what I think is the correct action in response to a reaction from Memphis. Otherwise, I am leaving the reader with a question and open myself up for heavy criticism. I realize that that is something I need to work on and if I am criticized that is perfectly fine but it makes it harder to convince somebody that I've done the right things if I've left out the most important details in the beginning,
So I give you Weds ride with Mr. Memphis, in more detail, and a little better flow of events than before. Lets see if this makes it a little easier to understand my own background and Memphis'.
Wendsday:
We both started today as we always do. His furry little head poking through his stall as if to say "hello you". I halter him, lead him to the wall, and we start a grooming session. I always work these sessions slowly, rubbing heavily in his favorite places: his shoulder and his neck. I get a huge sigh of relief personally from stress from grooming him and I know he seems to enjoys it just as much.
Next up is lunging, while he seems nowhere near as hyper as Sunday, I still wanted to see how he was doing and just work through some gaits with him. He starts out walking quite nicely and quietly, picked up speed nicely when I asked him to, and then with a little bit of pushing got into a canter. We worked both directions, lots of stops, and lots of gait changes. He did very well and acted like a gentleman. Nothing out of the ordinary.
We then go back to the wall and start in on the saddling issue. He let me put on the pad with no issues. Just because he gave me such an issue with it on Sunday I decided to try a few more times. He sulled up a little on the third, so we stopped and slowed it all down some. He was allowed to see the pad again, smell the pad, lip the pad, and let me rub it all over him. So we started again with putting the pad on his back. He got upset again, so once again we slowed it all down.
Then I started turning the wheels in my head. When he is allowed to play with the pad he is fine, he lets it touch him and is fine, and 90% of the time he is just fine with the pad going on. Here I started trying different scenarios with it. Playing around a few times with it I figured out he freaks out the most when the pad is lifted up higher than my shoulder. Get it close to his eye level and its over in his mind. The saddle pad will eat him and the world is going to come to an end.
Ok, so we slow it down some more and we work with the pad up above his head, around his head, above my shoulder, and so on. He calmed down quite quickly when he realized that the pad isn't eating me, him, or going to fall down on him from the ceiling. Once again, after the pad issue he saddles just like he should and everything is right in the world with Memphis.
Lunge him with the saddle on just to look at him move with it on and make sure he is ok with the world again before I get ready to ride. Once the bridle goes on he is annoyed. I can see his ears go back into an annoyance stance, not pissed, just annoyed. No tail swishing, no stomping, no ear pinning, or anything of the sort that would indicate to me I've got a firecracker on my hands. Just a "not this crap again" look. Memphis is not a fan of the barn, but its what I have to do until the arena dries out from all the rain. I don't have an option of just not riding him like I've had in the past. Sigh.
Get mounted up on him and he stands just like he should. Then we start off at a nice walk. A trail walk, dog walk, or walk whatever you want to call it it was slow. I was not looking for speed, so when he started to speed up he got slowly checked back down to the walk.
My goal was to work on steering only with him. So, I was not looking for speed here just looking for the correct direction. My requests were made with leg, neck rein, then direct rein. I was consistent in what I was doing and never strayed from what I was asking him. He got heavy leg first, then neck rein pretty much immediately with the leg, and lastly with the direct rein. He knows that when I ask with the leg its a push over to the other side, he got that really quickly when we worked on it before I got pregnant. So when I'm pushing I am already asking him to move over, then I combine that with the neck rein to tell him to turn. Eventually I would like to stop with so much leg and just use neck reining, but right now he is 75-80% at best with consistency on neck reining.
We worked on figure 8's and some mid direction changes for about 30 minutes. I then changed it up a bit and asked for some speed for a lap or two around the barn just to give him something else to do.
I did notice a few things in this ride since I was doing more thinking in this ride than my previous ones. He for one has an issue with right hand turns. For whatever reason in his mind right hand turns mean speed up. Left hand turns do not. Now this could be anything from him just being silly, a pain issue, or a refusal attempt. We did quite a bit of right hand turns to try to figure something out. I started with myself first, such as am I accidentally moving a leg, am I sitting differently, is my foot bumping him, is something on the saddle rubbing him, and anything else I could think of. I've noticed as well that he tends to do this in the beginning of the ride and will cease it once he gets warmed up and gets a few checks from me.
The only other thing we did was backing under saddle. This one he still does not quite understand, but it is also something he has only attempted 2-3 times under saddle. He'll get better at it I'm sure with time.
Otherwise this ride, in my mind, went quite well. Near the end of steering work it was clicking in his mind that the rein placed on his neck is a left or right turn. It wasn't a pretty turn, but I'm not expecting perfection just yet, just a acknowledgment that he is starting to understand. He took a step back under saddle when asked.
None of it was completely pretty, but I'm working VERY hard to work out the kinks with him. I am seeing progress from him being ridden by me 2-3 times a week. More progress than I thought. On Sunday I fully expect him to move off of just the neck reining instead of leg and neck. I will also expect a little easier transition into backing than Weds night.
He's a good boy.
On the outside looking in at what is posted it becomes clear that there is a need for more details about what I think is the correct action in response to a reaction from Memphis. Otherwise, I am leaving the reader with a question and open myself up for heavy criticism. I realize that that is something I need to work on and if I am criticized that is perfectly fine but it makes it harder to convince somebody that I've done the right things if I've left out the most important details in the beginning,
So I give you Weds ride with Mr. Memphis, in more detail, and a little better flow of events than before. Lets see if this makes it a little easier to understand my own background and Memphis'.
Wendsday:
We both started today as we always do. His furry little head poking through his stall as if to say "hello you". I halter him, lead him to the wall, and we start a grooming session. I always work these sessions slowly, rubbing heavily in his favorite places: his shoulder and his neck. I get a huge sigh of relief personally from stress from grooming him and I know he seems to enjoys it just as much.
Next up is lunging, while he seems nowhere near as hyper as Sunday, I still wanted to see how he was doing and just work through some gaits with him. He starts out walking quite nicely and quietly, picked up speed nicely when I asked him to, and then with a little bit of pushing got into a canter. We worked both directions, lots of stops, and lots of gait changes. He did very well and acted like a gentleman. Nothing out of the ordinary.
We then go back to the wall and start in on the saddling issue. He let me put on the pad with no issues. Just because he gave me such an issue with it on Sunday I decided to try a few more times. He sulled up a little on the third, so we stopped and slowed it all down some. He was allowed to see the pad again, smell the pad, lip the pad, and let me rub it all over him. So we started again with putting the pad on his back. He got upset again, so once again we slowed it all down.
Then I started turning the wheels in my head. When he is allowed to play with the pad he is fine, he lets it touch him and is fine, and 90% of the time he is just fine with the pad going on. Here I started trying different scenarios with it. Playing around a few times with it I figured out he freaks out the most when the pad is lifted up higher than my shoulder. Get it close to his eye level and its over in his mind. The saddle pad will eat him and the world is going to come to an end.
Ok, so we slow it down some more and we work with the pad up above his head, around his head, above my shoulder, and so on. He calmed down quite quickly when he realized that the pad isn't eating me, him, or going to fall down on him from the ceiling. Once again, after the pad issue he saddles just like he should and everything is right in the world with Memphis.
Lunge him with the saddle on just to look at him move with it on and make sure he is ok with the world again before I get ready to ride. Once the bridle goes on he is annoyed. I can see his ears go back into an annoyance stance, not pissed, just annoyed. No tail swishing, no stomping, no ear pinning, or anything of the sort that would indicate to me I've got a firecracker on my hands. Just a "not this crap again" look. Memphis is not a fan of the barn, but its what I have to do until the arena dries out from all the rain. I don't have an option of just not riding him like I've had in the past. Sigh.
Get mounted up on him and he stands just like he should. Then we start off at a nice walk. A trail walk, dog walk, or walk whatever you want to call it it was slow. I was not looking for speed, so when he started to speed up he got slowly checked back down to the walk.
My goal was to work on steering only with him. So, I was not looking for speed here just looking for the correct direction. My requests were made with leg, neck rein, then direct rein. I was consistent in what I was doing and never strayed from what I was asking him. He got heavy leg first, then neck rein pretty much immediately with the leg, and lastly with the direct rein. He knows that when I ask with the leg its a push over to the other side, he got that really quickly when we worked on it before I got pregnant. So when I'm pushing I am already asking him to move over, then I combine that with the neck rein to tell him to turn. Eventually I would like to stop with so much leg and just use neck reining, but right now he is 75-80% at best with consistency on neck reining.
We worked on figure 8's and some mid direction changes for about 30 minutes. I then changed it up a bit and asked for some speed for a lap or two around the barn just to give him something else to do.
I did notice a few things in this ride since I was doing more thinking in this ride than my previous ones. He for one has an issue with right hand turns. For whatever reason in his mind right hand turns mean speed up. Left hand turns do not. Now this could be anything from him just being silly, a pain issue, or a refusal attempt. We did quite a bit of right hand turns to try to figure something out. I started with myself first, such as am I accidentally moving a leg, am I sitting differently, is my foot bumping him, is something on the saddle rubbing him, and anything else I could think of. I've noticed as well that he tends to do this in the beginning of the ride and will cease it once he gets warmed up and gets a few checks from me.
The only other thing we did was backing under saddle. This one he still does not quite understand, but it is also something he has only attempted 2-3 times under saddle. He'll get better at it I'm sure with time.
Otherwise this ride, in my mind, went quite well. Near the end of steering work it was clicking in his mind that the rein placed on his neck is a left or right turn. It wasn't a pretty turn, but I'm not expecting perfection just yet, just a acknowledgment that he is starting to understand. He took a step back under saddle when asked.
None of it was completely pretty, but I'm working VERY hard to work out the kinks with him. I am seeing progress from him being ridden by me 2-3 times a week. More progress than I thought. On Sunday I fully expect him to move off of just the neck reining instead of leg and neck. I will also expect a little easier transition into backing than Weds night.
He's a good boy.
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