No pictures...

I know, I know, I keep saying that I will post pics and then never do. Today i have a good reason, Joe has the camera. ;)

Ok so I'm 25 right? Not quite mature enough for the best reasoning ability ever but just quite dumb enough to take a stupid risk. And do I ever take them ;)

So, Friday I mucked, groomed, and lunged Dodge. We also had a small "coming to god" moment. Upon lunging she decided in mid-canter that she was going into her stall and so she bolted. Right into her stall. What a bitch. That's fine, thats fine. I followed her ass into the stall next to hers for safety in case she threw a tantrum and bumped her with the lunge whip. She was NOT being hit with it. I was just bumping her with it. Her ears are all pinned back, she's all pissed off, snorting at me, stomping her foot. She then decided that its would probably be a good idea to go back out of the stall after my voice went really gruff.

We then picked up where we left off like nothing at all had happened. Which I feel was probably the best thing I could have done. She got out of the stall, there is no need to reprimand at that point, she's already done what I asked her to do. I feel I would have confused her if I did continue to be mean to her and the whatnottery.

I then bridled her, because that's my weak point and I just want to work with her on that. And walked her all around. Removed the bridle and got a wild hair up my ass to get on her back. All I had was a lead rope.

Did I mention I'm 25?

Did I mention I take stupid risks?

Did I mention that desicions that I make are not always the best?

Well we sat there for a minute and I gave her a small cluck. She walked! I then immediatly said whoah and got off.

So today we repeated Friday's steps except I left the bridle on and rode her with the reins. HOLY SHIT SHE HAS SOME WIERD ASS GAITS. I left it at walk in trot since I didn't have a saddle to ride in. Well I do, but I didn't feel like dragging it out. We stopped the ride after about 5 minutes. She was starting to get frustrated with me I think just telling her what to do so I asked her to walk then stop and hopped off. I'm trying ot reward her with doing the right thing by stopping everything I ask her to do when she does what I ask her to do. It seems to be working and she seems to trust me.

Gosh she is too effing cute! How did I end up with something so awesome!

I love her.

Thoughts

I didn't go see Dodge yesterday. I was totally going to, then I realized that I will be down there on that side of town today. I really didn't want to use that gas twice. The stall will be uber gross when I get there today, but that's why I'm 25......

So the last few days me and Buck have been running outside. It's been awesome and yesterday I actually made it a full 20 minutes without stopping! I haven't done that in months! Suprisingly I feel fine! Buck is happy to be getting an extra cup of food every day and I'm happy to be getting exercise. I question why I ever stopped running... its such a stress realiver.

Don't read any further if you hate sad shit:

So I get back from running and start walking around the back yard trying to cool down al ittle before I go inside. I had my little Sony Bean (sadly, they quit making those) on and listening to the radio. The song "Cowgirls Don't Cry" came on. I started thinking. Oh Shit. The wedding is coming up on me really fast. I have no idea what I should be doing because I'm awesome like that.

I started thinking about my dad though. About all the shit he dragged me through, all the blaming games we did, and his total abandonment on the family. But, there is still a very tiny part of me that still loves him. Still remembers hugging him when he got home from work. Still remembers him when he was in his right mind.

I wanted last night to write him a letter. To basically tell him where I'm at right now in my life and while I wish he was there at the wedding, how I just can't do it. I almost did it. I was >< that close. I couldn't though. The letter would turn into a major emo fest and then where would I be?

I love my father so much, but the hurt that I've endured throughout the years isn't worth it. He comes back into my life only to walk away again. I know that by writing him, I may get a response of like 2 weeks. Only to be let down again when he quits contact. I'm tired of chasing people around to get attention. I really am.

I miss you Dad.

This weekend and other muesings

First up, the horse of horses: Dodge.

I looked up how to reregister her into my name. $100 bucks! I am going to have to sit on that for a bit. I am getting her papers with the transaction from the old owner, but do I really need to move them over? I see two points to this.

1.) No, don't reregister her into my name. I plan on keeping her till she dies, not showing her, and using her for pleasure only.

2.) Yes, transfer the papers. What if I can't keep her in the future? What if we decide to do trail riding competitions? I will need papers to sell her to a good home and will need them for competition work.

I'm on the fence with both ideas. I really don't know. Hopefully the owner is home tonight and I can inform her of the next month and what will be happening with the vet and then the move. I'm so excited for my little girl. I forgot the camera at home today........ If I remember on the way to the barn I'll grab it. Otherwise this blog will have to wait until Saturday for pics.

Chickens:

Joe and I are thinking of buying some chickens. For nothing other than eggs. No roosters! Just 5 pullets. We eat so many eggs at home and after looking up the price of chickens and cost of ownership, it's kinda a no brainer. So I'm trying to find somebody to go in with me on some chickens. But that is few and far in between.

Marriage:

Joe and I paid our marriage "fee" as Joe calls it yesterday. $35 bucks to KY just to say yes we can get married. That is nuts!

Weekend:

Joe is leaving this weekend for trip with one of our friends. I'm excited to have a weekend to myself. All. To. Myself. I am going to have a date with myself on Saturday. Maybe grill some seafood and lounge on the couch with the dogs. Yeah, I know, don't get too crazy!

Two posts in one day again!

I have secured the boarding stable!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so freaking excited! She is ok with July and said she would much rather have me as a boarder because my horse is older. I think I mentioned that she doesn't want to take younger horses anymore. Who know's, this may turn out to be a beautiful relationship! She also wants me to wait on the teeth floating so that she can just do her horses and mine all at once in July since their due anyway. That works out fine and dandy for me.

I also have secured the Vet! June 11th she is going to come out, do a checkup, and get all the shots in order for Dodge's move. Everything is working out just like I want it to! I'm so happy! Dogde is getting to the point where she is easily handled, the vet I want is going to see her, I have a farrier that I really like, and she is going to be boarded where I want her to be. What else could be coming together more perfectly for my old mare! Now I just need to inform the old owner of all of this.

I'm also thinking of changing her feed a little. I'm not sure if I will keep her on "feed" and grain since she will be switching to all pasture in about a month. So I'm pretty sure I'll just keep feeding hay pellets, hay, and the green stuff outside. But I think I am going to pick up a bag of the high fat feed supplement as a top dress to help finish filling her out. I love my horse! I told myself I wouldn't do it... but damnit! She has just completely nuzzled her way in.

Awwww

I should have taken my camera out with me yesterday! She was totally adorable!

I'm not sure if she had been fed though since the last time I was there...... I'm sure she had to have been right? She was super ready to jump out the stall once I clipped that lead rope on her. She tried to bolt out of there once, but I don't put up with that shit. A gruff voice and a push back into her stall later, she walked calmly out of the stall and to the green stuff outside.

I got stuff moving with getting everything done. I'm sorta in a routine now. Let her out, muck the stall, groom, relax, play with her, and then put her up. It's done in about an hour. Yesterday I took my time getting stuff done though, just to let her be outside a little longer.

She knows where I tie her now for grooming and yesterday she followed me right over to the post. I gave her a few loves and pats and then got into getting her groomed. She always lays on the same side in her stall, it's always so gross. The little rubber curry i bought is the best thing for plowing through the muck though. Her hooves are looking better! The thrush is almost all gone! She still has almost no frog on that front right hoof, but in general they are looking awesome. She is also back into the lifting routine. It's so cute! I always start on the front left hoof, then back left, then back right, then front right. Now when I get done with the front left and start walking to the back, she has already lifted her back leg. How cute is that!

I lunged her for a bit yesterday too. It was hot though so the session was only 5-7 minutes. Not wanting to wear her out when she is out of shape! We also have walk down! Yay! Now we are going to start cluck for "trot" and kiss for lope. I made the commands a little confusing yesterday so I won't count that one with her as her fault. I was just looking for forward movement.

We also worked together on bridling. She did awesome! I don't want to have issues once saddling is something I'm ready to do so we are just slowly reintroducing different aspects of it. She is a freaking sweet sweet horse!

I gave her 2 flakes of hay yesterday and her senior feed. I also added a salt lick into her stall, WHICH SHE WAS TOO CUTE OVER. She would take a bite of feed and then a lick of the salt. It was so adorable! Gosh dangit! She is just sweet as pie! I'll take my camera on Thursday to show off the greatness that she is.

The feed store had no chicks. That is a good thing.

Dang

The feed store is not open today. Dang. I am happy I dropped off that bag of senior feed over there yesterday, that way the owner has a way to give her food. She still has plenty of hay and I felt bad yesterday because I didn't grab another bale from the loft. I seriously couldn't, my toe was searing in pain. I hope the owner was able to get up there, if not I'll get a bale down tomm. The good thing about that senior feed is that it is a complete feed. So as long as the owner gives her enough feed today, she won't need the hay. She'll survive for a day.

So let me tell you about my toe and then let me tell you how bad I felt after she stepped on it. I think I mentioned on here that I broke it a few weekends ago. Stupid act on my part and yes, lots of the devils elixir was involved. I didn't just break it though, I skinned it almost to the bone in the knuckle part of the toe. I'd show you the picture, but I'll save you your lunch that was probably quite delicious.

It was about 89% healed. Bending it still required alot of effort but the bruising had pretty much gone away and it didn't hurt to wear shoes. So yesterday I was returning her to her stall after her groom and she tried to run over me to get in there. I promptly did our "I'm better than you" exercise. Which is where I stand in front of her and push her ass back. I think she was super duper hungry as it didn't appear she had been fed yet, so I'll at least let her slide there.

When I pushed her back all was fine and she took a step foward toe readjust her balance. That step landed on my foot. I was in a ton of pain but suprisingly very calmly asked for back. She didn't move so I started to push her. Still didn't move. So all I had in my hand was her lead rope and I gave her a very firm whack. She moved back off of my foot and after I regained my senses (she stood quietly while I was in total pain) I then gritted my teeth and gave her a pat, scratch, and a good girl.

I put her in her stall and had Joe get her feed. I gave her a flake of hay and told her she was a gooooooodddd girl. While I was standing there Joe said I should probably take a look at the foot to make sure it wasn't anything bad going on. Low and behold after I took my shoe off my sock was soaked in blood. That nice little gash I had on my foot got reopened. Great. Suprisingly she didn't break my toe as it has a normal happy healthy color to it. I bandaged it up really well and it looks super. All except it looks like rats got ahold of my toe and gnawed on it for an hour. I'm doing really good!

I really did feel bad about whacking her, but I gave her a verbal cue, a more aggressive pushing cue, and then the last resort was the whack. I then turned around and praised her for the backwards motion. I gritted my teeth and then went on like nothing happened. I just hope that was all the right way to deal with the situation.

Yesterday when I got there she was out in the "pasture" eating grass. Which made it easy for me because I could get right to her stall. I had walked out to say hello to her and the second she saw me she came right to me. She just trotted right over to me very happy to see me. She got lots and lots of pets and talking to because of that.

Her grocery list includes hay extender pellets and a salt lick. She was licking the fencing while I was grooming her so I think I am going to start providing her with salt. I also need to worm her again and am going to see if the feed store doesn't have the Quest wormer.

Other than that she stands quietly for grooming and now associates me with happy stuff. It also helps I have treats usually for her. She is a complete and total whore for the apple treats. She has also started talking to me. I find it totally cute. She just nickers and nickers whenever I do something that she likes. Like when I take the curry comb and rub it behind her jaw. Good lord, she is in total love.

Lunging is going really well. We worked on walk on Friday. She did quite well but has alot of energy when on the lunge line so it's a little hard to keep her focused.

Oh Horse

So Friday I went to see Dodge. I show up and she is in the gross stall, the one I am trying to keep her out of. I'm like wtf? Look in the stall I like and what do I see? Oh she took a crap in her water trough! Oh Horse. So I had to drain it, pull it out, clean it all out again, and fill it back up. I just did that on Tuesday! Shoot me! Oh well, all s well.

Yesterday me and Joe went to go take our CCDW tests! We passed! Now we have to wait a million years for the state to send us our notification that we can carry, but for the moment we have the first step down. I'm so excited!

Then Joe's younger brother called............. and I sayed up till 3 am just partying with those two and the friends that showed up. I think Joe was up till 5am. Freaking insanity!!

Went to see Dodge again today. She stands very nicely for grooming and she gets lots of treats and love. Joe helped groom her as well, well as much as he could. I also found quite a few ticks on her so I am going to have to start looking into tick products as well. She had the lone star ticks on her which are known to carry Lyme disease. So I am going to have to watch her and myself for these little critters.

Spoke to the vet on Thursday about her and the earliest the vet can get out is mid June. Frustrating, but I want her as Dodge's vet so I will have to wait to move Dodge till July now. Sigh. It's ok though, I'm waiting on my background check to come through on my second job so I should be better off then anyway. So it's not exactly a bad thing.

Also need to check and see if the feed store is open tomorrow. I need to get the horse some more hay pellets and get the dogs some dog food. All the while trying to resist the cute little chickens. Must resist chickens.

Resist!

Dodge also stepped on me today. It was a total accident but oh my god did it hurt. I had already a bum toe and she made it even more bum. She ripped off the scab on the toe too so that hurts even more. Oh horses.

Lunging

So before I put Dodge up yesterday we lunged for about 10 minutes. I've done this twice now, each time giving her little clucks, maybe a kiss, and kinda letting her do her own thing.

I am going out there tomorrow and we are going to work on walk. Nothing else. I am going to put her one the lunge line and ask for a walk. I am going to put the whip facing towards the ground and just follow her. She likes to just start "trotting" or whatever that gait is that they do.

I am going to ask for the walk then shut down. I will keep her moving forward but I want her to understand that I want her to walk. Not "trot", not lope. If she shuts down completely I will move her forward again. I am not asking for a fast gait. I am simply asking for her to walk. This is somewhat backwards from what she is doing and I have a feeling it is going to take alot of time for her to understand I am not asking for speed. I am just asking for a walk.

She does well with the shut down, she wants to stop. So I am going to attempt to shut down almost all the way. I read a 1,2,3 method on another blog for horse training and I am going to apply it to her here. But in this training aspect I don't want alot of forward movement and hopefully she will understand that I am not asking for a crapton of movement. Hopefully when she realizes that I am not clucking, raising my voice, or flicking that whip, that she will relax.

If she gets it,then we'll move to another gait. Just right now we need to work on her walk. This will help me with leading I know. It's not just lunging its groundwork for her. Leading is getting alot better. She stands quietly at the stall door now. She still pushes me a little but now knows if she pushes me I push harder. Her owner commented on how Dodge is understand who I am and her attitude towards me is begining to change. Which is a good thing.

Yesterday after I got done mucking out her stall, I felt like crap so I sat down in a chair to just rest for a minute. She came right over to me and nuzzled her head in my lap. I know she was looking for a treat, which she got, but it was still really sweet. After that she never walked to far away from me and always wanted to know where the treats were every few minutes. I think I am making some headway in the treat giving dept training. ;)

For being 19 she is still sharp as a whistle and a quick quick learner. I love her to death. ;)

I feel like ass!

So Monday I was cleaning the bathroom and getting all the nitty gritty out of the toilet and sink. (still need to scrub the tub... but that is my least favorite thing to do...) Joe comes in and starts talking to me while I'm doing it and sticks his hand up my shirt to give me a backscratch while he is talking.

Have I ever mentioned my love of backscratches?

Yes. I love them.

He then mention's casually, "Oh by the way there is a tick on your back." Like it is no big deal. It happens every day. I totally saw that 4 days ago and just never got around to getting it off. NOT.

So I begin to flip out and he is like its "ok". He gets some tweezers, yanks it out, and gives me a kiss for not being the biggest baby in the world. (even though I was.....)

So yesterday I wake up with a horrid sore throat. I mean horrid. I feel like ass. My whole body just feel exhausted, like I'm forcing myself to walk. I want to go back to bed, but forced myself into work. To which I left at 10:30........ I just felt horrible.

I knew I had to go see the horse to pick and muck the stall so I went straight there to take care of that and then went back home to retreat on the couch for the rest of the day. So that night Joe was itching my back again, did I mention I loved that? Just checking. And once again, he mentions in passing "oh look the spot where the tick bit you is really inflamed...." WTH Joe. Don't act like its a big deal or anything!

So now I'm flipping it. There is no rash... just a big red itchy bump. I immediatly get on the interwebs to research everything I can about tick bites. I have concluded one of two things: 1.) I have some sort of disease that I can't pronounce or 2.) I am having a nice allergic reaction to the bite. The symptoms started too fast to be Lyme disease which normally takes 7-30 days to show up. The allergic reaction could be from the saliva from the tick being deposited into me upon removal. Or I have the weird tick disease. I am not sure which.

I know this morning my throat is still sore and I feel like I'm on antihistamines. Like my body is really cranking them out. I don't feel quite as bad as yesterday but my back is super itchy at the bite site. So I think what I am going to do is sit on this and wait. I'll see how I feel tomorrow. I'm guessing allergy to the bite. The site of the bite did reduce in size this morning so that may be a good sign.

From here on out though, I'm picking up some of the that P repellent stuff (isn't that descriptive) and soaking my clothes in it before seeing the horse. This is insanity!

This weekend...

So I know I grazed this subject. I'll just leave it as this weekend was fun and crazy!!!

Anywho, I went to visit Dodge yesterday. I had this plan to give her a bath and her mane and tail brushed out. I had got the bath part down but then she started shivering. In her defense, it was about 65F and the water was cold. So instead of making her stand there wet while I get her tail conditioned and brushed, I squeeg'd her off and put her in the pasture. I don't like her shivering. I let her dry off while I mucked out the stall and put down fresh hay, feed, and pellets. I need to clean out her water trough..... probably do that on Tuesday.

The shavings plan is working! The rest of the stall is staying dry and I just come in and remove the wet shavings and spread more. I'm so elated its begining to work! Even through all the rain I haven't moved her to a new stall at all, she's still in the same one. Yay!

I also bought stuff for her thrush and that crap stinks. Not as bad as thrush, but dang! She stood real nice for that even though at one point I had to lift the same hoof twice. Poor thing!

As you could see in the previous post, she is looking AWESOME. Go back to when I started posting pics till now, holy crap. She is gaining weight! I did a tape measure on her yesterday and she is about 950lbs. I would like her to be at 1000-1100. My pretty girl.

I got her a big 25lb bag of "apple treats". They smell like fig bars. They are her new crack I think. She likes them better than apples! I love it! Yesterday we did our first real lunging lesson. Only 5 minutes though, I'm not trying to kill her. I'd like to work it up to about 10 and then just work with it from there, but not over 10 for a bit. We need to work on walk. She likes to just "trot" or whatever it is that TWH do. She has a gorgeous canter though. Holy hell.

I'm pretty sure she liked it, she even got a little squirly. I cannot wait to hop on her! I know I must wait.

I wrote a TB farm today as well. Looks like their needing PT help. Would be nice to do something like that. Get a veiw at a totally different industry and get exercise all while getting paid! I hope they respond to my email.

Craziness!

So this weekend was a blast! Friday, I broke my toe. I know, gross. It hurts like a mofo. I want to go to the doctor but know he will just tell me to tape and live. Therefore.......... I am going to just tape and live.

My mother came in on Saturday and we hung out.

Today I went to see Champ and Dodge. Joe really wants Champ (another horse) I'm on the fence. I want something more competative than Champ. We'll see.

Here is updated Dogde pics! I'll give a full update tomm!@

" I swear to God, those better be apple treats..."

"Oh really? You don't have any? Then why am I associating with you?"

"I'm done with you"

"I'm just going to walk away now, unless you do something different"

"Oh, now you're following me? At least you smell like a treat.... I guess..."

Few Changes and the whatnottery

I have changed the colors of the blog. I am not sure if I will keep it or not. My ADD may kick in and change it. I just couldn't take the starkness of the white anymore.
I also changed the heading. Link still the same, heading is different. I figured this blog is becoming one of two things:

A place for me to gush about all the cute pictures I have of my dog.

A place for me to gush about my wonderful new horse.

Whichever comes first. I have also noticed I haven't posted a picture of my dog in a while! Blasphemey!

"me? Momma! You talking about me???"

"I mean, I know I am all cute and stuff. I'm suprised you would neglect me"

"I'll let you slide this time. I'm going to fall asleep now in my 'bed'. Make an awesome post all about me!!!"

Now granted those were pictures taken from all over the place, but you can just feel the cuteness seething off of my dog. He knows he is cute, I know it, you know it, and everyone who meets him knows it. He has a complex called cuteness. Even though he ate all the hamburger buns today, (which is a noteworthy side edit: a 90lb dog can and will get on your counters...) I still believe he is the best thing since sliced bread.

Oh Bucket.

HA! Two posts in one day again!

My sister wrote an article on horse abuse! http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1702735/horse_neglect_in_indiana_and_what_you.html?cat=8

I kinda got her turned on a little to horses through this horse. She had no idea some of the problems that horses can have and once I started describing conditions and what not she began to take notice. So much so, that she applied for a volunteer position with horses!

Leading

So I have been researching leading. Like I have said many times, I'm such a horse noob. So like when I tiled the backsplash, figured out my dog was sick, planted a garden, or anything else that I don't know how to do, I turned to the internet. In my many adventures on the internet I have found alot of crap and alot of good information.

That being said, my training techniques with dogs is simple. I have a treat. You do what I want you get the treat. Then we gradually wean off of treats and the dog is doing things for me for the pure reward of it. I don't beat my dogs nor yell at them during training. It is ineffective and frustrates both the dog and me. Shadow is now at the point (being 13) that she needs to be almost retrained. She is 80% deaf and so now we have been working with hand commands instead of voice. It is working out quite well.

Buck was taught at a very early age the basics. He still needs to work on the recall back to me. But this is my fault, not his. Once he got the basic commands down and decided that this family was for him, he really isn't all that bad of a dog. I just kinda quit with the training. He got 3 solid months of sit, stay, lay, and come. I started training him to search but for some reason or another quit. I may start that back up, he seemed to enjoy that during training.

So, back to my point here. I am not an advocate of pain. Have I ever hit my dogs? Sure! If they are not paying attention to me and I need them to pay attention to me, they get a smack. Not a punch, not a hard hit, just a "Oh! Mom wants me to pay attention to her! Not this delicious dead rabbit I found!" I call it my pecking order is higher than theirs issue.

Take for instance, once Buck got a rabbit. Then Shadow got the rabbit, then Buck, then Shadow. Eventually once I realized that they were playing this back and forth game, I stepped in and said "Drop". Both dogs dropped the rabbit and took 2-3 steps back. I am higher than them in the order of life here and they know it. If I want the rabbit to eat for dinner well then by god I can have it. They have no control over it. (I killed the rabbit btw, the dogs had pretty much destroyed it by that point. Again, I did not realize what they were doing till too late)

So, reading about how to lead Dodge. I know horses are herd animals. It's a little different than dogs and their packs. Being that horses don't hunt in packs or anything.... but the mentality of the pack has to still be there. Start with a high ranking person and stop at the lowly leper. I need to be at the top of the pecking order. Right now Dodge is under the assumption that she is higher than me and I am pretty sure is challeging me.

So I look up leading. Did I mention I'm not a pain fan? I found everything from putting the stud chain back on to carrying a whip and smacking her with it every time she does something wrong. I am NOT putting the stud chain back on her. She does not need it. I don't see the point in doing it with her. She is not out of control at all. Just has some leadership issues.

I also read of jerking her head every time she does something wrong. Once again, I am NOT going to jerk hard on the halter every time something is wrong. Why the hell would I pull and jerk all over her head. She will just think, wow, this lady likes to pull on my head every five seconds. Let me not let her halter me at all. And if she does jerk on my head, lets start going nuts.

What will I do? Exactly what I've been doing which is working. She wants to run me over? That's cool. But we've addressed each issue lately.

1.) The attempting to bolt out of the stall. This was almost completely fixed by standing in front of the stall door and letting her calm down first. If she tried to bolt once I let her have an opening I pushed her back into the stall. Rinse and Repeat. 4 days of the same method and by god she is so much better. Still needs more work but she is now not running over me.

2.) Walking on the lead with respect. Like I mentioned before, we did lots of stops. If she started to overrun me, well, we stopped. I'd grab her halter and give her a gruff "woah". No jerking needed just a little stop. Then we'd start again. Rinse and Repeat. If I needed her attention, remember that lead rope? It's got that little cap on the end as I mentioned and she would get a little pop with it. It doesn't hurt, I hit myself with it first, but its enough to bring her back down to me. I've also pushed her a little. If she gets over excited, well then I take over as pack and push her ass back. 4 days later she is getting better. Again, no stud chain, no jerking on her face, and no beating. This really isn't that hard.

With her hooves being done I may start lunging her for about 5-10 minutes every time I'm out there. Just to get her to bend again and listen to me. She does quite well now with "woah" and now remembers that this means "stop". Haha, I didn't even have her on the lead rope yesterday and remember that game I was talking about? The one where I am getting her to come over to me? I got a wild hair up my butt and asked her to woah mid walking over to me. She totally stopped and stood there. When I asked for the walk, she continued over to me for her treat. Awesome! Just like a dog.

Again, the treats will taper off and she will then be getting pats and non treat positive reinforcement. She went from totally unhandled for 2 years and with a stud chain on her nose because the owner didn't want her to "run over her" to stopping mid field because I asked her to.

I'm not a trainer..... but I'm pretty sure that is some headway. Not saying I'm this miracle worker either. There was a time when she was trained......I'm just refreshing what she already knew. I need her to see me as leader and I think I'm getting that from her.

I am really not one to post twice in a day....

But! My pretty girl stood sooooooooo well for the farrier!!!! She took it like a champ! Her feet look awesome!!!!!! I was terrified of founder, white line disease, or other hoof related ailments. But, turns out her hooves are still in great shape! He said they looked really good for as long as its been after the trim and to make sure I get some Copper something to put on the frog. I'm soo happy for my little girl! I know I know, I didn't get any pics. I digress. I will take some when I am out there on Weds.

We worked on our game today. This time sometimes she didn't get treats. I think she is getting it though. Me = good. We also worked on walking. I found that the end of the lead rope has a little cap on it. She got dinged with that at least 3 times. She is walking much better though. Who thought 2 days of working with her would work out so well!

Then Julie shows up. She has not seen the horse since I started working with her. You should have seen her amazment. It felt so good to hear that the horse looks amazing. She said it even looks like she is getting weight back on. WWWWWWOOOOOOOOTTTTTT!!! I feel so awesome after that comment.

I mean I know she has put on weight. You can tell. Between the first meet and greet and now 3 weeks later she is starting to look better. I am going to continue giving her grain. Extra hay pellets and work on 1-3 hours of grazing every time I'm there.

Love.

Beginner Mistakes

Reading the recent blog on Fugly had me thinking. I have two big ones.

1.) Leaving the lead rope on with her loose and grazing. What a dumb idea on my part. Not anymroe.

2.) Thinking the owner knew best. My gut feeling screams no on that one. Riding her on Saturday really made me angry but I really can't lose my head till I can move her. I don't want to risk losing her.

So, that's where I'm at. I'm supposed to meet the farrier today at 6pm. I'm past elated!!! Yay! I'll be sure to get pics to post, since it is the right thing to do. ;) I want to hit the feed store after I leave work but that depends on the time I get to that side of town. I really am not minding a 30 minute drive. I also need to put in an order for hay pellets there. She is almost out. Need to find hay too, I'm hoping the feed store can help me there.

I need to check out the unused stall in the barn. If it is safe I am going to start sticking her in that one too. The far end stall is too far gone at the moment and needs to dry out for like weeks. I've gotta get her hooves looking good again. I hope she stands nice for this trim.

Yesterday I made up some random exercise to just work with her. It was called "I'm not big, bad, or evil. I have treats." Basically it went something like this. If I walked up to her I wanted her to notice me and then walk over to me. If she did, she got a treat. If she didn't, then I would walk a little closer to her and get her attention. By the third time she got it. If she walked over to me she got a treat. She loves to work for food. Hehe.

I need to work on her walking skills on the lead rope. She wants to just get all in front of me and walk faster than I am. It's bad when she knows its time to go into the stalls because she almost wants to overrun me to get in the stall. We're doing a stop and stand. She can't move till I move. I really don't know if this is the best approach, because I'm such a newb. If there are idea's out there for this, let me in on that secret!

New pics!

I went back out yesterday to look at the girl. Torrential downpour the day before + no stall cleaning since I was out on Weds.......... that stall was gross. Took me about 1.5 hours to get it "clean". There is so much more mucking to do in that stall. Sigh. I am going to scrape the other stall and put her in that today since it is drier. Then muck/scrape the other one and rotate her back in forth. The stalls can't handle not being mucked at all!

I let her graze forever. Then the owner decided to ride her............... It was short........ about 5 minutes......... and it put a crack in her hoof. Joy. Thank god the farrier is coming out on Monday. I just cannot figure out what to think of the owner. She seems so knowledgable about the horses, yet doesn't see the problems. I just don't understand that.

Oh well, the girl is sweet and for not being ridden in about 2 years she did quite well. I also went to go check out a boarding stable. The lady was extremely nice. But the sight itself I don't know. There was one horrid horse on the way in. Which the barn owner said was 40 years old and is getting fed 5 times a day. He looked really rough. Then there was the horse in the feild with the horrid crack in its hoof. She was completely lame. Didn't even want to walk. The barn owner tried to move her in but that wasn't going to happen. Then said she'll get her after I leave................but never made mention of the mare again.

The fences were 1/2 barb and 1/2 barbless. I'm just not sure what to think really. I have a not so great feeling in my gut. I'm pretty sure gut feelings are usually the best feelings right? I'm going to another barn on Tuesday. This one is more expensive, but........... the pictures look promising. We'll see. Anywho...... updated pics.

"MMMMMMMMM Grass! This is the good stuff!!!!"

"I'm watching you because I know what is in your pockets...... those tasty apple/carrot treats..."

"Wait! You want to give me one of those!!!! EEEEEEE My life is complete!"

"By the way, that guy you keep talking about? Have him come out here soon!"

Step 2 in the many chapters of Dodge

The farrier is set to come out on Monday!!!!!!!! I was going to have the old owner do it with me, but I think to ease the burden off of her, I'll just pay the $25 for a trim and have a person come out to do it. That way I don't have to feel like I'm pushing her to do anything. I did explain to him that she is underweight and hasn't had the hooves done in probably a year. He agreed a trim is best and I will probably stick her on a 4-6 week schedule until the hooves grow back out and reform themselves. No feet no horse!

I am also taking my last *sniff* riding lesson on Saturday. I am really hating to break this to my instructor and I don't really want to do this. But, to give Dodge a better quality of life, I have to make some cutbacks in leisure stuff. I've been going to Frances for over a year! I will have to basically make a commitment to come back to her when I am able to. I have so much going on! I still want to buy Chex and will let her know that and I want to board Dodge with her. But I need to focus on Dogde and only Dogde for a bit.

Oh and remember that whole marriage thing? Tiny updates: I purchased our rings. Titanium is what I got for the both of us. Won't match the ring I have now, but that is really ok. It's the same band, just not in gold, and in a different metal. Joe got the same band as well but wanted the brushed look to it, so that is what I did for him. I am going to have to send the boys off for manual labor at the farm since I am going to start working my second job next week. Gotta get the barn ready for the wedding! I need to call Larry, that is my goal next week, to get it all squared away with him.

Need to figure out microphones which I will call next week to look around for rentals there. And I want to change the napkin colors for the tables in the barn. Will have to probably meet up with Mindy at the rental place for that. Other than those few things, the wedding is pretty much planned out. How freaking crazy is that?

Dodge and the second job...

So, I went and saw her again last night. This will be a large occurance for me, just so you know. (for whomever reads this) I took a horsey friend with me just to giver her a look over and see if she sees what I see. She is just as in love with Dodge. Her hooves are getting easier to pick. I let my friend do it as she was a little more aggressive than I am at picking them. Looks better but now we really NEED to get them clipped. I guess if I go out on Friday I'll talk to the owner then. Otherwise I am going to go on Saturday since I will be on that side of town anyway.

I got a call from the second job place. They want to hire me for PT manager instead of a lowly clerk. Which is awesome because that means more monies! Woot!

Hopefully I can start next week and that would put me in the place to move my pretty girl here really really soon. Lush pastures for all!

I got her some senior grain last night. I'm going to keep it in my car and just give her a little every time I'm there. Along with the slow grass feeding I've been doing I hope this helps her body readjust to things, so when I throw her out on a field it isn't such a shock to her system. Even after a slow reintroduction period.

Total cuteness last night too. I put some grain and water in her feed bowl when we took her out of the stall so it would become mash while we were outside. We put her back in her stall and she happily ate and I stuck around to make sure that she was gonna be ok with it. Then we kinda petted her and talked to her a bit and then said our goodbyes.

She didn't want us to leave. It was so sad. I'm going to spend alot of time with her on Saturday, hopefully finding nippers and getting the owner tospend an hour with me clipping clipping clipping.

Dodge and I talk to the owner

So I finally got a chance to speak to the owner tonight and things have gone well. She seemed relieved that I would be taking her! She was also very nice and we sat around talking for 1-2 hours. I am not going to be mean or anything about this and will remain humble towards her. Like I said, I am not a nasty person, shit happens, she realized it, and we are both working towards the better.

She said she would help me with her feet if I would hold her and what not. Apparently she used to keep the feet in tip top shape and showed me alot of stuff even I didn't know about the feet. It's slightly sad the lady is so knowledgable about the whole thing but still doesn't do anything. But that is where I come in :) I told her I would help her tackle the hooves and do anything she asked as far as those go. So hopefully this week we can find the nippers and get clipping!

I let her graze for about 20-30 minutes, I want her body to slowly get used to green stuff again. I do not want to deal with colic. I told the owner I would be out both days on the weekends and every other day during the week. (basically Tues and Thurs) She seemed happy about that and said I can do whatever I want with her.

Joe was also equally as happy about this and brought up buying Chex. If Dodge turns out to be bombproof this could be an awesome combination. Chex is not bombproof and will require alot of handling on my part. But, if Dodge is sweet enough, she might be a great mount for Joe that may help satisfy his "fast" gene. We'll see.

I'm thrilled everything is working out. So here are pics. She is skinny, I know, I am going to measure her out to do the little weight calculation tomm or wends. She is NOT downhill as appears in the pic. She is actually standing downhill. Hehe. Trust me, I looked at the pic four times and then it dawned on me. I'm going to pick up a bag of senior grain and we're going to very slowly do that like I said. Maybe half a can if that. Just get some weight on her!

Pasture Boarding

K, talked to a lady on the phone today that does pasture board. She seems smart and knowledgable on the phone. Her website had one spelling mistake, so I may let her slide. She has a slow month long boarding program to re-adjust a horse to eating grass. Which is a relief to me! I am going out to visit her on Saturday after my lesson or before it. Not quite sure which.

I explained the situation to her and she seemed to know exactly what to do and how to help her. So, that is +1. Insanity. Big ol' Angel (Dogde) has no idea what I'm doing for her in the background but I hope this works out for the absolute best. I really do. I hope Danny gets my application thing today so I can start working for him.

I'll update as soon as I know something new!

New Horsey updates and other muesings

On Friday I visisted my new favorite horse again. I came more prepared and stopped by Kentucky Horse Supply before seeing her to get some supplies. 2 big bags of shavings, 1 lead rope (we had been using a lunge line), 2 containers of wormer, and 1 hoof pick with a brush. I had also picked up 2 apples after finding out that she does not care for carrots at all.

I groomed her all over again while she ate the grass around her. She looks sooooooo much better after that bath we gave her. I'm happy to say it looks like the hair is growing back! I am not sure if that was just a horrible need of grooming, my iodine/shampoo bath worked, or she is just happier having people out there that are paying attention to her. It could also be an all three combo working for her.

I am much happier having an actual lead rope for her as well. We were using a stud chain/lunge line before. I really didn't like it because the chain went over her nose. I'm not big on causing pain if I don't have to. Which, by the way, thank god I have taken all those lessons and thank god I have a trainer who is firm yet gentle with horses.

I needed to pick her hooves again and she gave me 1 hoof. The other ones she was just content on not giving me. At first she got a smack and a gruff "lift". That did nothing. She didn't even care. Joe was kinda like what do we do? Member all those circles I so lovingly talk so much about? I figured if she wasn't going to get it with a smack, she probably wouldn't do much with more hitting and/or pain. So I threw the idea out the window about that.

I took the lead rope and we did about 10 small circles much to her dismay. She tried to stop at about 3, but haha! She is NOT in control here, I am. I stopped her at 10 and had Joe hold her head up so she couldn't eat at the moment. While he was holding her I then tried to lift her feet. Success! I told Joe to let her go back to her favorite thing, eating, and I was able to lift all 3 hooves with no more resistance. I also gave her lots of apples and little apple treats for that. Kinda a breakthrough and I'm really happy about it.

Her hooves were much easier to pick this time around as well. Thank god. Now I just need to get the farrier out there and get to work on them. Which leads me to the stall. YUCK. I mucked for about an hour and I feel like I didn't even skim the surface. I got as much of the wet grossness as I could do before my body said stop. I laid out 2 bags of fresh pine shavings and called it a day. I figure if I can get a little bit more out at a time its better than nothing at this point. I need to get another bag of shavings and keep it in the tack shed for mucking.

She seemed really happy about the new shavings. I hope somehow I am brightening her spirits a little. But then again, anything is better than standing in shit all the time. I'm also going to pick up a bag of senior feed and instruct the owner to give her half a can of that a day as well as the hay and pellets. I want to slowly get her system used to grain, very slowly. Only because this poor girl has nothing to graze on or anything and we need some weight on her!

Which reminds me, she took the wormer quite nicely! I was expecting a fight! I had Joe hold the halter, which took him about 2 tries to really get it. For a man that has no horse experience, he sure is doing an awesome job with her. We measured the wormer, lifted her lip, and stuck it in. She took it like a champ and didn't spit it out. Yay! What an awesome mare!

I'm currently in the market for pasture boarding. I do not want her in a stall! I'm skimming everything for it. I want her to get fat and healthy on grazing in an open pasture and just be a horse. Sigh. I probably won't even tack her up for a year, let her hooves work themselves out. I also need to get a vet to get her her shots and give just a general checkup. I am trying so hard with her. I hope it all pays off. :)

Love.