Learn about equine nutrition

I don't know how I haven't mentioned this, but the University of Edinburgh's free equine nutrition course has just started on Coursera I took it last year and it's a great, basic course and you can do as little or as much of the course as you like. It's how I ended up hearing about their Equine Science Masters program, the one I am currently in. The Masters level nutrition course tried to kick my butt, but I finished it out with an A. I'm actually a TA for the online course, which is cool and frightening at the same time.

So, if you want to go learn some stuff take it :)

Four horse day

I haven't ridden four horses in a day since I stopped toiling in the desert as a working student. I am exhausted. It started out with riding the BN/N packer one of my pony clubbers is leasing. I am no longer envious of her having that horse. He might be a great jumper, but oh are his gaits weird and uncomfortable. He feels off, but he isn't. I have never appreciated Banana more after riding something so uncomfortable. After him I rode a friend's horse, another short strided uncomfortable ride.  Fortunately, the friend I was riding with wanted to switch, so I got to ride her very sensitive, adorable QH. Then I came home and rode Banana, checking the fence line.

And now I can write no more, as my brain is too tired.

Minis

Since acquiring Oliver I've been doing research on minis, to see if there's anything I need to know about them that I don't. It's astounding, actually frightening, how little horse knowledge the average mini owner has. Things like people with no horse experience buying pregnant mares. Asking for advice on their colicking horse on facebook instead of calling the vet. I could spend all day answering stuff on facebook (I really need to get off the facebook group. It just pisses me off.)

The best info I got from my vet: that they can't do rectals on them, so determining type of colic can be a bit difficult.

They're so damn cute though. And there's mini chariot races!

And mini jumping!

And of course, there's Oliver!

If only money grew on trees

My checking account has been perplexing as of late. Where was all the money going? Oh yeah, grad school. Even though I'm paying by the course, and I'm only taking one at a time, it's still not exactly cheap. It is completely depleting my horse fun budget. I didn't exactly think about that when I went on this, "Yay grad school!" track. Don't get me wrong, I really love the program I'm in. I just hadn't quite realized the implications of all the ways it was going to affect my life. For example: the friday Girls' Trail Ride was an hour and a half from me last week. That's three hours of gas. No ride for me. Some friends went to Albuquerque to school the XC course on Sunday: that's 8 hours of gas for the down and back, not to mention paying the trainer. No XC for me. Then I realized I won't be able to compete as much as I do, even though I barely get out. Nooooooo!

I can't imagine not going to St Johns in April. The event is always hanging on the edge of not being held due to lack of competitors. Despite being in the middle of nowhere with hellacious winds I really like it there. I find its middle of nowhere relaxing. At so many other events we're trying to get errands done because we're in civilization, or finding places to eat we don't have at home. There's only one restaurant in St Johns: a really good mexican place. There is nothing to do but be with your horse. I know the Pre-comp XC course so well I could draw you a map from memory. Of all the events I would want to go to this year it's #1. So, that's the one I should go to. But, I also have a free entry for Coconino...

Anyway, had a lovely bareback ride on Naners today. I think working on the stepping under in hand has really helped her. She carried herself quite nicely on a ride down the road yesterday and as well today with the bareback pad on. This gives me hope we won't need too much help this year, since as I said above, I'm not going to be able to afford it anyway. But! I can tell you what your horse should be eating and now I'm learning all about stereotypies (which is a word spell check is convinced doesn't exist. It does so!) Side note: fence walking, Banana's vice, is a locomotor stereotypie believed to be cause not by boredom, but by a horse's motivation to move (like towards another horse or food) is thwarted. Weaving is in the same category. Banana fence walks when she doesn't have enough of a herd with her. She was fine with Kokomo and Oliver. Kokomo left, now she's fence walking again. At least she's only doing it when they're locked up, not out on the perimeter fence line like she was when it was just her and Penny. Or just her and Sonny. She needs two or more friends.

A rose by any other name

Banana's name is officially changed from the silliness that was Zips Smokin Annie to the sentimental Dragonlady Anne.

It wouldn't matter if all we were doing is eventing, but if we do indeed start doing straight dressage and we try to go for the quarter horse dressage awards the horse has to be shown under its registered name. This does mean I also have to get her a new brand inspection, which is sort of a pain in the rear, but I'll survive.

(What's a brand inspection you ask? Out here in many of the western states you have to have a piece of paper saying your horse is yours issued to you by the brand inspector. The brand inspector checks out all your paperwork to ensure you actually own said horse. Bills of sale mean almost nothing: brand inspections do. You can't travel out of the state without one. There are short term brand inspections that are good for so many hours and then there's the "permanent card." The permanent card is what I need to get replaced. At least it shouldn't be as big of a production as getting the first one.

Lazy, lazy me

I'm having a small problem: I planned to spend December and January huddled in my house, being a hermit. Banana and I both needed vacations. Instead we've had unseasonable warm weather with days in the 40s. I should be out riding every day, taking advantage of this. But, I can't get beyond, "No! I'm not supposed to be riding right now!"

I decided if I'm not going to ride I need to at least do something with Naners every day, even if it's put the halter on and give her a cookie. So, that's what I've been doing. Then yesterday I remembered I could work on that stepping under herself stuff in hand so we're doing that. Now I've added on training her to ground tie. It's such a handy skill for a horse to have. I'm thinking about training her to the same commands the dogs know. It's definitely something I should train Ollie to do.

Speaking of Ollie, I've definitely decided I want to teach him to drive. It will have to wait though, as grad school is eating up my spare cash. Including eating up my competition budget. Good thing I have no plans for this year. So glad I bought a truck and trailer so I can be stuck at home.

A new fox is hanging out. It could possibly be Hunter, but definitely isn't Split Ear.

Guess I'm going to have to raise the bucket up

She tolerates him far too much

Las Cruces Write Up

I just realized I never posted my Las Cruces write up on Eventing Nation

Interesting Guilt

At 3:45 I realized I had a text sent at 3 from J wondering if I wanted to ride down the road. It would have taken me 20 minutes to get dressed/tack up, but Naners has been proving difficult to catch lately, so I knew it would probably take me longer. Turns out it wouldn't have, she came to the barn as soon as she saw me. I fed and got back into the house at 4:20. I could have tacked up and gone out and we would have been able to get in a decent ride. The big reason I didn't want to go is because it was hellaciously windy out the other times I've been outside today: the wind that makes you wonder if the house is going to blow over and you have to clean the dust out of your ears when you come in. I've been very much huddled in the house, doing things like changing the fish tank filters and descaling the espresso machine. But, of course, when I went out to feed, while it is windy, it was not as unpleasant as it has been. Now I feel guilty or something. I should have gone. A little wind hasn't stopped me other days, why today? I do have a neck-induced migraine brewing and I don't yet know if riding aggravates or alleviates it. That's a legitimate excuse. Of less legitimacy, my chin is chapped from all the wind lately.

So, lots of excuses, none of them really good. That's probably the guilt: why can't I just admit I didn't feel like it? Because I always feel like it and I made the wrong decision today. We've been out in 20 degrees and wind, today it's 40 degrees and wind. J had spent time primping the pony and was ready to go, I didn't want her to wait some undetermined time while I potentially chased Banana around the pasture.*

Aruba went back to his people yesterday.  Not the people that made him skinny and didn't bother trimming his feet, the people that raised him. I enjoyed having him around: he was an excellent buddy horse. However, he colicked twice in the last two weeks. I'm not going to miss walking him around in the cold. We think he might have been eating a dead weed that no other horse has ever touched. All it would take is him taking a couple of mouthfuls of tumbleweed to upset the delicate horsie digestive system, though I've had other horses it didn't bother.

"But Pam," you say. "How can you possibly turn horses out in a pasture with weeds!" The weeds are, alas, a neverending fight. I have the ones that come up in the spring/early summer and the ones that come up late summer/early fall. I can only really afford to spray once a year (and you all would not believe how much it costs to do 42 acres.) Last year it was the early weeds, this year I'll do the late weeds. I do think we've finally (knock on wood) eradicated the Russian Knapweed, which is the only truly nasty weed we have. Luckily, while poisonous to horses, they don't touch it unless there is nothing else to eat at all. I also turn them out in pastures full of prairie dog holes. I'm a horrible horse mom or something.


*I don't actually chase her around the pasture, she'd win. We're working on this catching issue, which is sort of why it is currently an issue. She hasn't made the connection between "She's putting the halter on me more often!" with the "But she's not working me every time she does it" yet. Downside of having your pastures going directly to stalls: I could go weeks (and have) without putting a halter on anyone.

Why yes, I do have a chandelier

A couple of weeks ago Horse Nation reposted their Tack Rooms That Are Nicer than Your House post

They're so nice and it makes me a little sad that I will just never have anything that nice. There's chandeliers in those tack rooms. And then it occurred to me: there's no reason I can't have a chandelier. Sure, my tack room is just slightly bigger than a closet and the walls and ceiling are made of plywood (though I did paint the walls at one point, the ceiling is still natural.) It makes putting a chandelier in there even more ridiculous, so of course I had to do it.

I also put up more hooks and organized and even pulled out things to sell at the tack sale in a few months. The result is I can actually walk in there again.

Loss

I've put down four horses now, two in the last nine months. I have sort of a protocol I follow emotionally. It's not something I planned on, it's just what has evolved going through this process.

I've decided I hate crying over them in their last days on this earth. I don't think it's fair to them to have to have a human blubbering over them over and over again. I generally have a good cry sometime in the days before, mourning the things that will not be. It's when the vet drives down the driveway I start to get teary. I try to hold it together till they get the sedative shot and then I cry over them and say goodbye as we walk to the hole (not a short walk.) Then I lose it, stroking them, telling them the same thing over and over. For Flanigan it was "I'm sorry" because I couldn't make him healthier. For Fudge it was "I love you" because I have never loved a horse as much as I loved her. Condor "You've been a good boy and you're very loved." Penny was, "Oh Pony." Once it's done I dry my tears and move on. Except Fudge, I can still cry over her.

So why am I telling you this?

Just before Christmas we had to put down our eldest Golden Retriever Snitch at 10. We'd only found out less than a month before he had cancer. No arthritis, no other issues. He went downhill fast. Putting him down was more painful than the horses, because the vet kept wanting to "give us time." By the time we had gotten to the vet we had said our goodbyes and prolonging it was torturing us humans. When all was said and done we were at the vet's for an hour. With a horse the vet is sometimes driving out of the driveway in 20 minutes. I much prefer horse vet's efficency.

I do plan to tell the small animal vet that really, while we don't want an express euthanasia, it would be nice if we could move it along a little faster the next time. It's not like they were busy: we were the only people in there on a saturday morning. I do think they thought they were being comforting and helpful, but for us they just weren't. The only way they'll know is if we tell them.

So what brought this up? Snitch's ashes are sitting on the piano. They're in a nice box with a plate with his name on it. I just cautiously opened the box, having no idea what would be in there. The ashes are inside a plastic bag, tied with a heart shaped brass tag with his name on it. Now I'm just crying. I miss my dog. Yes, there are three others and the four cats, but they're not the same. He was our first. He moved into our house in California before I did (I was out of town.) Hubby signed the papers on the house and then went right out to get the puppy we'd picked out from the breeder. He was not the prettiest golden retriever with his crazy curly hair, but he was funny. A complete and utter goon. He liked to chase flashlights and play with empty plastic bottles. He was submissive to everyone and everything. He let the other dogs, and cats, sleep on top of him. He was a good big brother and loved his humans. And we all loved him back.

Insanity

What's that thing about trying the same thing and expecting a different response being insanity?

A few weeks ago I loaded up Naners and we went down to the Taskmaster's. I wanted specific help: things we can do walking down the road to encourage her to stretch through her back. What did she have us doing? The same damn circle that has thwarted me for two and a half years. It's a rather involved circle, getting the horse to step under herself and the like. I have issues on horses that know how to do it, put me on a horse that doesn't and it just doesn't go well. And, then my hip starts to hurt. At this point, it is pretty clear to me that this particular exercise does not work for me, but there I was, trying to do it again.

I do love the Taskmaster: she's brilliant (if a train wreck,) but she has one way of doing things and in this case, the one way does not work for me. Not to mention: Naners was in training with her for how long? She should be past this damn circle so I don't need to struggle with it so much.

I'm frustrated my horse isn't more trained than she is. And also that one of the kids I know is getting to free lease a kick ass eventer that is going to pack her around. I want a packer! *whine, whine, whine*

My barn

Picture for purposes being talked about elsewhere.