Crazy Days aka The New Saddle

Time is precious and so very fleeting these days.  And such is that, I spent my day off Wednesday being a crazy person, as always.

I met up with a friend and went to a tack store a few hours away.  I have known the owner for more than ten years and she has always been very kind to me.

A Haflinger a friend used to own

Well, I may have gone a little bit crazy and splurged for a new dressage saddle that finally fits my conformation.  I have always worried about the horses so much, that I haven't focused on what works for me as well.

When I was at an equine expo the other week, I tried several saddles and it became apparent on what was more comfortable for me.  It was easy to go into an easy two point, rising and falling in the center of the saddle, and just general lack of back pain, which I thought was a constant fixture in my life.

I unfortunately arrived home way too late last night to try it on the semi ferals, but I did get the chance to sit on a friend's lovely mare with it.  And yep, it feels nice!

Tomorrow is the big day to try it on both of the girls.  It has an interesting adjustable gullet that is super simple to adjust, so I'm anxious to post how the test rides go!

Pat Parelli and the Fair

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the Midwest Horse Fair.

Sadly, I was disappointed in particular by one clinician there:

Pat Parelli

One evening, I was back in the barns with a friend relaxing after a particularly stressful day.  We were discussing round pens for sale and decided to wander into the stallion avenue barn to look at the sales demo that was set up there.

Pat Parelli was warming up for the evening show in the arena.  That was fine.  He was riding one horse and had another horse loose with him.  OK.

So he exits the arena and rides right down the middle of the pedestrian walkway through the pavilion.  Riding in a pedestrian walkway (marked in a VERY LARGE SIGN that says No Equestrian Traffic) is bad enough, but the loose horse is with him.  The stallions are getting riled up.

There are still people in these barns.  There are people appropriately in the pedestrian walkway.

I am disappointed that someone that is supposed to be teaching others chose to be a poor example and put people in the pavilion at risk.  Not all the people at the expo were horse people.  Many are not.  Trust me after a weekend of people trying to feed fingers to horses, it is apparent that plenty don't have horse knowledge.

How can a clinician that makes a lot of money selling information to (often) newcomers, can not realize the danger of his actions?

I am so very disappointed by this.

What's even more disappointing is that this wasn't an isolated event.  After reading on Facebook, apparently other Parelli trainers also present also rode through the pedestrian walkway.  Why?  What's it to prove besides to endanger individuals present?

Reflection: Star

 There are always those weeks when you think about the past, about the what could have been, and how it relates to the now.

Star was my first Arabian mare.  It's such a romantic story that an individual and his or her first horse grow together and everyone learns and there's a happy ending.

There's not always a happy ending, but in this case, I am glad for my time with Star, however brief.

I learned how to handle a sensitive horse.  She was not what I would call a hot horse, but one that wanted to understand what was being asked before being forced.  Less was more. 

The more you fought, the more she fought. 

She came into my life at an ideal time.  I was angry.  I was sad.  I was upset and broken from severe depression in high school.  I'm sure this horse looked at me and saw an incredible conflict of confusing signals.

I, of course, was confusing at first to her.  I was used to almost pushing horses around.  I grew up working with often spoiled horses and was used to calling out bluffs, riding out nasty behaviors and then going on with life.  

Totally different situation here.

I learned.  She changed me.  I hope I changed her life too.

I miss her.  There are days that I wish I could just have her back. 

I love my girls now dearly, don't get me wrong, but Star was quirky, but quirky in many ways like mean I think.

So sometimes the heart hurts.  But I hope this is always for the best.  But thank you Star for all you had to offer. 

Saving Cents: Vaccines, Equioxx, Zimecterin Gold

It's that time again and there are rebates being offered from several companies.

Today's company is Merial.

There are rebates for Equioxx, Zimecterin Gold, Ulcerguard, Gastroguard, and several Merial vaccines.

I have done the rebates in the past for Gastroguard and they did reimburse me when I purchased from an online company and not my veterinarian.

A few dollars at a time certainly adds up in the horse world!

Republica Dominicana

The better half in the ocean

A couple weeks ago, we went on vacation to the Dominican Republic.  My mother likes going and she wanted her kids (and their respective spouses) to come, so off we went.

We carefully scheduled and squeezed the vacation around my insane school schedule and we left the frozen tundra to a beautiful country with pretty awesome weather.

I have lots of mini-adventures from the RD, but I wanted to share my thoughts and horseback riding adventure.

Rare Rhinoceros Iguanas

My husband and I decided to do an excursion one day and went to a local adventure park of sorts.  They had spelunking, dune buggy rides, horseback riding, and so forth.  They also had a collection of mostly rare and interesting animals.  The above rare iguanas lived in a pretty big area dedicated to them.  They were pretty neat to watch.

I am often hesitant about riding in other countries.  The horses I saw in Mexico were extremely thin and in deplorable conditions.  When I went to Costa Rica, a horseback ride was included in one excursion and I refused.  The horse they wanted me to ride was extremely ill and laboring for breath while standing in his stables.

But, the pictures at this facility showed horses in reasonable weight, so we decided to take a chance.  All in all, I was quite pleased.

The facility also has some breeding stock, so we went for a short wander through the stables (which resemble more of covered mare motels, for those that are from the Southwest and know of which I talk).  The Paint stallion was in excellent condition and actually a bit overweight.  There were two mares with young foals that had plenty to eat.  All the horses in their stalls had hay, hard feed, and water.  Pretty nice considering that most feed has to be imported to the island.

We were given helmets, assigned our horses, and started out our ride in a nice fenced in sandy arena.  My husband has a buckskin named Sanjay and I had a little pinto Apache.

Both of our horses were gaited and happy to be out on the trail.  They were cleanly shod on all four and appeared to have fairly fitting tack.  My gelding even had a new Diamond wool saddle pad, which was nice to see.  

The trails were rocky and tough.  A lot of the island is coral, but the horses were surefooted.  Our guide originally told us we were just going to be walking, but we did end up gaiting/trotting most of the ride.  The horses didn't really understand the nose to tail thing, so my husband sometimes rode side by side.  My gelding really wanted to be in front, but I was fine with that.  I led trail rides for years, so a little brio on the trail doesn't bother me.

Unfortunately, a couple other folks weren't always in control of their horses.  A lady in our group had a very nice, smooth little mare that also wanted to be up towards the front.  Unfortunately, between the death grip on the horse's face and her flapping legs on the horse's side, I felt quite bad for the little mare.

Going down one hill, she drove her mare forward and ended running up my gelding's rump and got kicked.  I felt badly as I usually can nip things in the bud before they occur, but I really didn't expect it that quickly.  Fortunately, the lady was OK overall, but I always hate people who blame things on the horses when that little mare really did try to figure out what her (clueless) rider wanted.

But I had a wonderful time and I would suggest someone that wanted a good ride in the Dominican to check them out.

Trotting Forward

The girls last weekend

Today was a lovely day.  This work week was brutal.  Most days I start at 10:30AM and there were several days when the work was finished about midnight.  

I managed to write a paper on Lyme Disease, whip together a powerpoint, do some worksheets, a couple of online quizzes, and put clothes on approximately five minutes before I needed to fly out the door before my classes on Thursday.  

And tomorrow, it begins again.

But that's OK.  My soul is filled again with happiness as I saw my girls.  

I rode Donni first.  Donni can be fussy in the bridle.  She spends the first 10 or 15 minutes of a ride trying to figure out if she can evade the bridle by poking her face out or dropping down.  My coach has described it as she has to tell everyone about woe is her and what a rough life she's had.

But with patience tonight she came around and we had some really nice trot sets.  She finally gave up on giving the evil eye and the sideways scurry at a marathon cart that sits in one corner of the arena. A good canter.

Not bad for time off horse. 

On our cooldown, she was calm and relaxed.  I rode her gently on the buckle and just asked her with my seat to turn, stop and go.  I'll have to figure out how to add back in there sometime.  I'm sure it's possible, but something to work towards!

Chili was also well behaved tonight.  She is quite a bit different than Donni in that she isn't so fussy in the bridle as long as her hair isn't touching her ears.  Sometimes when she is unhappy about something, she does have a tendency to shake her head, but she doesn't spend time and time again being difficult about it once I put my leg back on her and tell her to knock it off.

Chili did have a minor skitter when we were trotting by one sliding arena door and a big chunk of sand hit the door.  She wasn't especially impressed, so after I was done riding tonight I spent about five minutes looking like a dork kicking sand at the arena walls until she yawned, licked her lips, and said it was enough.

It's a good reminder that despite the joy in riding a nice young horse, there's always work that should be done on the ground too to build up her confidence with weird sounds.  ;)  I occasionally forget since I really don't hear all these sounds that bother her.  Not particularly fair, I suppose, but thank you Chili for giving us more homework to work on.  :)

Both girls got the winter mohawks trimmed down and a bit of the long shaggy fetlock hair removed from their legs.  Can't wait until they are full blown shedding and look more like horses again instead of yaks.

Wish me luck for this upcoming work week!  It's a crazy life, but I am glad to have the horses that share it.

The Sun Was Out

The sun was out, the weather was warm, so I took some pictures.

Enjoy.