Tuesday, November 25, 2008

This has been what my life is like for the last 2 weeks...

I was cleaning Tax's stall and I left a full muck bucket in the isle out front. Then a few minutes later I backed out of his stall with another full bucket in a wheelbarrow. I had totally forgotten the first bucket which I tripped over and fell backwards into. I realized I had dragged the wheelbarrow on top of myself somehow, but it was still in the doorway of the stall so I couldn't move it forward or tip it over with the weight of the full bucket I had up in it. I had also twisted slightly to the side because of the inital ass wetting shock of sitting in a full bucket of horse pee wetted shavings and couldn't reach the ground to get enough leverage to get unstuck. I thought I was going to be stuck there all night but about the time I was wondering if I could manage to reach my cell phone in my pocket without killing myself to call the barn owner I managed to wriggle free. I was laying on the dirty barn floor convulsing like a heroin junkie three days past his last fix admidst hysterical bursts of laughter, but I was so happy to be free of the bucket deathtrap and so thrilled no one else had to see that little episode. I have no idea how I didn't spill either bucket 'cause it was close a couple of times. I bruised my knee and leg all up and somehow cut my lip on my tooth. Ta Da.

The morals to this story? Beware of ninja muck buckets! They're everywhere.... AND maybe I should be required to wear a helmet just to get my daily activies completed.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Injured!

Tax cut his leg some time ago across the front of his front left fetlock. It never looked serious so I cleaned it up and just left it to heal. So Thursday of last week I was out at the ranch and cleaned the stalls and rode one of the barn owners horses. I turned Tax out a for a bit and he seemed odd but to tell the truth I was in a hurry and didn't look him over like I should have. I did notice the scab seemed thick so I called my sister to ask her to bring out some bag balm to see if we could soften it up but I didn't touch or inspect his leg. My sister got there after I'd left because I had to pick up my kids from daycare and I was already late. When she went to put the bag balm on his leg he jerked it away from her. On closer inspection it was swollen and warm and obviously painful. Argh...I can't believe I missed that. My life the last few days has been busy with soaking, cleaning and wrapping his poor leg but I do think that the infection that may have been starting is gone. It's no longer swollen or warm although it still seems to be painful to the touch. The scab is gone though and the cut doesn't look serious at all. I think it will heal nicely now. I just can't figure out how he did it but both he and December have these strange sores across the front of both fetlocks. The only thing I can think is maybe they're knocking them into the door frame going into their stalls from the paddock but the wood is worn and rounded and doesn't look dangerous. Sigh...it's always something isnt' it?

Monday, November 3, 2008

I may always celebrate Veteran's Day with a tribute ride!

Veteran's Day was awesome. I had the day off and went to the ranch early to ride both of my horses. Now with the days so short I rarely get to both in one day.



December - Warmed up at the trot and worked on relaxing into the bit. I'm finally really getting this collection thing and I can feel the difference now. Having December is a blessing. I realized that I've never owned a horse that wasn't totally green and I've never really understood the cues for things like 'shoulders in' because I've been too busy trying to teach them to a horse that doesn't know how to do it. On December I can really play with getting the cues perfect and feeling where my hands and hips should be. I can totally feel it when she gets it right. Oh and lead changes! Wow! She's so light in her movement it's a thing of beauty to ride her lead changes. So after the trot work my sister had brought Promise into the arena to warm him up. I got an e-mail on my Blackberry from work that I had to answer. Promise was being really good and consistant, and Kim was excited which got December a little worked up. I just wanted her to stand still for a few while I responded to the stupid e-mail but she wasn't having it. Kim and Promise were cantering and she wanted to too so she was being all pissy. Finally when I finished Kim asked us to go out around the track in the field behind the arena. I always love going out in the field to change pace a little, however, December decided the other day there is a horse eating monster in the form of a filled black trash bag near the entrance for the field. She went past it reasonably sanely when we started out though and both horses went just fine around the field. When we got back to the area with the trash bag Kim and I were talking about turning based on leg/seat pressure without using much rein. She wanted to see if she could get Promise to take a few steps turning on his haunches. He got a little confused because he still thinks legs only mean go forward faster so when she blocked his forward movement a couple of times he got mad and bolted forward a couple of steps. All-in-all it wasn't a big deal EXCEPT....OMG THAT TRASH BAG MUST HAVE TRIED TO EAT HIM. So I felt December bunch up for some kind of explosion and I swear I thought it was going to be a rear. Nothing scares me more than rearing. So the next thing I know she's standing there with all four feet on the ground and I'm bear-hugging her entire neck while my sister laughs at me. Apparently the terror on my face over the tinest crop hop in the history of the world was incredibly funny. When did I get to be such a chicken?

Tax - I was running late for lunch with my kiddo but I wanted to get Tax ridden before I left. He's like riding a different horse these days. I'm still going to have to post about trying to teach the beast to cancer sometime. So now that I finally got the collection/relaxion thing he really warms up and gets on the bit much faster now then he used to. He's starting to get much lighter and will actually canter instead of a full tilt gallop. We did our trot work and his trot to canter transisitions were amazing. He was right there everytime I asked and light and round. He doesn't hold it long yet but still it's happening. Transisitoning down was even good and he has a bad habit of backing down into the fastest extended trot I've ever ridden and it was taking him forever to go back to relaxed and collected. This time within a few strides (and without any pulling on my part) he was back down to a nice forward but normal trot. Yay! I love this horse. Even if he isn't the world's greatest show horse, he's sweet and honest and has more personality than most people I know. He's also a great cuddler and he's made me take more time to stop for scritches which I'm not always good about. He loves to be in your pocket. I think I found a forever horse.