Firsts

I rode Jetta for the first time in about 8 months!! It wasn't too bad. Definitely had to remind her how to stand at the mounting block, not pull on me and get off my leg. Kinda like starting all over again, but hopefully in a month it'll be like we never took a break!

It was so nice to sit on my own horse again. She is a difficult horse to ride, but I still love her. We mostly walked and trotted, worked on shoulder-in and getting her off her front end. I wasn't going to canter but towards the end of the ride I decided to ask for it and she cantered off down the long side of the arena like it was the most fun thing she'd done all week. I missed her!

Baby had some firsts too! She got tied for the first time and didn't care one bit. While leading has been a lot better now that she's weaned and doesn't have mom distracting her, I wasn't really sure she really understood pressure 100%. She definitely has learned more than I gave her credit for! It's so fun to see the gears turning in her head. I "tied" her (I was holding the end of the lead rope and it was just through the tie ring) and she pulled a little backwards, realized she couldn't so she stopped. Pulled a little to the left and realized she couldn't so she stopped. Pulled to the right and realized she couldn't. So she stood there super quietly and explored the lead rope and tie ring with her mouth. Then I snapped the tie ring closed (it's a Blocker tie ring) and went and swept the barn with no peeps out of Miss Maisie. That was easy!

She also learned a little about ground tying. I need to add that to my goals this year for her. She was quite offended about being told not to move when I was not near her head and we were not in her stall, but she eventually figured it out and stood perfectly.

"What iz this??"

Babies are fun! Minus the stress that you're going to ruin them completely ;)

The C Word

A bad equestrian word - cribbing.

Maisie has been cribbing for a couple weeks now. I catch her at it in the morning when I go down to feed. This started before she was weaned. I have no idea why she started - she's had no stress in her life, she lives in a big paddock with a good sized pasture. Gets fed lots of quality food and rarely has an empty stomach. She's never been around horses that crib.

I couldn't find much about foals cribbing on the internet, but there's some discussions on the COTH forum about foals cribbing due to ulcers or just being genetically predisposed. We are currently a little over halfway through a course of omeprazole (byeeee money!) but so far nothing has changed. I went ahead and just treated for ulcers because if she has them, foal ulcers like to perforate which is terrifying. Foals also tend to get ulcers very easily for no particular reason.

She's not interested in toys. She has a goat and sheep as companions and horses in the paddocks next to her. She was doing this even when she was with her mom. In the morning, I'll see her outside grazing and by the time I head down to feed her I often find her cribbing on the fence inside her paddock.

It's not the end of the world. I've had a horse that cribs before. My first horse Grady was a relentless cribber. He was never stalled because he got very upset, so he lived in a three acre pasture. He'd stop grazing just to go crib on the fence. We never found a cribbing collar that worked on him and it didn't really bother me so we just let him go for it. It didn't seem to negatively affect him - his teeth were fine, he never colicked, the only thing we attributed to his cribbing was his inability to hold weight in the winter.

I was pretty upset the first time I found her cribbing. While I do plan on keeping her, if my plans ever change, people don't want to buy a cribber and some barns are reluctant to board cribbers. It's just a huge bummer. I'm hoping the omeprazole will make her feel better - the idea being that her tummy doesn't feel good so she's trying to relieve the discomfort through cribbing.

Trying to eat my face

She's just too cute

Anyone have any advice or insight?

In other news, she's almost grown out of her foal blanket! The largest size is a 60" so I need to decide what size to buy her to last her through the rest of winter hopefully! She's also gotten a lot more friendly as she's gotten older. She comes over to greet people and wants to be scratched. She also likes to give kisses! Pretty adorable. I installed a tie ring in her stall so that's the next fun thing that she gets to learn. Baby is growing up!

Let the baby training begin!

2018 Goals

This years goals were pretty simple:

• My main goal is to have a healthy, happy little foal. I am trying so hard to keep my hopes down since I have seen anything and everything go wrong with foaling. I am so nervous!
• Success! Maisie was born textbook perfectly with no complications! Now to continue to keep her happy and healthy.

• I am hoping to find a horse to ride in some capacity during the spring and early summer. This is my last free summer so I want to make the most of it. The goal is to find a green horse that needs miles or someone who just doesn't have the time for their horse. And maybe even get to show said horse. Free is the name of the game.
• Also a success. I got to lease Trask for 6 months. He ended up being my most challenging project thus far, but he was also really fun and taught me a lot of patience! We went to a handful of shows, both dressage and eventing.

• Once my (hopefully) bouncing baby buckskin is born, I aim to take it to get approved with RPSI since there will be another inspection at the same barn as last year. Also, get the baby its lifetime registration with USEF.
• Also a success! RPSI is now Westfalen so baby got branded and registered. Lifetime registration with USEF was included with registration

I'm not really sure where to set goals for this coming year. It's going to be very busy with school, so I might get very little horse time in.

• My far off goal is for Jetta and I to get our First level scores for our Bronze medal. I've wanted to work towards this for a while and I think it's definitely doable, I just need to hurry up and get started! This is far off since I start clinics in June and I'm really poor so hopefully I can save and have enough for a recognized show!
• Take Jetta for trail rides! I'd really like to go to the beach since it has been years! 

• Baby needs to learn lots of things
• Tying
• The beginnings of lunging
• Ponying
• Trailering by herself
• Teach her to self load in the trailer
• Take her on a handful of field trips
• Bathing
• Maybe wear a surcingle and bit

New Normal

All Maisie probably wanted for Christmas is her mom back. Poor girl got weaned for Christmas/her 5 month birthday.


It's gone pretty painlessly, it was probably sadder for me than for them. I separated them out for two days. The great thing about this property is that there's gates EVERYWHERE so I could divide the stall/run and the paddock from each other so the girls could still see each other and eat next to each other but not nurse. That didn't seem to affect either of them, Maisie was definitely a little sad - she dejectedly ate her hay. But there was no panicking or anything though.



Then I loaded Jetta up on the trailer and took her to the new barn! Thank goodness for having such a great horse. My trailer doesn't have any inside lights and because it is winter and dark ALL THE TIME she had to load up into a pitch black trailer, which she did without hesitation. Jetta whinnied maybe 5 times between loading up and unloading at the new barn. Then she had her hay in front of her and she didn't care anymore.

So sad

Maisie wasn't quite as unbothered. She whinnied a bunch, but was quiet unless I was around. She's been a little sad and not sure what to do, but luckily she has a goat and a sheep for company (yeah, they randomly live on the property - Marge and Sparkles) plus the roommate's horses. She's buddy-buddy with the 3 year old Appy, Kestrel.

Eating like a big girl by herself

Super helpful animals...

Jetta looks plain AWFUL right now. It's embarrassing. She was obsese for a while so we cut her grain back a bit and she's back to a better weight, but she's ribby right now with no muscle. Ugh. The plan right now is a couple weeks of lunging, gradually building up time and adding side reins and trot poles.

Today was the first day both of them seemed perky and 100% back to normal. Maisie hasn't been eating very well which stresses me out, but today she actually greeted me with an "I'm hungry" whinny instead of a "where's my mom, I don't want your stupid hay" whinny. Jetta was kind of naughty on the lunge line which means she's feeling like her usual self too!

At least she's shiny?

Missed working with this girl