Big First!

Well my little nugget finally got her toes trimmed. I was very worried about how it would go. She's been really good with learning how to pick up her feet (less good with learning how to lead...) but I hadn't had a chance to play with the rasp on her feet or practice bringing her feet forward for the farrier.

Cute teeny-tiny hoofies!

AC, my amazing farrier, came out to do Trask's hooves and we set up an appointment to do Jetta and Maisie's. I've been so lucky to have her - she's the one that helped me teach Jetta to have her feet done when she was 2 years old and she is the most patient person ever. I can't say enough good things about her. She would come out several times in a week because we'd only get one or two hooves done at a time before Jetta's little brain was fried and she never charged me for the extra visits.

She's getting so big!

I warned her in advance of how Maisie hated being restrained and liked to throw tantrums when she didn't like something. She wasn't phased and said if she could only get one or two hooves done then she'd come back another time.

The day of Maisie's Big Day of the First Hoof Trim I met AC at the barn and plopped some hay down in front of Jetta so she wouldn't wander, closed the paddock gate so there would be no escapes, and put on my gloves. We started with Maisie's back hooves since AC said it's usually easier for them to handle. Maisie was perfect. I could not believe it. She picked up her hooves willingly and let AC hold them and rasp away. She didn't try any kicking and she didn't try to pull away!

In progress

After her back feet we gave her a break and I let her go while we did Jetta's hooves. Then back to Maisie's front hooves. She was a little sassy when I tried to lead her to a more open spot but she acquiesced and AC got to work on her fronts. She even let her pull her feet forward! She was just so good. I couldn't believe that this was my little baby, she must have gotten replaced with another one! The worst thing she tried to do was nibble on AC's hair, which all horses try to do since it's nice and curly.

So that was a complete non-issue! If only all of our big firsts could be that easy...

All done

Jetta also got lunged because she is FAT. And she got her rations reduced. She still looks pregnant! Maisie was pretty cute about trying to keep up with mom and I loved watching her move. This is going to be so fun watching her grow up!

Copy cat

"Baby where are you going?!?!?!"

 

Baby gallop!

That trot!

And then poor mama got a bath

Hooves and Hoofprints

In terms of hooves, Misty finally got her poor overgrown hooves done finally almost a week after she got home. They were in dire need of having her 3 shoes pulled and those long toes cut off. It was slightly ridiculous how long they were. AC also discovered that she probably abscessed (maybe the reason for her lameness "stone bruise" a few weeks ago?). She had a two inch pointy piece of wood jammed underneath her shoe against her frog with a nasty pocket of black goop that smelled disgusting, and a little track up the outside of her heel bulb like that was where the abscess came out. Poor girl. Shoes are definitely not for us. She seemed so much more comfortable once they were off. Even with two months of shoes, AC was saying how nice and hard her hooves were. We might have some ugly chipping once her nail holes grow down,  but that girl has some nice hooves!

She got plenty of thrush buster applied and then a white lightning soak . Then an application of some Keratex and I think she'll be good to go! We'll have to keep an eye on that pocket though and make sure nothing else gets stuck in there.

In terms of hoofprints, I finally got my long awaited second tattoo in memory of Grady (if you don't remember him, see my "In Loving Memory" tab above). I had to put him down in 2013 and I still think of him almost every day. I finally decided what I wanted last year but never got around to it. I finally got it on Monday and I love it! I have my favorite horse's hoofprint on my wrist now. I'm thinking I might add his initial to it eventually, but I need to find something pretty that will be able to be made small, since my initial design was turned down by the tattoo artist as too detailed to do in the size I wanted.

And the last bit of news. Jazz, my most amazing mare of all time, is in need of a new home. Her forever home has gone through some financial issues and downsizing and can't keep her as was planned. I of course will take her to retire at my parent's if needed. But she won't have anyone to dote on her like she deserves. I know most bloggers aren't in my region, but if anyone in the Oregon area knows of a little kid who wants an extremely safe horse to ride and groom, she would make the perfect grandkids horse or companion horse. She's 24 now so she's probably not up to being competitive anymore (she was a 4-H horse for the last couple years). I'm bummed that she doesn't have her perfect retirement set up anymore, but I love the Jazzy-girl, so if she ends up coming home, I'm looking forward to seeing her again!

Next post will be about the fun derby we went to on Sunday the weekend before last!

Productivity!

Not too much of a horsey weekend, but I did have to bring up 3 tons of hay for the horses. I borrowed my dad's flatbed and had the hay loaded on it. About half way to the barn I passed a bicyclist who was staring and pointing at my truck, so I figured I should pull over and see what the fuss was all about. This is what I found:

Leaning tower of hay...

Someone failed at stacking. I lost two bales out of the middle

Luckily a random guy stopped and restacked them for me. Sometimes I love people, it was such a nice thing to do!

Today, I had quite the productive day at the barn. I had only one early morning class today so afterwards I was planning on homework, but ultimately decided on going to the barn instead. The farrier was coming at 1:30 meaning I had three whole hours to fill in the meantime.

I cleaned the stalls to perfection, gave both girls a good grooming. Lunged and rode both horses then cleaned all my tack. I finished it all up right at the perfect time for the girls to get their toes done.

Neither of them have been growing much hoof since I've been riding them on gravel and their runs are concrete, they pretty much wear it off at a fair rate. I've been smoothing down the edges with my rasp whenever needed, but an actual trim hasn't been needed in months... I think like December? So I figured it was time to have the real farrier out to balance up their hooves. Especially because Misty has weird feet that I just don't even know what to do with.

Misty has a big scar on her left front. It doesn't interfere in any way, just looks ugly and makes her hoof on that leg grow differently than her other front hoof. She's been getting a lot of heel on that foot but not on the other. Then add in that her right hind is having all sorts of fun flaring out to the side... She needed some balancing done. AC said her hooves were fine, they might not look perfect but they were functional. She's got great sole depth and nice thick walls going on!

On the riding front, I rode both girls dressage. They were both great! Kept both rides pretty short and sweet because I am SO SORE. One of my main personal goals this year is to get in better shape in order to benefit my riding. I always feel like I'm going to die after cross country so I figure if I'm more fit it would probably help :) In that vein, I signed up for a 5k color run since it sounded fun. I was super good about running the first few weeks after I signed up, then I sprained my ankle and didn't run for 2 weeks... But I was determined to do it. And I did! I managed to run the whole thing and my ankle didn't even hurt. I was so proud of myself because I am not a runner. But my body is now mad at me and so is my ankle, so riding was a bit of a struggle today.

Colorful!

Misty:

I'm considering showing her at first level at the show at the end of this month. She's starting to really put the pieces together for all the new movements introduced at that level, but so far everything's "good" but not great. I think we've finally found our lengthened trot, but it takes quite a bit of tinkering to get it during our ride, so it's not quite ready to be put out there in a test. Leg yields have improved quite a bit but aren't quite consistent enough yet in our bend and angle, but at least she's stopped getting worried about them. Circles still need some smoothing out, but our trot loops and all transitions are a lot smoother.

Will do a review on my new breeches soon. I love them so far!

Jetta:

I don't want to jinx it this early on, but I feel like I'm finally starting to get my horse back! I hadn't ridden her all weekend, but I tacked her up and lunged her in side reins first. She was definitely more uppity and spooky this time around. Every little sound seems to set her off and several people were cleaning stalls which was apparently very scary, but she wasn't as bad as she could have been.

When I got on, we did our long walk warmup with lots of leg yields and shoulder-ins and bending to make sure she was listening well. In the trot, she definitely is not quite there muscle-wise yet to carry herself which means I do a lot of holding her up, but we still have been able to get nice moments of self carriage. Lots of bracing in our rides, but again, she has at least as many soft moments as braced ones. We will get there eventually! Since she's having trouble carrying herself she ends up on her forehand and resultingly gets a little too speedy at the trot, but I would much rather have that than her awful pony trot. She was super good about leg yields and shoulder-ins at the trot. The canter was great today too! Last time we had trouble to the right where she got tense and speedy, but today she was perfectly balanced.

Ahhh, feels good to ride her again. By the end of the ride, she wasn't even tensing at all of the noises going on around her. Success! We only had one minor tantrum when she spooked at something and did a baby hop/spin towards the center of the arena, but it was so minor compared to her recent bronc moments that it almost isn't worth mentioning. I was a happy camper with my horses today!

Quality Time

Was able to have a really good day at the barn yesterday. I got up early to avoid the heat and when I got to the barn organized all my tack. Since the new trainer moved in, she moved all of my stuff (grr). Because I have two horses, it stands to reason that I get two sets of saddle racks. I chose two saddle racks right next to each other, but she decided to claim one of my saddle racks and moved my western saddles to the opposite side of the tack room. And all my western bridles got relegated to a single hanger. Not a big deal, just annoying. 

Anyways, I reorganized all my stuff then went and got Misty out first. I decided to do her hooves first since it was still cool out. I think I did a rather good job smoothing them out! They got a bit chewed up from our trail ride over the weekend. The trails were crushed gravel so while there was no ouchiness and she did quite well, the ground was still quite abrasive and since she's due for a trim, she chipped quite a bit. She was much easier to do than Jetta and acted like quite the lady for her rasping. Unlike Jetta who was decidedly NOT a lady when I did her hooves.



Gave her some thrush stuff then tacked her up to lunge in side reins. I decided to try the Micklem bridle on her and it was a success! Jetta's bridles don't really fit her because her head is in between cob and horse sized. Sigh. But the Micklem is so adjustable that it fit almost perfectly! The only place it was too small was the throatlatch, so I may figure out a way to extend it with one of the extra cheek pieces that came with the bridle, lol.

Sleepy poneh. She stood with her eyes closed the whole time I played with getting it to fit right.

But, the bridle worked out perfectly. I actually don't own any flashes because I've never used one. I don't like the idea of strapping a horse's mouth shut, but I've made exceptions for Jetta during cross country so she's better able to focus on the task at hand and listen when I ask her to slow down, and then with Misty since she's so over the top with her displeasure when I put pressure on the bit. She's going to get her teeth looked at soon, but I've felt around and at least there are no wolf teeth, so I think it's just a gap in her training.

I've been using the vienna reins on Misty but I think we may try something else. I think the type of side reins you use are very dependent on your horse. With Jazz I used elastic side reins, but when I used them on Jetta, she learned to hang on them, so I switched to the vienna reins which are all leather and don't allow her to hang on them. Also, since Jetta likes to carry her head high, it asks her to stretch down, which allows her to use her back better. With Misty, I think she needs something different. Since the vienna reins have some adjustability in where the horse is able to hold their head, I don't think they work as well for Misty because she can get her head up really high and tuck her nose in, getting really short in the neck, to avoid bit pressure from the reins. What she needs is something that gets her to put her head down and poke her nose out.

I thought about getting a neck stretcher since they're easy to find for super cheap, but I think a chambon would be the best option because it applies pressure to the poll when the head is up, but releases when the head goes down and allows them to poke their nose out, which the neck stretcher doesn't. With Misty, she tends to curl too far behind the bit, so I don't want something that allows/encourages that.

image from sustainabledressage.net

Regardless, she's definitely getting better at accepting the vienna reins. I still haven't been able to tighten them on her since she'll still panic occasionally, but she had a lovely trot in both directions and a very nice, relaxed canter to the left. To the right, her more difficult direction, the canter was more rough and she had a couple spots where she hit the reins and panicked (boy can she stop and spin on a dime!) but we finally got two whole circles where she maintained gait and didn't panic so we called it a day. 

Jetta was up next and I had a nice ride on her as well. The plan for today is to ride both ponies then take them home for the weekend. We have our trail competition this weekend which should be interesting, as I've decided to ride both of them in it just for the heck of it!