Naked Ponies

Well, they're not completely naked! Just partially :)

Yesterday I clipped Miss Katy. She was such a brat! Naughty girl, she's learning some bad habits... She was acting more like Jetta and just would not stand still in the cross ties. Though it was very bad timing to do it at dinner time... She got a semi-trace clip, sometimes called a chaser clip I believe? She looked pretty good and it only took me an hour and a half. She had such thick fur though! Of course I didn't get any pictures of it, but here's what it looks like.

Her owners were in a bit of a hurry so I didn't get to make it as nice as I'd like, but it still looked really good. She seriously lost a hundred pounds by getting clipped :)



My "after" picture. At least you can see all the hair
she lost! We could make a miniature pony out of all that!



Favoritest clippers ever!



The hardest part for me is definitely clipping the shoulder and the armpit. It just doesn't work very well! But I'm glad I was able to clip her, as it almost didn't work out. I showed up at their new barn (they moved, which was sad, but now I get to give them lessons!) and pulled out my clippers. The mom said that she didn't think that they were going to work, because they're not body clippers. I assured her that they'd be fine since I've used them the past two years to do body clips. I had charged both of the batteries the night before. I turn them on and put it to Katy... and it cuts a two inch square before refusing to do any thing else. Hm. This is not good. The mom kind of says "I told you so", but I switched batteries and tried again. Nada. So the last option is to switch the blades, luckily I had another set in my car. I put those on and voila! Who says these babies aren't body clippers???

So it all worked out and Katy got trimmed as planned.

Today, well, this morning, was Jetta's turn. I decided to leave her in her stall and tie her loosely so she could eat her hay while I trimmed. It would be harder to get her neck, but easier because she would actually stand still. I did a bit more of a clip on Jetta, though it still only took an hour and a half, probably because Jetta's hair isn't nearly as thick as Katy's, but it was almost a little bit harder because her skin was thinner and it got all wrinkled up more easily. Of course, I meant to do a high trace clip, but chickened out so she got a low trace clip. I like it though I may touch it up a bit tomorrow because I'm a bit of a perfectionist like that.



The worst "before" picture you have ever seen



"Why you do this to me?!"

"Ok, I'm going back to sleep now..."
But doesn't it look good?!

I think if I change anything, it will be that I clip about a blade's-width more higher along the whole length, and clip the hip portion so that it is more level on top instead of slanted. But not too shabby, if I do say so myself!

Afterwards, I put her other blanket on (she has two sets, spoiled pony) and it's the heavier of the two, plus it's actually clean so she should be nice and comfy tonight.

  



Noms?

So today was nice and productive and I now have a shiny new clipped pony! I'm excited to see how it looks with the saddle on and how she sweats with it now.

Sidenote, what do you think of the blog theme changes? I decided I needed something a bit more cheery since it's so gray and cold oustide, but after having it the same for so long it looks a little strange to me now!



First Frost

Brrr, it's cold outside! I'm typing this while wrapped in a nice warm blanket. Winter is almost here, as is evident by the weather. These last few days have been busy as usual, but good.

Jetta got her bath on Monday. Amazingly when I went out to the barn yesterday she was still clean! Absolutely astonishing. I was sure she was going to punish me for giving her a cold water bath by laying in the filthiest corner of her stall possible. Though it's still soon to tell, she may just be biding her time ;)



Still loving this cooler - it looks so snazzy on her!



Noms. I'm trying to make up for giving her an
 icy bath by doing some grazing in the sunshine!

Yesterday we had a pretty nice ride in dressage tack. After being such a brat on Sunday I expected a little more resistance in our ride, but she was totally fine. I think it's just the whole cross country thing that gets her a little too excited... She's actually been super good lately. I forgot to mention this, mostly because it was a nonissue, but Jetta's been in heat the past week and it hasn't been a problem. Shocking I know. She's usually a complete witch when in heat, throwing hissy fits, overreacting to my leg, bucking, running away with me, etc. But not this time! Hmm, could it have to do with the Mare Magic she's been getting? Someone gave me a ginormous bag (I can't remember why they gave it to me, but I think it might have been because they sold their mare) and since raspberry leaves can't hurt I've been feeding them the past few months. Interesting thought.

Today I'm going to go ride Jetta after all my classes and my volunteering at the Large Animal Hospital. I think we'll do some more dressaging and do some jumping on Thursday. It's been kind of a mixed bag volunteering at the Large Animal Hospital. Well, really, "volunteering" is the wrong word to use - it's more like "spectating", though I hope I'll get to do some hands-on stuff eventually. The first day was just a little disappointing. I show up a few minutes early and they just told me to sign in, grab a scrub top and go find a group to follow around. Okaaay - I don't even know where to start. But luckily a group of vet students were standing right outside the office so I just kind of hung around and saw what they were doing. Turns out they were in an exercise science class so they had a cute little stallion that they hooked up to ECG monitors on a surcingle and they put him on a treadmill to show how you can monitor their heart rate and make sure everything's normal at faster paces if you can't hear anything wrong at a standstill. It was really cool. The horse was completely fine with walking on the scary treadmill and responded to cues to walk, trot and canter. Super neat. When they're cantering, they usually run from 15 to 20 mph on the treadmill. They can even make the treadmill incline. They said that they always pull shoes before going on the treadmill so that they don't come flying off or get caught on any machinery. There's also a crash mat in case the whole horse comes flying off - scary! Another interesting fact that I learned - did you know that a horse on a high starch diet (high grain diet, such as corn, oats, barley, etc) makes a horse have pule of 10 to 15 bpm faster than a horse on a diet consisting of more fat for energy? That's something they've found using this type of research with the ECG monitor and treadmill. Very neat. No wonder horses are more hyper when fed like that!

So what was the bad part? Well, I'm supposed to volunteer for three hours and the exercise science was only 30 minutes. The next class was a bandaging lab... for two and a half hours... It was pretty neat though seeing how they make splints and casts, etc. But two and a half hours is a little long just to be standing there watching and not doing anything. Then I messed up and broke my personal rule: Whenever at a vet hospital, do not touch any of the animals because I will get in trouble somehow! Seriously, whenever I pet an animal I get in trouble for some reason or other. No body else petting animals gets in trouble ever, just me. It's a talent. This time I was petting a teaching mare in her stall, she was a little nervous cause her buddy was leaving so I had found her itchy spot on her neck to distract her and was giving her some scritches when one of the vets came up and gave me a lecture about how dangerous that could be because she could squish my hand in the stall bars. Oops. That upset me because 1) I knew I shouldn't have touched that horse! But I was so, so bored! And 2) I have been around horses a long time, I can read body language, I know when they're about to body slam the stall wall. I'm not (that) stupid. So that made me pretty bummed that on my first day out there I managed to get in trouble.

The second time out there was so much better!! This time the vet that was on duty was super nice, and when I arrived, she even had the other pre-vet volunteer helping out by clipping the surgical site. Awesome, we actually get to do something! I didn't get there in time to help, but she did tell us that we could come watch the surgery. They got us outfitted in gloves, hair nets and masks, stuck us in the corner and we got to watch a laparoscopic ovariohysterectomy. It was the neatest thing ever. I found it absolutely fascinating and had no trouble standing there for the full three hours, I would have stayed longer if I didn't have to be somewhere else! They only removed one ovary in that time! And it was the normal ovary, not the diseased one. That was seriously interesting to watch because they had the little camera go inside and you got to watch it on the tv screen.

So I'm hoping that today is a good day!

I've been riding Katy while her owner is still out of the game due to her broken finger. And now Katy is lame. She was lame before her owner broke her finger, got adjusted by the chiropracter, was totally fine, was ridden for three days (I rode one day, ML the other and her owner after that) no problem, then came up lame again. She isn't as bad as the first time and is actually getting a lot better by the day so her owner just asked me to take her for some walks along the trails just to stretch her muscles. We're hypothesizing that she may have gotten a "hitch" in her shoulder from running around bucking in the arena and was brought back to work too soon, so we'll see what the vet has to say this Friday. But I still love riding Katy even at the walk.

Yesterday evening's ride on Katy. That's some long-legged horse!

As you can see - no more riding in the field :(
It's been tilled so our gallops are no more.

Acrobatics and Another Horse

I like Thursdays. I get to sleep in a bit, then head out to the barn before class. Today I got to ride another horse - remember Katy? Her owner broke (or rather, shattered) her finger and had to get surgery on it this week, so this means that I get to ride Katelyn.

Today I got on her first, and after a breif reminder that both legs = forward she was super good. I like riding her a lot, but she's definitely very different from riding Jetta!

I worked on collecting her and walk-canter transitions. I popped her over a few jumps to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything. Then we went galloping! Poor Katy, she probably hates me. This person who hasn't ridden her in months jumps on and makes her work really hard, getting her in trouble for being lazy then not only jumps her, but makes her run flat out in the field. Such a hard life. We then went for a walk on the trails... the slowest walk of my life... but I figured that she earned it after being so good for me.

And I had a video, yet it won't upload again. Sigh. I guess I'll have to take my phone into the store and see if they can figure it out. Its worked before - it says "uploaded" but its not on youtube. Technology, what can you do? I promise that there'll eventually be some videos on here!

This is Paris, the barn dog and my trail buddy :)

It was a nice difference from riding Jetta. I can't decide whether I prefer a hot horse (Jetta) versus a lazy horse (Katy). They both have their benefits and drawbacks, lol. Anyways, then I just lunged Jetta in side reins. Holy cow. I'm glad I decided to lunge! Before I even asked her to move off she took off trotting and leaping and kicking. Dang. If I moved my lunge whip at all or if she heard a loud noise she'd take off again. And she was wired. She didn't try hardly at all to reach down and stretch in the side reins and if she didn't have them on she would've looked like a giraffe.

By the end she had settled down and was doing well, but I was glad I didn't ride!



Good pony at the end!



Water Ponies

Another great day at the beach! I think today was the best time that I've had at the beach. The sun was shining, we had two great horses, the tide was just right and I had a great friend with me.

This was Katy's first time at the beach and I was so proud of my girl! She handled it like a seasoned pro and enjoyed every second of it. She is hands-down the cutest horse I have ever seen on the beach :) She was barely afraid of the waves and just splashed away, willingly trotting and cantering through the water. And she tried her little heart out to keep up with Jazz when we took off galloping! We took a ridiculous amount of pictures, here are some of them!

So much fun. I love Katy so much, it almost makes me wish I wasn't selling her! I hadn't gotten around to talking about it, but I did list Katy for sale and she has been bought and is going to her home tomorrow!  Luckily, it's the barn where we board during the school year so I'll get to see her all the time, but it's still sad :(

Katy's Favorite Activity

Katy loves to roll. Luckily for you, my brand new phone is awesome at both videos and pictures so I took this quick video of Katy rolling. She's so funny. I love the moment of suspension when she's on her back with all four hooves in the air. Too cute. She has to roll every single time she's in the arena and it only takes her a couple seconds to find her "spot" to roll. She likes to play in the dirt :)

Introducing Katy

I realize that I have mentioned Katy quite a few times here on the blog but you haven't been formally introduced. So, without much further ado, here is Katy:



Katy is a half Gypsy Vanner, half PMU Clydesdale. Her sire is Taliesan, from Big Sky Gypsy's. She is not yet registered, but she's being shown as Hey There Delilah (name courtesy of ML :) but we call her Katelyn or Katy. She's four, soon to turn five in March. She is such a sweet horse. She can be sensitive and lazy (yes at the same time!) but for the most part she's super laid-back and just an all-around fun horse.

My aunt gave me Katy to train two years ago, then I was supposed to help her sell Katy, but my aunt ended up giving Katy permanently to me, with the condition that I couldn't sell her. I had a major dilemma in deciding whether to keep Jetta or Katy, I couldn't afford two horses' boards, but in the end I get to keep Katy by leasing her out! So it's a happy ending all around. Katy is doing awesome with ML so everything's good :)