Roller Coaster Ride

The horses are sure keeping me on my toes! It's been a roller coaster ride over here. I'm so, so, so busy right now in school and it's been insane so I think the horses think that they're not getting enough attention!

Jetta decided to colic last week and that same day, Maisie somehow got out of the pasture and the only way she could have done that is by jumping. There are no gaps, open gates, or anything. I guess she was bred to be a jumper?

I think Jetta was just eating too many apples and not drinking enough water with the temperature swing. My parents had the vet out and she tubed Jetta and gave her some fluids. She had decreased gut sounds which is always worrying. Maisie wasn't too much worse for the wear though she scraped up her legs jumping the fence. No idea why she did it, but luckily all the scrapes were superficial.

Maisie's cut leg from a week or so ago is trying it's best to granulate to the extreme so we've resorted to pressure wraps and cortisone cream to try to keep it down. Fingers crossed! She's become a pro at bandage changes though, I don't even have to halter her!

Trying on her new rope halter!

Naughty baby

Cute baby

She's so big she has to contort her neck to reach the udder lol

  

Size comparison:

Birth (top) and just over one month old (bottom)

Almost 3 months old!

Trask has been by alternating days, amazing or awful. Some days we have fantastic rides where I can barely believe he's only 4 years old and other days I get off and am ready to give him back. I think part of it is due to the weather change - cold air is good for being spunky! But he's also just a growing baby and you have to test the boundaries every so often. Our canter is coming along for the most part (except when it isn't) and our shoulder-fore has progressed to some real shoulder-in and we even had a pretty good start to haunches-in the other day!

He's developing so nicely!

He has also been trying his hardest to destroy all the blankets. I put a cooler on him the other day after a bath - it has chest, belly and leg straps so I've left it on Jetta many times - and he SHREDDED it. Completely gone, he bit at it and tore it to pieces. I got him a turnout sheet since KP only has a medium-weight blanket for him and it's not quite cold enough for it yet and he has since bitten two holes in the chest of it. We'll see how long it lasts... little stinker.

Trask - 2, Blankets- 0

Westfalen Inspection

I meant to post this a while ago, but I still haven't received pictures so I thought I'd just post it anyways:

Miss Maisie is officially registered! The inspection went well, even though I was nervous the night before about getting baby braided and clean and trailered to the inspection.

I moved Jetta and Maisie up to where I live for the week. They currently live an hour and a half south of me at my parents' house but the house I live at has a barn and pasture and it was closer to the inspection. There was enough room with kicking one of the horses outside so that my girls could come hang out for the week. It was awesome getting to have them in my backyard!

Of course, I cleaned up both Jetta and Maisie the night before, planning to braid in the morning. I curried Maisie almost every day trying to get her to completely shed out, but it didn't work so she was nice and moth-eaten looking for the inspection. I get out to the barn at 6am and Jetta is FILTHY. She apparently peed in the middle of her stall and laid in it. So first things first, she gets a bath. Then I discover that SOMEONE who's name starts with an M and ends with an -AISIE chewed off Jetta's tail!! I almost cried. It has taken me many, many years to get that tail to grow to an acceptable length and fullness and it's all gone now :'(

The offending little nugget with her handiwork

Finally get mom cleaned up and gave Maisie a quick curry and start braiding. Only to realize that the black rubber bands that live in my trailer are actually at the barn where Trask lives. And I don't have time to drive the 20 minutes to get there and back. So I rummaged around in KP's stuff, but she only uses thread, not rubber bands. I finally found some neon-colored rubber bands that she used for her niece's pony so Maisie looked like a pumpkin all braided up in orange and lime green. I was so embarrassed showing up to the inspection like that, but at least she was braided? Maisie was very good for being braided, which I was quite surprised by.

Embarrassing pumpkin braids

Loading was not an issue which is so nice! While Maisie can be a little hellion when she wants to be, she handles some scary things with ease.

I am glad I got Jetta approved last year because I knew where the facility was, I had met a lot of the people beforehand and I knew the flow. Paperwork started at 9am and then 10 foals and 2 mares got inspected, then all the babies got branded, microchipped, and hair pulled for DNA.  RPSI merged with Westfalen last year, so it's now Westfalen NA with the same judge and secretary as RPSI had last year.

Poor Maisie was not a happy camper by the end. She thought it was quite a rude process but she made it through with minimal angst.

Mid-day nap

The actual inspection part went well. A very nice girl handled Jetta for me so I could handle the baby. Maisie wanted nothing to do with standing apart from her mom to get her conformation looked at and she insisted on burying her head in Jetta's side so that the lady doing paperwork had a hard time drawing her blaze.

She did a good job showing off her walk and trot, I thought her canter was a little too bunny-hopping, but the judge said she had a nice length of stride, her neck was a nice length (that was something he dinged on a lot of foals, that their necks were too short). He liked her walk and trot, though he said she could be more under herself in the trot. Her canter was "forward and uphill". He made me laugh when he said that her head was improved upon by the sire. That's pretty much the only thing he dislikes about Jetta - he said last year that her head was "unfeminine" which, I mean, it is pretty giant. Overall, she scored a 7.5 so she didn't make premium. The babies who did were SO FANCY. I wanted to stuff them all in my trailer and take them home.

Random photo from last year

The branding was kind of entertaining to watch - some babies didn't even notice and others freaked out. Maisie was in-between. She was still while the brand was on her and then a couple seconds after it was pulled off she leaped into the air. Luckily the judge is SUPER fast for everything and she didn't even have time to pull away for both the microchip or brand. I thought it was nice, at the end he asked me if I had rebred Jetta because he "really liked her, she's a nice mare" and we discussed a handful of stallions he think might suit her (not that I'm planning on breeding her again, once was plenty for me!)

Freshly branded

Maisie didn't get the full brand (with the crown over the W) because Mirabeau is in Stallion Book II. It's kind of a bummer, but oh well, it doesn't matter to me in the long run since I plan on keeping her, and she's still registered!

My little pumpkin

Itchy baby

Hopefully I'll get some pictures eventually and I'll share them when I do!

Baby photodump

I keep wanting to write about Maisie's inspection, but I was hoping to get some pictures back first! So far, nothing and a post without pictures is boring so here's some pictures I took of Maisie yesterday.

She has her first big wound, a nice cut to her back leg, so we had fun washing it and disinfecting it. She was actually super good for getting it bandaged so that was nice!

(Yes, I got her a daisy flower crown. Cause reasons)

Ouch

The wide angle lens on my new phone is pretty funny

Rough day

Miss Maisie Daisy

Work in Progress

Trask is definitely still a work in progress but I definitely see a lot of improvement. It's easy to get caught up in all the things we still can't do or those occasional times that he misbehaves, but overall he really has gotten a ton better.

• He puts his head down to be bridled and I no longer have to pry his mouth open to get the bit in
• I can clip his face, including his muzzle now
• He no longer gets claustrophobic when I half-halt him
• He's getting much better at picking up his leads
• I can carry a whip and (most of the time) use it without him freaking out

We went on a trail ride last weekend by ourselves and it was far above and beyond better than the last time we went by ourselves. He wanted to spook at stuff for sure, but he held it together and did as I asked without having a tantrum or me having to get off. We walked passed scary trashcans, the giant metal rooster, the enormous neighbor's bull, crossed the spooky yellow lines on the street, etc. We trotted a bunch and even cantered on the trails. The only time I had to get off is when we approached the pond. He was not having any of it and didn't even want to get within 20 feet, so I hopped off and led him up to the edge and he was fine.

It was really nice to feel that improvement! Unfortunately school has started and is already insane, especially with the start of our small animal surgery labs so I haven't been able to ride as much as I would like. Trask was feeling VERY fresh today and we had some impressive spooks and leaps due to a horse being ridden outside the arena, which Trask was sure was NOT ALLOWED.

Little froggy friend

We worked through it and had some good moments and by the end, I could tell he wanted to spook but he refrained. Instead he'd take a big, tense stride or two, but it was so much better than his little bolts (not really real bolts, because as soon as you half half him he stops). He'll get there someday, I think once he grows up a bit and gets more miles he's gonna be a great horse.

Definitely not afraid of the whip *as he waves it around*

Little Jumping Bean

Trask and I went to another derby this past weekend. Spoiler alert... this one didn't go as well as the last one.

I jumped him the day before the show and he was AWESOME. A little bit strong maybe, but he didn't hesitate at any of the jumps. I brought out some new jumps - a little fake liverpool and a panel fence. And he wasn't bothered in the slightest. I bumped the jumps up to the highest we've done thus far and I don't think he even noticed.

Biggest little fence so far!

I ended up hauling in the day of the show since we didn't do our dressage until 11:43am. We got there plenty early so I let Trask graze in the field for a bit since I wanted him to be relaxed and I also didn't want to repeat our trailer tying/halter breaking episode from a while back...

When I finally tacked him up and started warming up in the indoor arena... I knew it was going to go poorly for us. He was SO SPOOKY. About everything. The walls, the mirrors, the windows, the birds, the stall cleaners, etc. It was ridiculous. One thing I loved about this show was how absolutely nice everyone was. It was awesome!

Attempting to eat plastic flowers

Another person warming up noticed our difficulty with the mirrors (aka Trask stopping dead and staring at himself, then trying to run away from his reflection) and she offered to lead us up to the mirror which helped quite a bit, though Trask was still on edge. We did our best with the warm-up but I knew it wasn't going to happen for us.

We got to walk around the outdoor show arena briefly and Trask wasn't scared of anything surprisingly. They had some jumps and barrels stashed along the edge of the arena but he didn't care. Nor did he seem bothered by the large black water tanks or the hose reel outside the railing. We started our test and it wasn't too bad until we did our first circle. All of the sudden we were traveling sideways instead of in a nice circle, towards C. I managed to keep him kind of on track and then we went to canter. He didn't want to. With a very ugly transition, I finally got him into a canter but when we circled the same thing happened and he veered off towards C. We came back down to the trot and then the walk for our free walk across the diagonal and I was confident that this was something he could nail. Nope. He kept popping his head up to look around. We went for our next trot circle and the same thing happened, drifting off towards C. At this point I'd had enough and this was a schooling show anyways so I gave him a big kick with my outside leg, earning us a nice few steps of canter (ugh) and we finished our circle. We got to the corner almost to C and he tried to jump out of the arena. I ended up having to circle him in the corner so we could get our canter transition while he continued to try and jump out of the arena.

At least he looked nice part of the time?

Finally got a very, very ugly canter transition, did our circle, trotted to X and did our (very crooked) salute. And walked out of the arena very disappointed.

I'm not quite sure what happened but it was definitely a big baby moment. That test was so incredibly ugly, I was so embarrassed. We went back to the indoor and schooled our canter transitions for a while, during which we had a discussion about spooking at things unnecessarily. Ended on a better note, but I was still pretty frustrated.

We had a bit to rest before jumping and I didn't even attempt to pick up my test. While walking to the jump field I had my bf grab it and then realized I didn't have my number since I had left it on my dressage bridle. The person manning the table quickly offered to make me a new one so I wouldn't have to walk all the way back to the trailer. Like I said, so nice!

I got on Trask up at the warm-up area for jumping. Of course as soon as I got on my eventing vest's zipper split which was fantastic. I tried to fix it while the bf held Trask but I couldn't get it. A very nice bystander came up and offered to help, so she ended up holding Trask while I held the edges of the vest together and my bf tried to get the zipper down. With all that teamwork we finally got it back to normal.

Trask warmed up well. They had a pretty large log for warm-up and while he initially refused it, after a good sniff he hopped right over. I felt good about our warm-up but I knew the course would be a struggle for us.

And it was a struggle right off the bat. The first fence, a stadium fence, was right next to fence 8 which was a small log next to the water. Since this was Intro level, the water was optional so you could go over the small log instead. Even though we had been trotting and cantering through the water a mere couple weeks ago, he thought the whole area - water, log and first fence was HORRIFYING. It took me forever and a half to get him to walk through the start flags. Again, pretty embarrassing. Finally walked him through the start flags, marched him up to the first jump so he could sniff it and then we came back around and trotted it. It was so nice that people clapped for us every time he jumped something that he initially refused. It made me feel a lot better that it seemed that people knew he was a baby and we were really struggling, so that was nice.

He's so cute though!

He popped over and we headed to the second fence, a large mossy log. He stopped at it, sniffed it, then popped over. We cantered up to the third fence, a moderate sized log. He seemed game so I let him keep his canter and he popped over it without hesitation. We crossed the bridge and cantered up the hill to fence four, another log. He jumped this one without hesitation too. We approached the fifth fence, a stadium fence but he would not pay attention and was spooking at the fences in the tree line so he almost missed the stadium fence but I made him do an awkward walk/trot hop over it, resulting in a pulled rail but no refusal. We trotted down the hill to a small coop, which he refused. At this point my legs were absolutely dead and I could barely even give him a squeeze so I just clucked at him and hoped he'd go over it. He did and we cantered to the next coop, this one he hesitated at but didn't refuse and hopped over.

Generously clearing the tiny coop - I chopped my face off cause I looked ridiculous

Then we got to the dreaded fence 8. I knew I wasn't going to try and get him in the water, I just wanted to hop the tiny log then go to fence 9 (a stadium fence) and be done and go home. He refused the log so I thanked the timers and left.

I was pretty bummed since I knew before the show we'd likely get DQ'd for refusals, but my goal was 1) stay in the dressage arena (barely achieved), 2) no rearing (mostly achieved, there were a couple tiny rear's that my bf called "expressive turns"), 3) jump all the jumps even if we had a lot of refusals (fail) and 4) no falling off (yay I really did achieve this one!!)

Babies are so good at humbling you. I really thought we were ready for this show since he was schooling so well at home and we had schooled at this facility recently. Oh well. Packing up to go, the super nice lady parked next to me (her daughter had the CUTEST pony) complimented me on my patience on the jump course and wished me well in vet school (she noticed the sticker on my truck).

I love how nice everyone was at this event! It made it so much better even with a disappointing outcome.

Takeaways for me were - work more with the dressage whip so I can carry and use it at a show without him getting offended. Continue our work on canter transitions and getting him to pay attention to my outside leg. Work on getting him to jump unfamiliar jumps the first time without having to sniff them (thus earning us a refusal). Get him in more water!

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