Bitless horse: Science VS tradition

Why I take pictures

2012-01-27T16:43:00.003-05:00

Some people take pictures to capture memories they wish to remember, some to make money or get a reaction out of everyone else.

I take pictures to show someone the world through my eyes. Although they may be there looking at the same thing as me I see things differently than you or maybe someone else.

Sometimes I take pictures that in the moment away from the camera there was no emotion, only to look at the finished product and burst out laughing.

This accurately depicts Indigo's 15 foot personal bubble.

Sebastian tried to touch her, she was furious. Theres your Indigo fix for those who have been asking. Shes as fat an sassy as usual, only a bit more wild than usual. She spends every morning galloping across the pasture and bucking at Sebastian and snorting and blasting off in other directions. It's the weather, or lack thereof (winter).

Unfortunately picture taking has been a bit slow for me these days. My good, favorite 200mm lens has been sort of, sort of not working. It makes photographing anything that moves a bit difficult.

Sole thickness and heel height

2012-01-11T15:37:00.004-05:00

What does the toe, sole and heel have in common?

Well first look at the previous post on hoof/pastern axis.

When it comes to looking at a horses hoof a lot of owners do not go beyond if a horse has flares and the proper hoof/pastern axis but have we looked at where the coffin bone is in relation to the ground?

It is very possible to have a high heel and still have the same hoof/pastern axis. Is this the cure all for heel pain? Raising the heels? I believe not.

How many of you have gone out and looked at your horses hooves in relation to their conformation since the last post?

I leave you with this article, possibly one of the best I have seen illustrating how high heels affect all other parts of the hoof. If you have pictures of your horses hooves where we can go over hoof/pastern axis I welcome you to share them (anonymously if you wish) so others can learn from them. Please e-mail them to me sydney@bitlesshorseblog.com

Uniform sole thickness

Hoof pastern axis

2011-12-29T11:38:00.001-05:00

I hope everyone had a very happy holiday.

Recently I was talking to an old friend of mine. We always seem to come up with ideas to pick eachothers brains. Her husbands horse was recently diagnosed with navicular and mild to moderate sidebone. Hes not always lame but warms up out of his head bobbing. I wasn't really interested what she said about the sidebone but more about how hes got navicular, in both front feet at that. She said she was not happy with the job a farrier in the area (a very well educated one that attends seminars regularly. Hes always up to par with methods used). Plainly she said "He doesn't have enough heel".

This brings up the debate when we find a horse has a problem, be it lameness, problems with riding such as stumbling or wanting the horse to break over quicker; Should we set them up or down to change the way the hoof sits and breaks over when it touches the ground?

Something my instructor Bill told me on the first day at school is to "trim/shoe the horse the way he is made" plainly this means the horses hoof angle should match the angle of it's shoulder (for front feet), hip (for hind feet) and/or pasterns.

(Images from google and all rights go to their original owners)

The front hooves should be the same angle as the shoulder and the hind hooves should be the same angle as the hip. Although this picture is of a donkey who has a lot steeper hooves than a horse you will get the general idea.

This is a relatively foreign term for a lot of horse owners. Maybe because they haven't studied feet in relation to their horses body or because they trust their farrier.

When it comes to lameness and shoeing it seems to be a common practice to set a horse up to alleviate pain and make a horse break over quicker. Arthritis, navicular, founder etc . When we set a horse up and make a horse break over quicker they are more likely to land toe first, have contracted heels due to lack of pressure on the digital cushion or put strain on tendons.

What I am getting at is to start a debate of sorts.
What is the opinion of my readers?
Have you looked at your horses hooves in relation to how they are made and how they actually look now?
Do they match the angle of your horses shoulders/hip and pastern bones?
I'm curious to see how many of you look closely at horses feet and what they look like (pictures if you can get them)
Have you had a horse that was set up or down that became lame and only became sound when it's angles were rectified back to the way it was made?
I would love to know.

Re-Post: Seasons WTF!? Greetings

2011-12-24T05:00:00.001-05:00

A year ago I was driving home from doing some morning chores and came across this rather peculiar, festive fellow. I know many people enjoyed him I hope he can bring more joy and laughs this year. Merry Christmas.

------------------------------------------------------

(Please if you take offense please divert your eyes to another blog thank you. ps- Seasons greetings)

So I love living in a small town, especially when I see things like the photo on this post.

You know everyone.
Everyone knows you.
You go to school with the same group of kids and can still call them by name all these years later.
You can walk into the deli and the person behind the counter says to you before you even order "Lamb Gyro, no onions, bottle of white creme soda" yup. Mmmm.

In a small town people need to find things to do considering the big city is a good distance away. Sometimes they entertain themselves by wreaking havoc but chances are they don't because your mom knows what you did before you even get back in the door. That is the kind of town I was born and raised in.
Once and a wile they give you the desperately needed dose of WTF!? (What the F***!?)

Today in the early morning hours I was driving back after getting an E-test on my car (which has over 300 thousand KM on it and tosses out a test of 3/4 lower than the max allowed amount. Good car, good) and doing my morning barns when I see something on the side of the road.
I squinted and strained to see what it was. It was red and green and sticking out of a snow bank. As I drove by I realized it was this fellow, whom I came back a wile later to take pictures after nearly swerving off the road I was laughing that hard.

Do you think the people who ran him over came back trying to make peace with his vengeful soul?

See this guys story. He is a raccoon. Raccoon's get hit by things and die at the side of the road. Sometimes they aren't so lucky and they are spread over several feet of asphalt. But this coon was lucky see because he died on the side of the road only mildly mangled to rot. That was until we got our snow almost two weeks ago. The snow plow came by and scraped him up, placing him neatly in the snow drift so he can perfect his T-Rex impression. Then by some random act of randomness someone put a pair of headband Christmas antlers on him. They didn't stop there they also put a nice shrine of candy canes around his taxidermy body.
So if this offends you I am sorry. If only all road kill could be so festive on the side of the road and not on my tires.

I hope you all have a very merry Christmas or Happy holiday and santa didn't bring you too many road apples for your stocking.

Eleven things

2011-12-15T21:45:00.003-05:00

Because ten is such an even number.

1. Up until a little more than a month ago any rain here was the beginning of August. Talk about two inches of dust it was a complete mess.

2. The sky has decided to open up and dump a generous inch or three on us at least once a week.

3. The soil here is mostly clay. A little bit of rain means a lot of mud. The soil back home is sandy. Stuff dries up much faster.

4. I hate cold but I have to say I would rather see the ground freeze than this mud. It's like a slip and slide. I almost broke my darned neck walking out to feed the horses on a very subtle incline.

5. There were no inclines of any kind back home unless they were man made.

6. Self explanatory
7. The dirt on the spotted horse hindquarters in #6 has been rained on for two days before I wrote that. Rain, Y U NO WASH MY HORSE!?.

8. Those dots in the background are cows. Angus, Herfords and black baldies. I love cows. They moo and spook at things and headbutt eachother and groom eachother with their slimy sandpapery tongues. Sometimes I come out to feed and I find Indigo and Sebastian standing at the back corner of the pasture with about 10-15 cows standing on the other side staring back. Not spooking or fretting or anything that would mildly suggest the cows haven't been there until a few days ago. Just having some sort of silent conversation between equine and bovine. I imagine they discuss what it is like to be brushed and ridden by humans and how wonderful it is to be turned out on a field to eat the leftover corn.

9. Indigo routinely beelines to said field when I let her out of the gate. Sebastian has security issues, despite Indigo's regular attempts to thwart his company, he goes frantic the moment shes turned out in the yard and he isn't. Indigo could care less. He however follows her when I let both of them out to munch grass in the yard which makes the spotty horse, well, angry. She wrings her tail and trots off, nose to the ground. Sebastian follows, trotting sideways at his dangling lead rope. Hes not really scared of it he just hasn't figured out where that slithering noise is coming from when he moves.

10. Roughly the number of days until I head home for Christmas.

11. McDonalds hot beverages are more sugary than I bargained for like a lot of things in the USA. I might be up for hours now. It however makes me miss Tim Hortons that much more. I know the first thing I am doing as soon as I get over the border. Mmm iced cap.

Long time no see?

2011-12-11T19:27:00.003-05:00

Thank you followers for not abandoning me. I am here.
If you have abandoned me I understand and will not take it to heart. I am a bad blogger! I have not lost interest in this blog at all, rest assured it will be back and regularly posting in the near future.
I am in the USA, Missouri to be exact. Right between the place where you can get dialup internet and where no internet exists.
I've been shoeing/trimming horses and training lots too. I have a lot of stories as well. Humorous ones involving horses, donkeys, cats, chickens, children putting plungers on other childrens heads and mavericks getting bucked off of ladders and then getting in a fist fight with said ladder. Hi-lar-ee-ous!!

Of course Indigo followed me here. Her and Pepe, my cute little ass met.
Lets just say Pepe met his match.
Normally he is king of the pen. Indigo was not buying his cheap tricks and let him have it. He got up in her face and well, the spotty horse is quite crotchety about other horses (or donkeys) getting in her 15 foot personal bubble let alone threatening her in such a rude and uncivilized manner.
The results were Pepe getting his ass (haha) handed to him. No burrito's were harmed in this picture (physically).

When she was finished with him he respected her wishes and cowered in the corner of the pen.
Other than making a taco out of Pepe Indigo (and Sebastian who has followed me here too) is fat and sassy. I'm doing well and keeping busy too.

For now I am still alive. If you wish to keep in touch with me until I get regular internet again please contact me through facebook or by e-mail sydney[at]bitlesshorseblog.com or e-mail me for my facebook. Facebook is the only real thing I can get to every day on the cell phone. Blogging seems to fail every time I try on the phone.

So what has everyone been up to? I have not been around to reading blogs as it proves to be far too difficult on the phone. Please enlighten me I would love to hear what people have been doing the past three months.

In which Indigo teaches us horsemanship

2011-10-10T00:23:00.002-04:00

This is Midnight.

Midnight is Indigo's daughter. We had a bit of a mother-daughter reunion.

Remember this picture from the previous post?

Well this was about .5 seconds later. Her old owner is just about to say: "Well Indigo hasn't changed".

To answer some of your questions, YES horses do remember past horses. Indigo has remembered many we have been around and has been friendly with them.
However Indigo has a real issue with ANY horses within her 15 foot personal bubble without her permission, daughter included. Stay out of her personal bubble with another horse and shes quite pleasant.

After we rode to the lake we turned the two out in the round pen after the first pictures of Indigo's old owner holding both girls.

Indigo likes to be queen of the round pen. It's her personal continent and she will not have any peasants defiling her grass...err weeds.
Indigo chases every horse that we put in there with her that she can. It's the game of face making (which shes pro at), charging, ear pinning, squealing and striking, biting and kicking threats.

Midnight snuck slowly over to Indigo. Her long lost mommy, boss of the herd, love!!

The response she got was probably not what she expected. I've seen Indigo act it out a million times. Shes a witchy, crabby, squealy, ear pinning mess when another horse is involved that she can boss around. She rules her underlings with an iron hoof.

"You will remember who's boss!"

Indigo started to round pen Midnight, who did not object to her every body motion on where to move. Mom is boss!Midnight tried to stop once and change direction but that was not going to happen.

Oh she was angry.

Watch as Indigo shows us humans how to work a horse like we try to mimic in a round pen.

She got results, no special sticks, $500 DVD set or secret club to join.

Notice Midnight has one ear on the person (horse) working her the whole time.

"Turn now!"

"Not fast enough!"

"Pay attention, I said the other direction!"

Was Indigo being unusually mean about her visit with her daughter?

I don't believe so. Indigo saw fit that Midnights manners were put back where they belong. She worked Midnight until she was showing the respect she wanted to see.

After a few minutes of chasing Midnight around to where she obeyed Indigo's body language they went back to eating near each other like old buddies. Well until Midnights owner went to go get her, then Indigo had to put her two cents in about not being lead out first.

It's all about respect. Indigo was saying "pay attention to me and listen to where I tell you that you can or cannot go." When she seen that Midnight had her attention plastered to her, Indigo backed off and went back to eating. The second she took a step that was considered disrespectful (maybe in her direction, or moving without her permission) Indigo would chase her and make her change directions to her pleasing. It was pretty black and white really: Disrespect earned Midnight more work. Respect earned her a moment of grazing.

The world of horses is so simple that we tend to make it complex. Sometimes we place human emotions on them and forget to watch them for what they are; horses.

Mother-daughter reunion

2011-10-07T19:57:00.003-04:00

As some of you might know Indigo has one daughter.

Her daughter is going to be fleabitten grey like her only she has charcoal flea-bite spots instead of Indigo's reddish spotty-ness.

Her daughter's name is Midnight. Midnight is 11 years old and has a lot of mannerism's Indigo does but isn't at all as fine and fancy as Indigo. Shes more like a stocky quarterhorse.

Midnight and Indigo have not seen each other in about 5 or 6 years.

Indigo's old owner came out for a trail ride with Maverick and I and brought Midnight. This is her in the pictures holding both mares.

We had a bit of a mother-daughter reunion. Stay tuned for the next blog post revealing the reunion pictures...

Hay is for horses

2011-09-27T00:21:00.005-04:00

Another note regarding hay.

This is how we raked the 3rd cut of hay. I thought you all might be interested in some real horsepower.

At first we were not sure the percherons would be fast enough to make the rake turn but they did a fine job. Saved on diesel fuel. I guess the tractor would have been faster though.

We were very fortunate to get a 3rd cut. Most people were not even on their 2nd without rain ruining it. This only got half cut then it rained on it twice so that got ruined but we got a good enough window to get this stuff done because it was not cut like half the field was a week earlier. Phew, what a year for hay and crops in general. I can't count the fields that you can see water damage.
Don't go knocking hay prices until you are the one using your land for income.

Idle thoughts and other things

2011-09-25T12:30:00.004-04:00

When I am doing mindless jobs like stalls, sweeping or cleaning I think a lot. The thing I think the most about is horses (duh). Sometimes I have ideas and go "gee this could really help someone" but then before I can put it into a blog post I forget about it.
Sometimes when it is a really good thought I'll mull over it in my mind for a few days before telling anyone. Sometimes I actually get cracking and write it as a blog so you all can read it and put your thoughts together with my thoughts. I like that, it's what blogging is about.

Lately I have been thinking about a number of different things. I started this post a few days ago and I am sure I'll remember them all at 2 am when I am sleeping, not blogging.

Hands. What do hands have to do with horses? Well more on a skeletal or cellular level they are similar. When we use our hands more our skin cell production speeds up. This creates what we know as a callous. A callous is a place of thickened skin cells where we place repeated use; our fingertips and palms for example. If we stopped using these areas they would shed that calloused skin over time and become softer because of decreased need to keep up an excelled skin cell production. Hence our skin produces more or less depending on how much we use them and on what surfaces. A secretary at an office might have a callous on his/her index finger from using a pen. A blacksmith will have a large callous on their thumb from repeated use of a hammer but not on their index finger because they do not spend much time writing like the secretary.

The same has been proven with horses. Their feet are largely a "Use it or lose it" functionality. The more abrasive surfaces they are on the more sole their hoof will produce. The less abrasive surfaces they are on the less sole they produce. Take this into consideration when shoeing a horse. I hear people say "My horse is ouchy on pavement" so I ask where the horse is kept. The answer does not usually surprise me when they say a grass pasture or a stall most of the day with limited work on the pavement the owner is complaining about. Horses feet need to be conditioned slowly to the surface you want them to work on.
Think of horses soles being sensitive like your callouses on your own hands. If I asked you to pick up a hammer and swing away with me all day on an anvil, and you have never previously done it don't you think your hands are going to be raw by the end of the day? If I asked you to come swing hammer for an amount of time, increasing every day, wouldn't you build up more gradually until the time I was working at with much less resistance and pain?
Same goes for your horses hooves. Don't expect them to be on grass all day and to work on the road comfortably without regular work on the road.

Hay.

I'm saying this because I have seen NUMEROUS horse bloggers complaining about buying hay.. Hay is for horses (and cows and sheep and goats and other ruminants). There are several reasons why people are complaining this year. 1) They cannot get hay. 2) The price of the hay IS TOO DAMN HIGH! (name that youtube video!) 3) Their hay got ruined and now they have to buy it (see 1 and 2). 4) Hay providers are running out and people who buy from them are getting mad.

1) Hay got ruined this year globally it seems. Farmers are being smart and making sure their own families were fed by planting crops such as corn and soybeans that are at an all time high this year in price(See #3). With as much hay that has been ruined this year why should they take a chance on their own families not being fed and cared for when they could plant another crop, cash in the money and buy hay for their animals elsewhere.

2) Do not complain about the price of hay going up. First of all hay has been at the same price in most places for the past 10 and even 20 years!!! If it is not the same price it is within two or three dollars of that price. Do you want to work at wages that were present 10 or 20 years ago? I don't think so.

3) Ruined hay. We have had droughts. Months without rain turning fields of lovely alfalfa into deserts. Rain. It rained sooooooo much that getting a dry moment where your tractor did not get stuck so you could cut and rake and allow the time to cure the hay seemed nearly impossible. A lot of hay was lost. To prevent income loss the farmers who could not take their hay off planted grains instead (See #1).

4) Hay farmers will not usually store hay for buyers unless they pay them ahead of time (or are good friends, return, reputable customers for years and years and years. Depends on the hay seller really). It is a waste of profit, space and time for them. For example the seller could save a few hundred bales for someone who's going to "maybe" come back in a few months at the customers convenience or they can sell it (or ship it to the US where there are states that have no hay whatsoever due to rain/fire/drought) and make the money now. It's a bit less risky to know your money is in your hand than waiting for months and months for that customer to come back at their own convenience when they "need" hay.

I know I am going to make some readers mad with posting this bit on hay but it's what is happening. When you point something out like this a lot of people are complaining about it's going to make someone mad or upset. You cannot please everyone. I understand because I deal with the farmers who sell the hay and the owners who want to buy it.

PS- people are still annoyed at the price this year even if you read this post. Another fact to consider is that farming is directly influenced by mother nature. Hay is one of the most high risk crops and the one with the most manual labor (unless you can afford larger machines that do it all). The only people who fully appreciate that are the farmers directly supplementing their income with hay and other crops. A rise in prices this year can aid the farmer in the chance that this mass loss of income could happen next year. It's their own personal insurance, not farmers being greedy and wanting more money. Your not in farming because you want to make a lot of money, just like your never in horses to make a lot of money. It just doesn't happen that way.

Those of you who are in a severe drought right now COME GET OUR RAIN!!! UGH! It rained the other day and looks like the next 7 days there's going to be rain. The barnyard is a swamp. Areas where it previously was not muddy or deep are now over the tops of my boots. I went to close a gate to a pasture at my one barn and it sucked my boot right off, sock in the mud SPLAT! I cussed for a moment before taking off my sloppy sock and yanking my boot out of the mud.

It's also fall now which means I have to wear a sweater outside in the morning. I hate sweaters because it means winter is coming. It's cold I want summer back with heat that dries this mud and rain up.
It also means apples. I looooove apples. So does Indigo. It's safe to say they are her favorite food ever. When I come with an apple it's generally the only time she will come trotting/cantering to me nickering the whole time. She nickers at me for no reason when I am grooming her, just to see if I'll offer an apple. She nickers at me when I mount to ride her and dismount. I don't feed her an apple every time she nickers (like she wishes) but she does get one every time I go to the fence to get her. She will take apples over grain, carrots or horse treats. She LOVES apples

"Good job loyal human subject. This apple offering pleases the ~~queen~~ Indigo"

Where did summer go?

2011-09-19T23:55:00.002-04:00

I want it back and I am going to sit here on the ground and pitch a fit until it does.

The mosquitoes are still rampant here even though it's cooled down into the low 70's and 60's during the day. It rained all day today and driving after dark this evening was like playing the game frogger. A lot of toads got game over as I was trying to dodge them on the wet road.. I have never seen so many on the road at once and in September no less. Usually by the middle of June most of them have committed suicide on the pavement.

I've been doing a lot and been lots of places.

I got to three shows.

Indigo was awesome this year. She got me a ribbon in every class we entered with the worst ribbon being a 5th on a class of 15 for Simon says. Not that I am complaining. She has a bad habit of taking steps backwards slowly when asked to stand in the ring in harness. She also behaved phenomenally. Last year she was awesome, don't get me wrong but she did try some shenanigans like hopping around in harness at inappropriate times and refusing to stand still in lineup.

This was taken just after I had won the ladies drive, hence the stupid grin I had going on.

Yesterday we had our last driving show of the year. Props to her for going out and winning when I hadn't driven her in two weeks due to being out of the country. I wondered how she would behave with the crisp morning bath, wind and cool weather but she was totally relaxed all day. We were standing next to a friend with her mare in harness waiting for some other competitors to finish with a timed driving event. They called the lineup and we ended up second. Indigo stood there with her hind leg cocked and ears flopped to the side I clicked to her asking her to walk on. She shifted her weight ever so lazily and started walking only to take two steps and cock the other hind foot. Oi! Woman, wake up! We got prizes to collect.

I took a trip to Mexico with Maverick for a friends wedding.
It was lovely.
Bringing home what feels like 50 extra pounds in food is not.
I love sugar and butter and when they are serving seafood doused in butter and an open buffet of desserts I have no self control. None at all. I gorge myself repeatedly, lie in the sun and have a fat attack (when you eat too much and it's painful to move).
Someone roll me back into the ocean so I can float around and digest.

We got some complimentary pictures taken at the resort. The guy with the camera had a blast. Normally a complimentary photo shoot runs about 10 minutes but we were out for over a half an hour.

What was not so lovely was getting a text from my mother the day before. Maverick and I are at a flea market in Mexico and I get a text that consists of "Your dad got in an accident with your truck call me ASAP" the first thing I think is that my dad was hurt and the second was #*$@!!!! I haven't even had that truck for a complete month yet! Turns out the insurance company will not release the truck or information until I verified it, being the only person on the insurance. I gave my dad permission to drive my truck wile I was gone so it did not sit doing nothing for a few weeks. No dads were hurt in the totaling of the little white chevy truck. A kid turned left in front of him at a green light he was driving through and he smoked the hind end of his vehicle, demolishing the passenger side of mine. Luckily the kid had insurance and my truck is getting fixed. Still, it'll never be the same *sniff*.

When we got back from Mexico the little burrito, Pepe was due for a hoof trim. Now if you have ever trimmed feet you've likely encountered a donkey a time or two. They cannot easily be convinced to not at least try once to kick you in the teeth until they truly want to behave. I had been working with Pepe a lot. We worked on holding still wile a limb was picked up and held. A good ol lead rope around a leg with some leverage until he subsided kicking did the trick, until I went to trim him. The last time Maverick trimmed him he pulled one of his wrestling moves on the 250 pound donkey and knocked his ass (pun intended) to the ground and proceeded to trim his feet with his neck sandwiched between his legs where he couldn't get up or kick too well.

I started with him standing upright handling his front hooves. His smart little brain kicked in and he had the idea he knew what was going on and what happened last time. He started hopping up and down and I was in danger of taking off a digit with the hoof knife but he needed his feet done soooo bad. One of his fronts was an inch longer than the other. Why you ask? Well when we got him he obviously had not had any hoof work done. The sensitive structures in his one front hoof was much lower to the ground than the other. Maverick took a tiny bit off and voila, blood. This time I scraped his chalky sole off with a hoof pick and got over half an inch of hoof wall, meaning the quick receded. Yipee!

So anyway, back to donkey wrestling. So Pepe is flailing and Maverick is grinning from ear to ear watching me wrestle a donkey that weighs twice as much as me and stay just on the edge of winning the fight. Finally I snapped at him to come over and knock my ass on the ground (pepe that is). He reached down and tossed him and sat with his neck between his legs. I started trimming and Pepe was making this horrible grunting noise. I think he was trying to lay pity on us because it worked and we let him up. Only then did he stand like a post and let me do the other feet without so much as a flick of a hoof. Good, sweet Pepe, your such a good boy. I have mastered the art of ass whispering.

That'll do donkey, that'll do.

Somehow this summer he managed to scrape the soft fuzz off his grey muzzle in the shape of a heart. Cute.

Hes such an endearing little fellow I don't know how anyone can resist his personality. I've always loved donkeys from afar. They are comical, incredibly intelligent and beyond cute with those long ears. I never really had much of a chance to work with many. Our county is a little short on long ears.
Being around Pepe and seeing the way he does things, takes treats from you ever so gently, hee-haws like hes in a dire hurry but never goes anywhere fast, rules the herd with a pin of his ears and gnash of his teeth (yes the horses get the heck out of his way when he says so, even if hes just above knee height) and follows my every step in the pasture just makes my day. Sometimes he does get in the way. I was out working with the other horses and took a step back only to just about fall over Pepe who had been standing a foot behind me waiting ever so patiently for my attention.

Maverick chased him with his truck the other day I almost peed myself.
See Pepe has a bad habit. Pepe knows the inner and outer workings of getting in and out of any fence.
I was sitting in the passenger seat of mavericks truck glued to the latest issue of western horseman when all of a sudden the truck speeds up and starts honking, followed by several cuss words. I look up just in time to see Pepe bounding like tigger off of winnie the pooh, head and tail in the air and our truck in hot persuit around the circle driveway. Pepe knew exactly what was up because we followed him honking the entire way back to a corner in the pasture. He slyly did the limbo under the hot wire and hauled ass back to the herd, hee-hawing the whole way. We laughed soooo hard. Little bugger. Pepe has discovered the art of getting down and crawling under the fence on his knees to eat the grass on the other side. Or the hay bales.

When I say donkeys are smart, they are smart. Maverick has some hot wire around where some hay bales are. We watch Pepe come over and do the limbo under the hot wire. Maverick cusses and tells me to get my donkey, which I do. He then fixes it and tells me to let Pepe go because he wanted him to know what hot wire was. Hopeful that our little burrito was going to get a little dose of god from his electric fence encounter and leave the hay alone I let him go. He saunters on over in the direction of the hot wire... and does an about face heading off in the other direction just before touching it. Boy was Maverick mad! He mumbled something jokingly about tossing the donkey into the electric fence and walked away, leaving me cracking up.
Donkeys are smart.

I linked Maverick to a craigslist ad for a mini donkey. For the first time since we have known each other he said a resounding "NO!!!". But his ears, and that face, and Pepe, and watching two male donkeys play is the funniest ever!!
We'll see how long that "NO!" lasts.
I think I know what so many other bloggers who own donkeys are talking about.
I am officially hooked on long ears.
Like potato chips, can't have just one...

Things from the past that make you laugh

2011-09-02T19:08:00.003-04:00

You know how sometimes you think about something that happened in the past...
And you burst out in manic laughter at the mere thought.

Roll your mouse over this image to revel in the bushy mustachioed past.

This always makes me laugh.

The post with no name

2011-08-24T20:22:00.006-04:00

Kinda like the horse with no name only I am not lost in the desert and the horses all have names. If they don't bay mare, chestnut gelding, crapaloosa, crow bait or dog food will do. Just kidding on those last two...Well it depends on what horse I am referring to.

Firstly I apologize. Honestly I feel horrible for not posting for almost a month! So, so, sorry. Won't happen again, I promise.

Secondly there's been a lot going on but it feels like nothing at all. Summer is almost over but I haven't accomplished anything other than working my butt off (quite literally). I don't mind the heat. I do mind the BILLION MOSQUITOES we seem to have this year. Ride in the heat and only get a little bit bitten. Ride at night to avoid the heat but get completely molested by the blood sucking winged buggers. I went up northern Michigan last weekend to my uncles and I brought bug spray...Only to not use it even when kayaking down the rifle river. Strange, usually the bugs are bad up there I guess not this year.

Flies have been bad as well. If we don't have rain that's pulling shoes off with a foot of mud causing the horses to step on themselves we have flies that make them stomp and stomp and stomp. It's rained lots here this year. Some horse owners I just plain want to thump on the head with my rasp. They tell me "my horses shoe fell off" I ask if the horse was in mud and they say no. I come to replace said lost shoe only to have a horse walk up with caked mud past it's knees. ^$*#&$(@*(#@)!!!!! But dumb horse owners are a topic for another post.

Maverick has also lost his marbles. I tried to tell him that bushes were not cows but he insisted upon trying to rope them anyway. (Yes I bug him about not wearing a helmet often. For his defense he does look very nice in that hat. I can just hope he doesn't splatter brains on that nice hat ;) ) Although he looks tiny that is not a pony he is riding. That is Sebastian the Morgan who is just under 15hh.

Tell me this is not the cutest thing to come across. I walked around the corner to see Maverick holding Savanah and petting her. They both stared me down with a look of "theres nothing to see here, carry on". She was totally chill just accepting his petting and strange way of holding a smaller dog. I am not sure he's ever had a small dog.
I told Savanah she was a traitor. She cocked her head to the side and wagged her tail like I said car ride, cookie, or something exciting.

I am embarking on an exciting new adventure soon. Indigo is coming with me of course. More on that later.
If you stick around with me a bit more I have a very fun contest and giveaway coming up so stay tuned. I hope everyone's having a good summer with lots of saddle time. Happy trails.

Spookaholic

2011-07-31T10:25:00.003-04:00

Indigo is a pretty brave horse. Shes never said to me "I WON'T". She might hesitate for a moment or give a few spooks. She trusts me and knows where her own feet are and finds her way through anything I have pointed her at with a little encouragement.

Last night I seen her old owner and we had a chat about this spotted pill. Her husband used to ride Indigo. He just wanted to, as she described it "John Wayne", get on the horse and toddle down the trail. Indigo is perfect in an arena or any controlled environment. She most certainly is not a dude ranch trail horse and likely will never be. The only problem is Indigo has an addiction on the trails. Indigo is a spookaholic.

Every person walking in the distance, every bird in a bush, every manhole, asphalt spot on the road or kid on a swing is a potential horse eating monster.
She does the classic dive to the side or the rocket ahead when a bird comes darting out of the bushes. The thing is with Indigo this horse never misses a beat; she sees EVERYTHING.

If you notice every picture I have taken off her back her ears are forward.

When shes in the barn she might fall asleep for a minute only to pirk up suddenly and stare with great interest out the door. She hears every sound, every cat fight and every bird (more on birds later), and probably every mouse. I often startle her when I just walk around the barn and the wind is blowing in the right direction she didn't hear me holler for her before appearing. She jumps, whips her head up, flares her nostrils and bugs her eyes at me, then stares, alternating her ears between whats going on around her and me. After a nicker and studying me for a few seconds she comes over. None of the other horses jump. They look and then continue eating.

Her biggest fear is birds. I don't mean she sees one flying in the air and goes postal. She hates when they flap in bushes. She especially hates when they fly out in any general direction. Don't even get her started on ducks in ditches. They quite possibly might be the end of the world. When all this erupts she just wants to get the hell out of Dodge.

I remember letting a friend ride her a few years ago. This friend has a good seat but not a lot of horsemanship knowledge. Fast forward a mile down the lane and bushes appear. Indigo spooks, my friend reprimands her. Indigo spooks, my friend reprimands her. Lather, rinse, repeat. I mean lather. By the end of that ride Indigo was spooking at things she normally wouldn't give a second glance to. We switched horses.
So I thought about my friends approach as well as many other riders who I have ridden with that had the same reaction to a horse spooking: punishment. Now I know some riders will disagree and say sometimes horses spook to get out of doing work. I do not necessarily agree with that because when you stop work and focus on reprimanding the horse spooking your giving the horse what it want's; an escape from work.

I often talk about how much people teach me about horses. I don't mean sitting there watching someone working with a horse, I mean watching people interact. Maverick and I were at this amusement park called worlds of fun. We just got on this ride called boomerang and a man and his young daughter got in the cart behind us. The young girl was totally terrified. Instead of the dad going "it's going to be ok, it's just a ride" he was bullying her "I don't know what your so scared of, quit crying, STOP IT, ENOUGH, YOUR JUST FINE" telling the girl how she felt when obviously she was scared. About this time the girl was bawling her eyes out and the ride attendants were telling the man she cannot ride because obviously she was that upset. They got the girl off the ride and she went down the off ramp and the father rode the ride alone. We sat there shaking our heads. After we got off the dad caught up with his daughter who's eyes were now dry. He continued to shatter her confidence and respect in him by telling her he couldn't believe she didn't ride and it wasn't even the scariest ride there and she couldn't expect to ride other rides if she couldn't go on that one. Parenting at it's finest.

So backtrack to riders punishing their horses for spooking. Put yourself in the role of that parent and your horse in the role of that girl. By the sounds of the conversation that girl had been on rollercosters before. Maybe your horse has been on trails. Obviously something about that rollercoaster scared the girl. Maybe something about the trail your horse has been on is scary today. Are you going to be the parent who bullies and scares his kids or the rider who pats their horse and tells them it's going to be all right?

So putting this into perspective what do you think will give a kid/horse more respect and confidence in you? Grabbing at the reins and getting upset, making the kid go on the rollercoaster or praise and encouragement?

It takes a long time to make a confirmed spookaholic come clean but it's possible.

You won't hear me complaining

2011-07-26T22:32:00.002-04:00

Last week we broke records for heat.
I really never remember it being in the triple digits here too often. Now before you all go getting your nickers in a twist we have horrible humidity here compared to a lot of places. Of course it's not as hot as say, Arizona. Something that is 95 here feels like 115 elsewhere. You sweat just standing still. The day I left Oklahoma it was 95 and I was just comfortable in shorts and a tank top.

Last Wednesday and Thursday were two of those scorching hot days. Wednesday had no breeze. At about 1 pm on Wednesday I looked at this thermometer inside one of my barns it says 104 Fahrenheit in the shade. Yikes! The cement was sweating, the horses were sweating. Standing in front of a fan just blew hot air at you and hosing yourself off just made you more hot once you stopped for 10 seconds. I found a little relief riding horses before 8 am or after 7 pm if the bugs didn't carry you away. This meant a lot of stomping, which meant some loose or lost shoes.
So on the hottest day, Thursday the 22nd of July, 2011 I get this call from a client it went something along the lines of she had to show her horse on Friday (the next day) and her horse lost one of it's sliders, which are crucial in the sport of reining. I asked her how long the horse had the shoe off, expecting to say she found it in the paddock that morning. She replies with "Oh Monday I think, maybe a few days before that". *insert the sound of me hitting my head off a solid object repeatedly* Yup, I'll be right over.
So after this is all said and done and I mop up my weight in sweat, I hose Indigo off who was also drenched in sweat. I was also extra kind and braided her mane since her neck under it was drenched with sweat. She repays me by immediately doing this.
Thursday luckily there was a bit of a breeze so it took some of the edge off the scorching heat. I went swimming in a pool that was as hot as the hot tub and still couldn't cool off so I decided to ditch my work boots and go for a bareback ride in the evening. Only my feet were tired and sweaty so I ditched my shoes as well.
Indigo always has had a thing for smelling boots. You get on her back and she turns to smell where you have been . Toes were quite intriguing.

Then of course when I do get home and drink a few gallons of water I start reading facebook. I have a love hate relationship with that site. I love it because I get to talk to and see my friends and family that live far away. I hate it because I have to read everyone venting about everything that's horrible and wrong with the world and people. Gossip, childish fights, passive aggressive statuses. I see on there a couple days ago a fellow rider complaining about riding breeches and how hard they are to peel off after a one hour ride. I piped up. I would gladly trade a pair of riding breeches and a one hour ride for shoeing 6 horses in jeans and a tank top with sweat dripping down your face and into your eyes wile you wrestle a horse trying to do the macarena on three feet wile you hold the fourth. We'll trade, then we can talk about who gets complaining rights about the heat.
Not that I am complaining, I would take his heat over winter any day.

Today we finally got a break in weather. I got a lot done today even managing an evening ride around 7:30 on my own horse.Can't summer stay around forever?

Sweet summertime

2011-07-11T16:40:00.018-04:00

I had a wonderful 10 day ~~vac~~workation.

It started with me jumping out of the truck and onto the hay wagon. Not that I mind I like baling and having never used baling wire, hay hooks and baling on and over terraces (did I mention how flat it is at home?) it was a bit interesting. We had to do straw though and it was a lot hotter than it's been.

I spent some time with this little fellow who has stolen my heart with his big ears, little muzzle and liesurely way of getting someplace in a "hurry", AKA- I'm going to bray at the top of my lungs the whole way wile walking to you.
This one too. Same thing as above minus the fur and big ears. Though he does bray at the top of his lungs if you eat the top and cherries off his pie, the last piece of cherry pie he made a special trip back to the table for. Then leave him the crust and some filling goo for him to discover. He gets all kinds of excited about it. True story.

Vacation involved other things than sabotaging Maverick's desert.

Chickens who lay green eggs and ham and are named Lucky. So I was told by a little blonde girl.

Snapping turtles

Cats. How they always find me I will never know. I must have sucker for scritches written all over me.

Peculiar looking moths.

New boots

Maverick in boots.

Maverick on tractors.

Sitting by farm ponds at sunset.

And putting hand prints all over dirty trucks just because.

mmmmhm, good times. Summertime.

Blacksmith or pig farrier?

2011-06-25T16:19:00.004-04:00

I'm alive. Busy but alive. 10-11 pm is usually my home time these days so sleeping and eating takes higher priority than blogging unfortunately.
With competition in full swing I have been putting on sliding plates and barrel rims so much I dream about them. No really I do dream about feet. I wake up paring soles but there's no foot in my hand. It's unnerving.
luckily I leave in less than a week for a 10 day vacation, THANK GOODNESS!

Going to so many different barns I see crazy things that people do with their horses. I've learned to nod and accept whatever people are doing with their horses (unless neglect/inhumanely being handled, obviously). In the last couple months I've seen some strraannnngggeee stuff in barns and on the way to or from them.

Like the other day I'm at this guys barn. Hes probably in his 50's and has a couple ponies and draft crosses. I'm trimming and hes carrying on about who knows what. Then he pipes up "I ain't got no pasture. They have that pen but it's all dirt so I tie them there to that tire with a logging chain and some rope." I respond without looking over "Oh yeah?", ignoring the point thats a little 1920's. He points and sure enough is this huge tractor tire in the grass on the other side of the barn. He went on to explain how the horses figure out the rope eventually, which I am sure they would. None of them had any marks on their legs from being tangled up or anything. The guy was dead serious too because as I was leaving he clipped the horse to the tire and let him graze. I had to snicker because just a week before a friend of mine was talking about her childhood pony and how they used to tie him to a tire or tree to let him graze but she didn't tell many people because they thought it was crazy to do that to a horse. Each to his own I guess.

Then there's this billy goat. So I am driving to a barn and along the highway I see this lady and what I assume is a large golden retriever. By the long tan hair and size of the animal the lady looked to be walking her dog along the highway. She slapped it on the rump just as I was coming upon them. The "dog" rears it's large curly horned head in an obvious tiff, turns around and starts chasing the girl who turns on her heel and high tails it down the side of the road, billy goat in hot, furious pursuit. I flew right past them, quickly looking in the rear view mirror and said out loud "Did I just see that!?". The girl was still running but the goat was slowing down, tossing it's head as if to say to the lady "That is for interrupting my meal!". It had probably been loose from the house in the direction they were running. Really random, but something only I would see in a days work.

Then last week I had the strangest request. I am at this barn a couple towns over trimming two horses and shoeing one. They had a daughter about 5 years old or so and she had this pet potbellied pig they just got. Miss piggy was so long in the toe and walking on her pasterns from years of neglect with the previous owners care. In other words she was in dire need of a mani/pedi. You can guess what I am getting at. I trimmed and shod the horses the owner pipes up and asks me to trim said pig. I shrug my shoulders "suuuure, why not".

Now potbellied pigs can be nice, or mean depending on how they are treated and trained (just like donkeys I find) this one was quite friendly and knew a few tricks including how to sit, lie down and play dead. If they are trained properly you can also pick their feet up and trim them similar to a horses feet, as their feet are alike in structure (minus the cloven part).

So anyways this pig was a sucker for belly scratches but was not having me handling it's feet. So I did what I had to for a pig in dire need of a trim: flipped her on her back and stood over her so she couldn't flail.
This is where I wished I had a pair of earplugs with me. Miss piggy starts weeing and WEEING and oh my gosh, WEEING the most earsplitting, your killing the pig, cry and I hadn't even touched her with the nippers yet.

About 5-10 minutes later her toes were back to where they should have been minus our ear drums. The little girl who owned piggy bends over as I am flipping her and exclaims to her pig "See, doesn't that feel better?" no sooner had those words come out of her mouth did the pig flip over in a blind rage and barrel between her young owners legs, sending her reeling over backwards right on her butt, unharmed. Miss piggy decided a rampage was in order to tell the world of the disgust in getting her feet trimmed. Water and food dishes were flipped, toys tossed and lots of grunting and disgusted squealing. Piggy's little owner stands up, completely disheveled "My pig, I can't believe my pig did that to me." Up to this point I had kept a strait face but I couldn't anymore. I cracked and started laughing.

The whole scenario was humorous and kept me grinning the rest of the night.
We just needed a banjo playing to complete the mood.

Re-run: Scene of a murder

2011-06-13T16:36:00.000-04:00

Re-run's will be of the blogs most commented/favorite posts that I will re-post periodically.

Probably an all time blog favorite I have had a request for this funny post a few times.
Wile Indigo has not had the virtue of stealing any more slushies, she has done her share of expanding her palate at my own snack's cost. Enjoy.

-----------------------------

Sometimes when I am done my barns on the way back to ride my own beastie I stop by a local diner and get my favorite: sweet potato fries and a slushie. I finished the fries but still had the slushie left. Oh how I love their red slushies. Apparently someone else does too.

I went into the barnyard today and quickly noticed a T-post that held the electric fencing up was falling over. I put my red slush on the old silo foundation and went to fixing fence. It didn't take long and the fence was standing up strait again, but wile my back was turned someone killed my whole slushie in seconds. I was mortified at the scene left (not to mention being left with an unsatisfied sweet tooth)

Exhibit A
Empty cup once containing said slushie. Straw carelessly tossed aside.

Exhibit B

Suspicious red stains.

Exhibit C

Lip smacking that only a red slushie could be the cause of.

The criminal?
Plead guilty of course.
Also asked for more red slushie. The nerve!

Verdict:
Horses now know how to use straws, I am completely sure of it.

We are doomed.

Time, ambition or lack therof

2011-06-03T10:40:00.006-04:00

It finally stopped raining (I know someone slap me for saying that word). Most places are dried up but we are gonna get more next week according to the weather network.
I am so sick of mud and rain.
The bugs this year are the worst I have seen this time of year.
Every year on the dot it seems the may 24 weekend the bugs come out. Normally this time of year a quick wipe with some fly repellent and you are good all day. Not this year, oooh no. These flies are back with a vengeance. Sheba and Indigo have been hiding in the shed the last week. They eat their hay and skitter on over to hide in the darkness.
The flies usually aren't this bad until July-ish. First we have sturgeon flies, then fish flies then mosquitoes and last but not least the biting flies.
Driving Indigo yesterday we got completely eaten alive by mosquitoes. They are everywhere. I am really not looking forward to this fly season if it is already this bad.

One instructor quit at my therapeutic barn. I got extra hours. Although more time=more money I am not quite sure more time is available without me pulling hair. They gave me the other instructors hours. Plus now that the mud has seemed to clear up a little people are popping out of the woodwork for shoes. Horses are almost two months behind on training and conditioning because people can't ride in the mud. Reiners need sliding plates, barrel racers want rim shoes for traction, trail horses want caulks. This plus 4-H in our area. I am the only real leader. I have another girl who helps out and wile she does a phenomenal job I desperately need another leader who knows horses and can help me lead the club and teach these kids good horsemanship skills. We were supposed to have a car wash this Saturday but I had something like 4 or 5 kids showing up. I don't think so! I can go riding any time I want so it doesn't hurt me if they don't make the money for their year end trip. If these kids want their big trail ride they are going to darn well show up and do some fund raising.

I have so much to do here before I leave the first week of July for a little trip. I can't seem to find the ambition to do it. Since moving back home from Oklahoma 4 of my good close friends have moved 3 to 10 hours away. I feel like I get up in the morning, feed horses, ride horses, do stalls, ride more horses, drive/ride Indigo, trim horses, shoe horses, go home eat, internet, internet, play with dog, internet (note: should be cleaning or doing something mildly productive) sleep, rinse repeat. I need more random time in there for some non-horse related fun with friends but it's proving hard when no ones around or available. This summer looks like it's going to be a very boring one.

Now a word from the spotty horse:

"O hai"

"Something for me?"

"A cookie you say?"

"If you insist"

"omnomnomnom"

Wile you were gone...

2011-05-27T20:43:00.002-04:00

I went outside for 30 seconds to grab a couple things I forgot.
I come back to find a theif!!!

I wonder how many times Indigo has done this wile I was gone to school?
She seemed to know right where the money was.

A review: Hoof dressings

2011-05-24T23:05:00.003-04:00

The great people at Absorbine sent me another product to review.
As many of you know I am now considered a hoof care professional. I've seen lots of hooves at school and many since I have been home. The hooves at school in Oklahoma were rock hard. Taking a hoof knife to them was nearly impossible. Now that I am back home it's been raining pretty much non stop. Hooves here are what I refer to as "swamp feet". They are mushy and full of thrush and sticky mud.

This also means they are getting wet and more wet and oh, did I mention wet? It's like having your hands in dish water all day. Their perioples are peeling up and hooves are cracking and looking shelly and brittle. Too much moisture is a bad thing.

Normally I use Fiebings hoof lotion and strait arrows hoofmaker. Both have given me favorable results. I've been through a lot of hoof stuff. I like to use it when it's extremely wet, extremely dry or after I use hoof polish for shows because it dries the feet out.

When I was sent some all new natural hooflex I had an interesting encounter. First of all it's all natural. I love the fact I am not using chemicals on my horse. Secondly it came in a spray and a normal brush and bottle style.
I loved the fact that the spray bottle was not aerosol. However we did have a couple glitches with the sprayer which led us to believe they got frozen in transit and gave me some mixed results. I was promptly sent more bottles of natural hooflex in the brush on container for me to continue testing. I've used it on every horse I have shod and trimmed so far and the results have been lovely. I'll give you the pro's and con's of hooflex natural compared to my old favorite, Fiebings.

First of all I would like to point out that picking your horses feet every day or as much as possible will yield better results with any product in really muddy conditions. The bottom of your horses feet will have time to dry out and there will be less time for stuff to pack in and create bruising or thrush.

Please excuse the dirty floor. Sometimes things like sweeping before pictures goes right over my head.
Indigo's feet. They are looking much better now that I have been keeping up on them every 2 weeks but shes still a bit ouchy on stones and gets little chips here and there that cause me to always have an old rasp on hand in my tack locker. A far cry from the VERY unbalanced feet with a lot of retained sole I came home from school to. I promptly started applying the natural hooflex every other day, especially after trims.
Everyone's horse that I did got the hooflex applied after I trimmed or shod them. Everyone had very positive results.

So here is to comparing the two favorites for liquid hoof lotion. The Fiebings had some hoof pick like thing on top of the brush. If you want to know what happened to it just ask Indigo and her big yellow teeth.

Hooflex, all natural ingredients. I especially like the fact that it has arnica in it. As you know I am a huge fan of arnica and the benefits of it's anti-inflammatory properties. I've seen it used time and time again on horse and human alike and the results never stop amazing me. I think a hoof product that has arnica in it can do wonders for a hoof that has swelling, be it laminitis, founder, broken coffin bone, abscess, bruising, navicular etc.

It's clear. Well it was. I keep using it and so I got gunk in it from dirty feet, dust and general barn whatnot.

It also smells good. I got it all over my hands in the making of these blog photo's.

Now for the Fiebings.

Well I am guessing from the colour and smell the main ingredient would be neatsfoot oil. It was also listed in the ingredients. It smells like a saddle dressing. Neatsfoot oil typically was made from the legs and hooves of some animals (mostly cows) but can be found made from lard. Because of it's low melting point it can soak into things easily (leather, feet etc). However it leaves an oily residue that can be difficult to get rid of on the surface it was applied. The same was said for my horses hair. Indigo the notorious white dirt roller she is managed to get the fiebings every stinking time on her white legs. Dust and dirt would settle and cause gross patches of dirty, oily hair that I would have to wash several times to get clean.
Not surprising since the colour is yellowy.

So I tried both.

The results looked the same. (Her feet are really not shaped like that I got some on her coronet band so it looks like her feet are really off balance but they aren't)

But the next day (which unfortunately I don't have pictures of, sorry!) the results were in. The hoof on the left was the Fiebings. It had obviously rubbed off all over her coronet band, nose and opposite leg leaving oily, dirty spots. The hoof looked like it did in the before photo's where it hadn't been applied yet and I just brushed the mud off.

The hooflex hoof on the right had a beautiful natural shine to it. No gunk on her coronet band or on her hair in general. Just a nice shiny hoof. I am definitely, definitely going to be using this product in the future. I love it, clients love it, hooves love it. It's natural so that means it can be used on horses that might absorb it into their skin and have it show up in tests like race horses or show horses. Great product. I can't wait until it is available in my area because I want to continue using it.

-------------------

In other news on the blog world's favorite spotty horse:
Now that I got Indigo's feet going in the right direction I need to tackle stains so maybe, just maybe by the time the good shows start she might be sorta, kinda white. I had a horse breed show to bring her to on the weekend. I started washing her tail a few days beforehand and it's still not as white as it should be. Her hocks are also still slightly stained even after washing her three times the night before the show. Not even cowboy magic green spot remover and vinegar could tackle these winter long pee stains in one sitting.
Today I rode her down the road and picked asparagus then headed over back along a field. She is completely convinced that ducks flying out of the ditch just might be this rapture everyone's been talking about. They don't quack, they just fly up and out of the ditch every 50 feet or so along the back of this one field. End.Of.The.World.
The bugs were super bad for the first time today. Even with cheap bronco fly spray they totally ignored it and were making her swishy. I find every year on the dot Victoria day weekend the flies come out in swarms. They reared their ugly heads today and made our ride full of frequent pauses for whole body shakes, nipping at flies and itching faces on legs.
So after this ride I hosed her down and let her out to graze wile I put some stuff away only to see her furiously batting flies with her tail then circling with malicious intent. Uh oh. It was gonna happen eventually but I would rather her not grass stain herself. She rolled with a few big happy grunts in the grass, got back up and greened her other side too. Oh Indigo, if only you appreciate how hard I work to keep you looking spotty and somewhat white. Another day, another groom, another de-staining.

Mind your manners

2011-05-16T19:34:00.003-04:00

Manners. Something we are always told to mind from an early age.
Looking at how we raise human children from the time they are born we talk to them, show them things they should and shouldn't do and give consequences for when they breach the boundaries. We like to talk and interact with respectful children. They are polite, mind their P's and Q's and are usually rewarded with more responsibility.
In the same category are our "four legged children". Just like human babies, foals are cute. They look cuddly and usually are curious and like to be scratched and fed things. Sometimes I think we overlook the fact that they are 100 pounds now but will grow 10 times that or more by the time we actually need their respect.

I've thought about this a lot over the last three weeks and a few days since I have been home. I know I have not blogged a lot and I apologize to my readers who are still here. I love you guys.
This kind of stemmed from a couple posts ago how I got bit on the top of the head by the PITA (Pain in the a$$) warmblood. No I did not need stitches I just had a big goose egg for a few days.

I've been in on average 5-8 barns a day since I have been home. I see all sorts of horses that are ridden and handled all sorts of ways. I can categorize them by their owners really, but that's for another post. Right now I want to focus on the horses behaviors in regards to manners in the long run.

Here are some things I notice the horses that are going to hurt you display.

Reaching out to you as you come close.
If a horse has to be in a stall it is nice that he is allowed to look around by poking his head into the isle way. Some barns accommodate this by making extra wide isle ways. Personally I am of the belief that a properly mannered horse should move out of your way when you walk. I don't want to have to avoid horse heads when I am walking or leading another horse. Same goes with being out in a paddock. I want my horses to come closer when I ask, not come poking and nosing around when they please. You don't see the lead mare getting poked at by a younger horse because that usually means there's a consequence just like you wouldn't see a human child come poking into an adults space. It's rude and eventually will lead to the horse going "Gee I am allowed to touch (human) whenever I want, I wonder what skin tastes like?" and you get bit or at the very least end up with a lippy horse.
I work with horses feet. I do not appreciate getting goosed by a clients horse wile I am handling their feet. I also do not like having heads resting on my back or snot being snorted up the back of my shirt.
For horses in stalls I spin a lead rope as I walk by. They do not become head shy because they run into the rope themselves. They learn that sticking their great big heads out (especially to bite me on top of the head) is not a really good idea because there's consequences they cause themselves. If a horse is in a paddock I'll shoo them away, poke their nosy-nose or rub their face in a way it's very annoying to be in my space.
If I want them to be near me I will approach them. It's perfectly acceptable to come to me which horses will do and I like a horse to do (I am lazy I hate having to "catch" horses) but keep your nose to yourself. The nose turns into lips and lips turn into teeth and I am 100% certain people don't like to get bit by big yellow horse teeth.
Curiosity is very acceptable but there's a time and place which does not belong with sticking their nose and possibly teeth in my business without being invited (EG- A hand offered to smell).

Backing.
Or lack thereof.
I have a saying and it's so far as I have ever seen. Your horse only stops as good as he backs up. This is very true on the ground and in the saddle.
A horse that can be backed up properly will flex at the poll and shift his weight to the hind end on the ground and in the saddle. This means the horse has accepted the pressure you are creating and is going with it, not bracing against it with his nose out in front of him. I can go as far as to say most horses when I apply pressure to the halter stick their noses out and brace against the pressure in the barns I am at.
I'll give you this scenario. I was working at my new barn, the state of the art one. The horses there are handled by lots of people some with horse experience and even more without because they need volunteers to run a place like that. The horses there are depressed and every single one of them display a condition called learned helplessness. They would have in human terms "Chronic depression". They often act out violently, biting at handlers when asked to trot and in extreme scenario's kicking or striking out. Today I had this young kind of problem gelding. He was kind of antsy tacking him up and when we got him into the arena after one trip around I had to dismount his rider when he charged ahead and threw a buck. I tried to stop him as a ground handler but he stuck his nose out and pushed right through my pressure. Long story short we got him another horse. The other horse went to spook at the same thing, tried for a second to push through the pressure but he stopped, flexed at the poll and allowed me to back him several steps instead of taking off and bucking once.
I was at a barn today shoeing some horses. They were very well mannered and were easy to handle. I backed every one up a few steps in the cross ties easily, even when a bit startled and jumped forward. Guess what each one did? Yup they flexed at the poll and backed without sticking their nose out and leaning on my pressure.
Leaning into pressure also means a horse will rub on a rider. This is getting away with murder in my opinion. In no way do I look like a fence post or will I ever be a fence post. Bridles are made of materials that can bruise or cut my skin I am not a personal scratching post. When I take a bridle off there will be no rubbing, pushing, scratching. Period. If a horse wants to scratch once the bridle is off and I am not handling it anymore be my guest.

Not turning to face you when you approach.
This is a big no-no. You never see a horse keep his butt to the lead mare when she approaches. You can bet that horse is going to turn around and give that mare both ears out of respect (and possibly the ruling of her iron fist...err hoof). Think about it as if you were talking to another person. You acknowledge them and their back is turned but instead of turning to greet you they keep their back turned to you wile you talk. Rude right?
I cannot count the times I went to get a horse that was in a pen or stall and I clicked to them to say "hey I am here" and have had them either ignore me or reply with a threatening hoof and nasty look. Neither is acceptable. You can teach a horse this many ways. I prefer when in an enclosed space to tap them (rope, lunge whip, halter, broom, whatever you have) until they turn to face you. Generally teaching a horse how to disengage his hindquarters from the ground is adequate enough to move a horses hind end when you look at it.

So from getting at all this basically they are three common things that results from lack of being able to control where a horse moves. If you have a say in where his legs go you have control over where his mind goes. If you control his head his legs must follow.

I see these are the three most common things that horses are allowed to get away with on the ground. They seem to branch off into hundreds of other behavioral problems that I could talk all day about. I love a horse that is well mannered just like I love people who are well mannered. They are easy to get along with, don't invade your space without being asked and respect your opinions.
So having said that, what are some things you hate that other peoples horses do. Did your horses do them (or do the above listed). How did you correct them or are you still fighting the issues? I would love to hear.

Who has a cute little ass?

2011-05-09T23:58:00.009-04:00

What does a cute little ass, $50 and trimming horses have in common?

Any guesses?
Any?
Any at all?

It all starts with the cowboy, herein known as Maverick. (If you don't get this reference firstly go slap yourself, then go google it and finally invest in the series. A true classic.)

Though James Garner Maverick didn't wear a carhartt jacket.

Anyway back to the main issue here.
So Maverick was out shoeing and trimming horses.
Amongst the horses was this cute little dude.

Maverick knew how much I wanted a cute little ass to call my own, how much I talked about them and was the first to crack an ass joke at school when a donkey or mule came in. I was also usually the first to offer a trim for the mini asses at school when they came in because the boys were not fluent in ass whispering and often got their asses kicked.

So Maverick asked about said little ass. It so happens this little ass was a bargain, having come free with some rescue horses. At just $50 he was for the taking of the first po~~or sucker~~ person sympathetic enough to give him a home.

He was a big sucker for ass scratches.
The cute little ass that is, not Maverick.
I won't lie, I shrieked with delight upon seeing this picture.
It was the ass scratchings that did it, I am sure.

So Maverick loaded him up and took him home after calling me and telling me he got me my cute little ass. Part of the $50 deal was he had to bring him home... that night.
Umm...Did you just send me a picture of someone riding in the back of your truck with said cute little ass?
Uh yeah mmhm.
I guess if the goose neck hitch is good enough to hold the trailer in place the cute little ass can't beat it up too bad if someone rides back there to keep him company, right? It's only a few miles home.

Well that night the cute little ass was let loose with Mavericks horses. Although the cute little ass is barely knee height he tore a strip off of every one of them. The horses will make a wide berth when this little dude comes a walking.

So moral of this story is his name is Pepe. He has already trained Maverick well, who promptly bought a large bag of horse treats specifically for him. He already knows where the small spots in the fencing are and climbs in and out regularly to see who is going to fork up his next taste of grain or a treat.
I think we might have the worlds smartest ass on our hands. We'll see how he takes to the harness and cart later this summer.

Collective thoughts

2011-05-06T08:58:00.001-04:00

So many things I have had to think about since I went to school and have come back.
I'll number them, no particular order.

1. Breeding season is in full swing: Think about it when you breed this year. When I was in school we got so many horses with poor conformation, poor attitudes as a result of poor breeding that no one wanted cause of someones decision to breed a horse instead of buying. Make sure the horse you are going to be creating is in demand, even if you don't plan to sell them now down the road you would hope they can have a good chance at a good home.

2. Especially paints. Now if you have read this blog long enough you will know I am not the biggest fan of paints. However having said that I do like a well bred paint I just have seen far too many come into that school and back home that were bred because the owner drank the "kolor koolaid". Half of them are bats*&^t crazy because they have some sort of genetic link missing from their brain which makes them short circuit at every obstacle in life. But they might have a pretty coat colour, never mind them having good conformation. They are not worth anything for a good, working/showing home because they are going to have problems and not be able to perform their jobs. I do not blame the horses nor do I hate EVERY paint horse I just have found more than any other breed paint horses are abused in the breeding industry. I blame the owners who breed low grade horses, I blame the owners for not dealing with behavioral issues, I blame the OWNERS. There are SO MANY unwanted horses out there and lets face it, the horse selling industry is in the crapper. Give another horse a chance and think about going to buy someone elses baby instead of breeding this year. This applies for all breeds.

3. Nature, seriously you can stop raining any time now. The sun can come out and we can break 60 degrees. Oh how I miss 95 and dry in Oklahoma. I do not however miss the dry, hard as rock feet though I smelled slightly less like a thrushy decaying hoof there.

4. I'm still not done unpacking. Nope, everything is all over.

5. I've had my fill of big, dumb horse with lazy owner. One barn I work at has this warmblood. Ok, a lot of barns I work at have warmbloods but this particular one is SPOILED beyond belief (See #2 about the owners). He was orphaned as a foal and although would be a very lovely animal he was treated like a big dog. Well said spoiled 1400 PAIN IN THE ARSE has the habit of sticking his gigantic block head out of his stall the moment I walk by to try and knock me out with his anvil of a skull. I've been warned he "play bites". Putting the word play in front of bite does not excuse the 1400 pound PITA. I shut his stall so he couldn't bite horses, or me. I am tall enough but hes taller. 1400 pound PITA bit me RIGHT ON TOP OF THE HEAD from over the top board of the stall.
I foresee a hair-on horse couch in my living rooms future.

6. Even though I have been home for two weeks, give or take a few days, it feels like I have been home for months. Months away from cool mornings in forge class, months away from shoeing untouched, crazy horses, months away from such good friends. Thank goodness for facebook!

7. Something I have seen a lot of wile back home: Not a lot of farriers check the lengths or angles of their horses feet to make sure they match. You can check length by fluffing the hair up on the coronet band and measuring from where the hairline starts to the ground with a tape measure or if you have them a set of calipers. Unless your horse is lame or has a serious one sided conformation problem theres no way hes going to take off a significant (1/8-1/2 inch can make a huge difference in how the horse moves) amount of hoof on one foot and not the other. Why does this happen? Well the ground, hair, environment or how the horse is standing can play tricks on the eyes of even experienced farriers. It was stressed so much in school to check angles with a gauge and length with calipers. A little bit off, especially on a horse that is being used can make them a lot off in the long run.

8. Sole. With the weather we have here as an extreme wet where horses are kept in stalls more than turned out or do not have enough of an abrasive surface in their paddocks. I am seeing a lot of retained soles that are hiding layers of chalky sole, past abscess holes and thrush that you didn't think was there. Layers and layers of sole that is not properly exfoliated will be breeding grounds for thrush. Remember last week when I was talking about being covered in thrush? That was really bad sole thrush that quite literally squirted out of the foot when I started taking away the chalky sole. Excess sole that cannot exfoliate also risks the potential of causing pain to the foot by placing too much pressure on the circumflex artery in the foot which in turn reduces circulation and can cause a whole mess of other problems and lameness's.

9. Just so you know I am not racist, I just happen to like less paints than most breeds so don't go getting your panties in a knot because it does not apply to all paint horses.
I do really like this paint stallion. They do a good job at raising properly conformed horses with good minds and solid upbringing. Lots of thought is put into breeding the horses on that property and I really haven't met one of his offspring I didn't like. They are local but are known all over North America. Good horses.

10. Keep the horse between you and the ground because the ground is really muddy right now.

Sunday stills: Rust

2011-05-01T00:00:00.000-04:00

I apologize I haven't been around for many Sunday stills since I went to school. There was just not the appropriate internet connection available to be uploading pictures.

I'll try to get the challenge done every week from now on so long as I have an internet connection (which I should).

Rust and rusty things. Let me tell you about some rust and hammers.

First hammers need to be well balanced if you are using them all the time. Balanced for the length of your arm and the proper weight for the job. If the hammers handle is too long and your arm is too short it is going to stress your elbow. If the handle is too short and your arm is too long it's going to stress your wrist. Just saying, first hand experience here. Literally, I hit my hands A LOT. I also do not recommend hitting appendages of your body with hammers because the outcome is almost always black and blue.

These hammers however are part of my family history. They sit here on my fathers workbench in the garage just waiting to be used once again.

After spending oh about...$500 on hammers at school I come home to find my dad had my grandfathers old forging hammers and never even told me!! Almost as if they were made for me in weight and handle length these hammers from the past are now mine to forge with just as my grandfather did in his shop. A bit rusty from years of sitting in a tool box they are better to me than my mass produced expensive hammers. They may be rusty but quite useful for many years to come. Too bad they didn't keep the old anvil too, I would have loved that.

I've washed my hands four times

2011-04-28T22:31:00.004-04:00

And they still smell like thrush. Oh and I took a shower so they smell like thrush and shampoo.

Today so I thought was going to be a relatively event-less day. I really only had one thing planned that had a certain time. I felt like I had nothing to do and like usual when I feel like I have nothing to do I get swamped with more stuff than I should be able to do.

I was eating breakfast and puttering around when a friend called me. He had some horses that were in dire need of a trim and correcting. After a brief conversation I made plans on short notice to trim some horses later that day.

I cleaned out the rest of the calf barn which needs to be done by hand. I cleaned it maybe a week before I went to Oklahoma. Straw was added mostly every day so horses weren't lying or standing on soaked bedding and there is enough ventilation and stall dry added that it isn't a problem to go a few weeks. Well let me tell you about 14 weeks of two horses pooping (Sheba and Indigo) turned out to be a bit much.
When I was in Oklahoma I think I cleaned one stall in total. This meant when it came time to clean the shed I was totally out of stall cleaning shape. Sure I could wrestle and shoe a large horse but cleaning stalls just killed me. My old shoulder injury of the torn rotator cuff started throbbing. I admit I only got 2/3 of the shed done and quit and I've never quit. So today I finished it with the help of the broom eating horse, Indigo who seems to still have her taste for corn brooms.
The wind here is unreal. The back barn door blew off and the wind took the aluminum shovel right out of my hands! The good thing about wind is it will dry up the really crazy amount of rain that has occurred here. Who thinks I should go back to 95 and dry in Oklahoma? Meee!!

After finishing the shed I brought the spotty horse in to work on her feet a bit more. She was ouchy a little bit still but her soles are exfoliating more. A little visitor came to brush and sit on Indigo before I was on my way to my new job. Yep another job.

Right before I went to Oklahoma I got a phone call from the head instructor of our local therapeutic riding center. They just got a lot of money and a biiiiig government grant to build a new facility since their old one was being built up around just outside the city. I never handed in my resume, they hand picked me.

Long story short I came in a couple days and they hired me, part time for now but before long they said it will likely be full time. I am going to get my NARHA certification and teach riding and hopefully driving lessons. No one else in this county can compare to the program they run of over 200 students! So in August I will go to get certified which I am pumped about. They said if I take an apprenticeship for shoeing they will hire me on as a farrier when I come back to do all their horses feet.

After I was done there helping with lessons and tacking up horses I scooted over to trim some badly balanced feet. Ever seen thrush squirt out of a horses sole before? For the life of your fingers and nose I hope none of you ever do. It smells AWFUL! Hopefully the horses will be on a more regular trimming schedule this time. No pictures, it was too dark and rainy. Soon though.

It seems everything is falling in place, but the anti thrush stink soap.

This is a good reason...

2011-04-25T00:50:00.007-04:00

To come home.

Just as I am reconsidering my trip back to Canada from Oklahoma because of the cool temperatures, still naked tress and mud, mud, mud, I hopped on the spotty horses back.

I rode her but not before doing her feet. I mentioned about her feet being a mess, well they were and still are not correct. When I left she had lovely concave feet with good toe callouses for a barefoot horse. Her frogs were big, healthy and she was sound without shoes on, not even ouchy over big gravel.
I came home and before I even picked her feet out I noticed she was off just leading her into the barn. I picked her feet and to my horror I found flares in all directions, medial-lateral balance completely off and soles that had appeared to pancake completely without any exfoliation. She was tiptoeing around on flat ground.
I got to work right away and found the complete polar opposite of Oklahoma "granite" feet; swamp feet. Her feet were picked frequently wile I was gone and she had 12 weeks to be a horse and not be worked. She did not have thrush but her soles mainly concerned me when it came to her being very tender footed. There was too much sole pressure on her circumflex artery.
I knifed and knifed and knifed and nipped and rasped as much as I dared for one day, making her feet somewhat more concave. Her soles hadn't so much as thought of exfoliating with the wet Canadian winter and spring we seem to be having. With some luck since I have been home and trimmed her (Thursday the 21st) I noticed yesterday that her soles have started to exfoliate again and her frogs almost overnight have expanded. Concavity is starting to come back to her feet.
Because Indigo is a little toed out, as a very alarming number of horses are due to them never getting trimmed as foals (topic for an upcoming future post), she needs balancing more often than other horses. Her feet were trimmed wile I was gone and I am thankful for that but I should have paid for another time because though 6-8 weeks is what farriers gripe about, most barefoot horses need to be maintained and balanced which means more frequent trimming intervals. This goes a long way towards your horses limbs well being, especially a horse you plan to use regularly. You can let them go 8,10, 12+ weeks but by the time your farrier comes by and has to hack off a ton of hoof on one side, heel or toe because your horse isn't balanced, the horses limbs will suffer the sudden change. Tendons tighten and loosen, ligaments are strained and muscles thrown out of whack. From what I have seen in the horse hoof world now that I have been more educated is that not a lot of farriers put thought into medial, lateral balance, no matter how well they can put a shoe on. I wish more owners seen it. Before I went to school I seen it but never paid any mind to it. So do your hoofcare provider a favor and look at your horses feet regularly and note any changes.

The day after I got home I trimmed Indigo and went for a quick bareback ride across the alfalfa field. She was ouchy even on the soft ground but obviously not feeling bad enough to pass up a good ol toss of her head, hump of her back and a launch off all fours into the air in an attempt to land me on my butt in the soggy field when a van went by making a startling noise. Silly spotty horse, you just keep thinking I don't know your tricks by now. Try again.

As I mentioned her feet are looking much better just after a few days so I hopped on her again. Before I even got to the driveway the spotted pill made an attempt to trot off. I don't think so. She was tender on the gravel but the soft grass sparked something in her as she gathered herself up and tried to slowly jog her way into getting away with murder.

If I had come back just to ride this horse it would have been worth it. I rode quite the bit in Oklahoma but nothing is quite like this little DIRTY

FILTHY HORSE!!!

Ok, seriously Indigo I had to deal with enough S^&% head paint horses in Oklahoma. Giving yourself a mudero coat pattern is so not necessary.

Real funny.

Can't someone make the weather go back to 95 and dry already? I would really fancy an afternoon ride wearing a tank top right now.

All pictures in this post by Sarah

Home

2011-04-22T22:29:00.001-04:00

This is so not fair... So not fair.
The day I left Oklahoma I could have been in shorts and a tank top but I had to shoe ponies so jeans it was. Safety sandals don't work as well as they claim anyway.

I got my diploma, sweaty in a t-shirt.
So much has happened at school.

I spent a few days in Missouri with a certain cowboy.

"Hey, whatcha doin' over there with that camera?"

"Are you taking my picture?"

Why yes, yes I am. Hold still the lighting isn't that good.

"Fine"

I spent a few days wandering around seeing the lovely country and rolling hills before traveling back home where the trees are still naked.

Back home it is so strange. I go away a few times a year usually for a few days or a week or so but never three months. I go away for a week and it's like new buildings go up overnight, people get married or move away. I am gone for three months and it's like time never touched this town. Everything in the barn is in it's place (minus a few barn cats), the horses were muddy and happy to see me. Indigo nickered her way over the moment I yelled out. It's like time stopped just for me to go to school and now has resumed in a tidal wave of people needing my help, horses needing to be ridden and job offers.
I plan on taking an apprenticeship. I have a few offers here in Canada and a couple in the US, some close, others far.
So far I have been trimming. I am going to pick up an anvil next week and can work in the local homestead's coal forge whenever. I inherited a bunch of useful hammers that were my grandfathers. I wish I would have known about their existence before school it would have saved me oh...$300 or so.

I trimmed Indigo's feet yesterday. She was trimmed wile I was gone but the winter was not kind on her feet and she was ouchy on them as I led her into the barn. When I left she had lovely, concave, healthy feet with big frogs. When I came home I found her soles had splatted, frog's had shrunk in size and the medial (inside) sides were sky high on her fronts and the lateral (outsides) were sky high on the hinds as well as the quarters on both front feet strait instead of nice and round. There was nothing level about them and lots of flares. However it was so nice to be able to take my hoof knife and nippers to a sole and not have to chip at a foot like it was made of granite (AKA: Oklahoma feet). They are going to take a few trims to correct. I am thinking the really wet winter was to blame for the soles and contraction. Only time will tell.

Everyone missed me. I have been getting call after call and e-mail after e-mail from everybody and their dog. Just when I think I am getting a vacation from school the real work starts. Anybody need a trim?

Have you ever been elbow deep in a horse before?

2011-03-29T19:52:00.002-04:00

It's ok, most people don't know how to answer that question the first time I ask.
But here's the appropriate answer.
Here I find the kind of friendship and laughter that makes you double over and gasp for air. When someone asks what was so funny you are laughing too hard to make a complete sentence.
(Just for reference, that's a really big syringe because we were floating teeth. Boys...)

I live happy, laugh lots and ride bitless often. In a tank top, every afternoon but when I have to do laundry. Be jealous of the tank top.

Me on my one instructors horse, Tanner. I put him in my bridle instead of his curb bit with tight chain. He is loving it.

But I have decided I could never live in Oklahoma.
Why? Well for whatever reason my allergies have exploded the whole time I have been here. My nose is doomed to be a constant waterfall. I itch and scratch and sneeze and cough over everything and anything.

Other than that I do enjoy it here. The weather, the horse owners... ok some of the horse owners and some horses (see some horse owners). I would like to add yet again, if your farrier suggests a certain amount of time to get your horses feet done in, take that hint. After trimming and shoeing countless hooves that have been left because "there's still some wear left in the shoes" or "he was out on pasture all winter and wasn't being used" just doesn't cut it. There is a reason for the horses well being and the well being of ourselves (hands, tools, back etc.) and why we suggest a certain time you get them trimmed or shod. /endrant

Only a few more weeks until I head back to ol' Canadaland. I hear a lot of people and a horses miss me.

Sunday stills: Canine companions

2011-03-20T14:22:00.004-04:00

I managed to find a fast enough internet connection to get a photo or two up this weekend for Sunday stills.

You'll remember this little devil from a few posts back. Hes grown in size a little.
Unfortunately he had to go home with his owner to Montana.

Fortunately I painted his toenails a sparkly shade of teal before he left.

Shenanigans

2011-03-12T18:14:00.011-05:00

Being a farrier can be hard work.
When it is 70 degrees out and your in a tank top in front and beside several burning forges. Or your horse is a spoiled brat because the owner doesn't believe in handling it's feet.

I know, the rest of you guys are buried in snow or sloshing around in rain and mud.

Bummer because right now I am sitting in the shade in a tank top enjoying this nice weather. Just got back from riding my instructors horse, bitless I might add. I was sweating wearing a tank top and his saddle pads were wet.
Just gotta rub it in.

Working with horses feet is hard work. I don't ever get up in the morning and say "today I don't want to shoe a horse or trim some feet" I love doing this, I should have done this a long time ago. My hands scream out, "Please don't hit me with a hammer or catch my fingertips on nails or squash them between something totally irrelevant to horses" that happens a lot. Murphy's law.

But in all it's a little bit of a rodeo around here. Being one of four girls in a barn full of 30 or so guys you gotta cowgirl up and roll with the punches, or hammer heads on various parts of ones hands, hooves to the backside etc.

You gotta have a little fun.

Sometimes at a cute furry ponies expense. For the record both of my feet were planted on the ground. No backs were swayed in the taking of this picture.

I apologize cute furry mini. At least your lamanitic feets are back looking somewhat normal again.
yup, white mini's. I am moving up the horse ladder. Indigo would be jealous though I think she prefers rolling around in the mud I hear we have going on back home.

Dear thumbnail...

2011-02-28T17:48:00.004-05:00

I really liked you on my left thumb.
I tried to make you look better because I rasped you a couple times a few weeks ago. That is the reason for the dark purple nail polish and sparkles.
But today you decided to put and end to your resilience.
I was trying to be nice and help a second week student with a problem I had on the weekend.
It involved a horses foot.
It also involved the owner leaving the shoes on for about four months which caused the hoof to look like a duck's foot and the shoe to break off leaving broken off nails. Note to readers: When your farrier recommends 6-8 weeks for re-shoeing LISTEN!! It'll make your horse last longer and your poor farriers job easier.
Anyway, with my hoof knife I was helping dig this nail out and the horse jerked.
The day before at the end of class I sharpened my hoof knife on the big sharpener and DAMN was it sharp.
It was sharp right into my left thumb nail. I didn't notice at first I thought I just caught my cuticle until another classmate shrieked because I was bleeding all over my boots.
I would show photo's but it's pretty nasty.
I also never realized I had a thumb until I split it in two with my knife. Every time I hit it off something or hit it with my hammer (which never happened until today just for the record) I am reminded of why human nails are not cloven because one piece of nail lodging itself under the other F*&^%$^# HURTS!!!

Farriery: not for the faint of heart, afraid of blood, weak of knees and or back.

A visitor

2011-02-19T16:31:00.007-05:00

Every day at least once, sometimes twice this certain little boy comes to visit me.

He knows there's bacon, leftovers and lunch meat.
Who wouldn't come around for bacon?

He usually forgets to wipe his feet before he comes in but that's ok; I don't usually remember to take my boots off either.

But back to the main issue in hand: Ham.
Who really could resist this puppy face?

"SNARF"
Ok, maybe my fingers could.

The main issue is that he hides dog biscuits and eats the real meat.

He hides the biscuits in my t-shirts and under my bed and in my shoes but I continue to feed him dog biscuits anyway. I think I like the sense of wonder, wonder when I am going to step on one and have smashed up dog biscuit bits to sweep.

Then he gives me this face and I have the urge to feed him more ham.

But school is going good other than this week was a rough week. Everyone had the flu. It was horrible. I am still coughing and hacking my lungs up. Mostly everyone is feeling better now after we drug butt through the week. Sitting here in a tank top is nice, but I can't help but sorta miss the snow, mostly because it's where my horses are. On nice weather days like this here there's nothing more that I would like to do but go on a nice long relaxing ride.

Week three. Pictures.

2011-02-12T15:30:00.012-05:00

So the talk about me wanting a cute little ass (read donkey) to drive and such went around the barn. There are no lack of jokes so my instructor bill (screw you Bill) gave me the littlest, cutest ass to trim.

I picked up one foot on this Jack, held by Josh who came all the way from New Zealand. He went right on his hind legs and started striking, AKA flailing with little thumb sized, accurately placed hooves in all directions.
Naturally I knocked him over.

He was only a bit past my knee.
I called upon Josh to come sit on him to stop his flailing and handed another classmate my camera for evidence of the day. There was a lot of laughing and even more cussing from other students called upon to trim the other mini's in the background.

I got him done.

Then I hear this commotion behind me and see Jim trying to trim the Jack's mom. She was also going in all directions and climbing walls.

How many men does it take to trim one spotted ass up to their knees? Lets count.
One.

Two.

Umm.... Help please?

Four. I mean, I think the donkey is in there someplace.
No mini donkeys were harmed in the trimming of the hooves.

Then for the awwwww factor. Me holding a 6 month old Mini foal I trimmed today. It barely weighed 30 pounds.Well thats all for now. Still alive and kicking, or is that getting kicked? I miss visiting all your blogs, maybe I'll be on more regularly after class once the snow melts more here. Woo hoo 70 degrees here I come!

Dear blogary...

2011-02-05T16:40:00.003-05:00

I never thought I would say this but unreliable Xplornet is better than no-net. Sorry I have not been around as much but that requires me sitting in the office. I do not like sitting in the office because the office lady is a big...we won't go there. Sitting outside at this point is a little...chilly.

Ten things I have learned at horse shoeing school in the first two weeks:

1. Not every horse is out to kick you in the teeth, but some might try.

The horses that come into this school are of three varieties.
1) The owner is cheap. Considering the people who bring their horses here are paying $25 per shoe. These horses usually come in groups owned by one person and they are working horses. They are quiet and don't mind the noise and commotion.
2) They have a bind trust this school is considered the best in the world. Students are here from all over the world. I guess if it is some sort of important horse they trust the instructors to help the students not totally lame their horse.
3) The horse has been rejected by their normal farrier because it's probably going to kick you in the teeth no matter what you try.

2. If the metal is not red-hot in colour it does not mean it is still not red-hot.
Just for the record I have not tested this theory. I am the only one in the barn who does not have a metal burn.
After watching a fellow student catch a falling shoe that had been sitting on his anvil
a couple minutes I decided juggling hot shoes was not going on my resume.

3. I miss my horses. I miss driving and riding and feeding and grooming and cleaning stalls.
The days go by real fast here though because I get up early and take care of all sorts of horses feet all day. Then I eat dinner, watch one of the few channels that are not Spanish, go back to the forge to make more things out of metal then sleep someplace in there.
Rinse, repeat.
I've also had several freaky dreams about trimming a horses hoof and the hoof kept growing and I kept trimming and I wasn't getting anywhere.

4. When it snows in Oklahoma (read 5-10 inches) the whole state shuts down. Schools, restaurants, banks, stores, gas stations you name it, it's closed. But we still have to shoe horses.
This "blizzard of 2011" apparently was worse than the blizzard of 2009. I went from sitting
in my tank top under a tree to -12 and snow in 24 hours. We have to keep the taps dripping in
my trailer (AKA girls dorm) or they might freeze. They also sent us a propane heater but since our trailer is usually a toasty 75 we haven't used it.

5. Come with a backbone or learn real quick to grow one. Luckily I had one. I think there's about
17 other classmates of the male variety. Most fancy themselves cowboys.
The horses made real quick work sorting the ones who are horsemen and those who are not, out.

6. I like having my own room, bathroom and fridge. However when I was a kid I wanted a bunk bed. I never got a bunk bed. The first time my face met with the bottom of the top bunk I decided bunk beds are not that much fun, unless you make blanket forts.

7. DO NOT HARASS THE GOPHERS! Or are they prarie dogs? Sage rats? Giant moles? Who cares they make mounds EVERYWHERE! One guy from Quebec (there's 4 other Canadians here) and some other guys were poking at one that came above ground. It tried to crawl up the Quebec kids boot. Whatever devine wisdom he had escaped him and he tried to pick it up. It bit right through his fingernail and he flailed, with the rodent still attached to his finger. He screamed and flapped several times before it let go and started tossing dirt like a backhoe back underground.

8. I love Oklahoma. Theres so many cowboys, good food, horses, horses, horses and wonderful people.
However compared to Canada everything has more fat, bigger sizes, more sugar, more salt and more preservatives. A small here at McDonalds is a large back home, I kid you not.
I want to live here minus all the sugar. Someone bring me my horses.

9. My one instructor is a cow whisperer. He can make any noise a cow can make and the cows believe him. He moo's they reply, even dead asleep in the field.

10. Almost two weeks ago I still wanted a miniature horse.
Then I trimmed some.
One was foundered and required a hacksaw before hoof knife or nippers.
He was all sorts of backyard breeding and was of course, a stallion.
At one point three people tackled studly to keep him from kicking or gnawing someones face off.
The others conformation could have been mistaken for a goat.
It was also as wild as a march hare. I literally had to tackle it in the stall to halter it and only two steps into leading it to the barn it planted it's little rear on the ground like a sitting dog.
I still want a cute little ass... By that I mean donkey.

Update

2011-01-27T19:48:00.002-05:00

Can't be long. I am in Oklahoma. Already rasped some skin off, gave myself a few good blisters over callous from the summer and theres currently a gopher digging a mound to the left of me and a mini horse pawing the fence for more crackers to the right. It is dark and I am comfortable in a sweater out here. Be jealous.

I have not been to any blogs and probably will not make it to many soon. Unfortunately.

The good news is I am doing good. Got a good room mate and lots of horses to trim and shoe.

The bad news is....

I miss my Horses (and mr.pony) like mad and it's not even been a week. Only 11 ish more to go.

Snowball effect

2011-01-19T20:07:00.006-05:00

Everyone knew I was leaving on the 21st/22nd for school.

I am not sure if people didn't believe me or it just dawned on them "oh sh*t she really is leaving for school" but all of a sudden everything has snowballed on me. I mean people going YOUR LEAVING CAN YOU DO THIS? YOUR LEAVING COME PICK THIS UP IT NEEDS TO BE DONE BEFORE YOU GO! YOUR LEAVING COME SAY GOODBYE!
It's like the amount of things I have to do that you know, could have been done a month ago was suddenly all tossed upon me, snowballing into a mad dash to get stuff done for school.

I think I have 4 major bags 3/4 of the way packed. Most of my clothes, towels. bedding, dishes and some food. Every time I start to pack something I know I am going to need it the next day.
So I made a list...Then I packed said list and forgot what bag I packed it so rather than un-packing everything I'll just make a new one. Everyone wants me to come visit them before I go, I am only one person I can only be in one place at a time. If you want to see me that bad before I leave come here, I'll be trying to decide what was on that list that I should pack.

On top of that I work at many barns. Tomorrow is my last day at almost all of them until I get back and pick a couple back up (minus a couple Friday morning I said I would feed at before I left). Most of these barns I have worked at for more than a year or two. I love them, great people great horses. One in particular I've worked at for about 7 years. I love the boarders, they love me. They love the way I clean stalls and leave notes about stuff that is wrong with the horses/barn/everything. Nothing gets overlooked by me and they love that.
However the barn owner is always telling me things that I "should" be doing, but I was never told to do it. If it wasn't in my time/pay/description how was I supposed to know to do a job? So I get nasty notes written when things aren't done, regardless of if I was there the day before or not they will be addressed to me. I am not the only person who works there and am only there 5 days a week. No one else gets nasty notes but me. No other barn I work at have I ever got nasty notes. No other barn has ever forgot to thank me, tell me they were happy with my job and oh yeah, forgot to tell me something they wanted me to do, then yell at me later when I am not doing the mystery job. I hate to say this but they can find some other poor sucker to write nasty notes and yell at becauuuuseeee...

I got a phone call the other day. I just sat down and it was the local therapeutic riding center. I had done some work for them with their youth summer horse camps teaching kids how to braid and make dream catchers. I also brought my 4-H group there and drove once for an event in the fall. They must have liked me enough because they put me ahead of the people who handed in resumes; I never handed one in. They said people who applied for the paying job either were good with horses, or good with kids but not both, which was what they were looking for so they called me first. They want someone to help with lessons and then eventually certify them to teach therapeutic riding lessons. Of course I had to say no, because I was going to school but I would when I came back. They agreed and told me to give them a call when I go back. They are in the works of making a new state of the art facility since their current one is being built up around by the city. What an opportunity. Teaching lessons at a facility like that and shoeing horses, what more could I want?

So enough of the complain train, I also got a blog award. Three times.

I sincerely apologize if I have not commented on your blog. I really, honestly have not had the time. I have been by though, read on the fly.

I would like to thank the following three bloggers:
Kristen

Rachel

and Mare

There are four duties with this award:

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award
2. Share 7 things about yourself
3. Award 15 recently discovered great bloggers

4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award!

I am glad to know I am considered "stylish".

I try.

Ok, not really because I am wearing olive green yoga pants and a royal blue t-shirt that is too short for my long torso right now. Isn't there some sort of fashion faux pas about not wearing certain shades of green and blue together? Don't tell vogue.

1. I should be packing my bags right now because I leave Friday. I have not yet figured how to train a horse to fold into a large suitcase. I am working on it.

2. I procrastinate at the worst times. See #1.

3. I've never had a cup of coffee in my life. I've had sips of it and wile I do like the smell of coffee beans I'll never like the taste. I do like tea however and other sinful beverages like pepsi and A&W root beer. I am addicted to iced cappachino's from Tim Horton's. Or I was until I read the health guide and found that one medium iced cap is the same in fat as one regular big mac. I try to limit myself which is easy considering the closest Timmies is about 15-20 minutes.

4. I guess you could consider me a daddy's girl. Wile I have never been particularly close to any of my immediate family members (my only sister and I are 11 years apart) my mom and I have always butted heads constantly wile my dad and I have this sort of silent conversation and we get stuff done together easily. I guess I have just always been incredibly independent. I just don't know when to ask for help. My friends had soccer moms, I had horse show dad. Mostly because he had a truck to tow the trailer and I liked giving him bald spots (blonds in our family do not grey, so that does not apply to him. Now hes gonna shoot me for talking about his balding head on my blog if he reads it.) by falling off horses or hurting myself at 4-H and various other events.

5. I aspire to get a cute, little, spotty ass. I mean the donkey kind, not the...Yeah. I want to drive it and make a hat for it's head. Real life goals there.

6. I really should be cleaning my gigantic mess I created packing. See #2. See my problem is the way I think is if I can't see it, it does not exist. I put things in closets and on shelves and I can't see them, I can't find them. I have a very photographic memory so usually if you lose something I can find it but not if it was just put in it's proper place. This does not include the barn. The barn is mostly always organized.

7. I have a cell phone. It does not take pictures, it does not text. People look at me like I have a third eyeball when I tell them, no I did not get your text because I do not text. That's how I roll, I've never been one to conform to everyone else's "normal" I guess that is why I wear cowboy boots in public.

7.5. I had a guy ask me what I was going to school for today. I told him horseshoeing. He made a motion like the game "horseshoes" then exclaimed "I didn't know you could go to school to be a professional horse shoe player" I laughed. He was dead serious.

Now to pick 15 bloggers.

You know I break rules all the time right? Well I honestly would love to go through my blog list and pick 15 of you but seeing as you just read #1 #2 and #6 about me you'll understand if I gift this award to the first 15 who have read this and haven't received it yet. Please put it up on your blog and link back here so I can see you stylish bloggers please!

My blog posts might be a bit sporadic for a wile as I find out what internet access I have and whatnot.

Have a good one.

Sunday stills: Macro

2011-01-16T16:00:00.003-05:00

Macro shots are probably in the top for my favorite types of shots.

I've been busy getting ready to go away for school or I would have posted this earlier. I confess I just took this picture but I had the idea all week.

It's very cliche.

Feather, sparkles? What more could a macro picture want on the internet?

Lisa will recognize this feather. I wish I had a fluffy white one though. Oh well, another time.

Jingle all the way

2011-01-15T10:24:00.001-05:00

Every year after Christmas when we have snow my Aunt Gaye comes out for a sleigh ride. (photo's by my aunt)

Last year Indigo was a butthead. She threw a good buck in the sleigh and was in general just really wound up and raring to go. This year since we have been doing a lot of pulling and even more walking she gets over her need to act a fool, spooking, snorting, head tossing when in disagreement with what I asked.We did a lot of walking and trotting too. Walking kept her head level though I am sure she would have loved a good gallop down the field.

My cousin Ken and I.

Sadly in this photo that tree got half of it wiped out by a windstorm, it was almost completely symmetrical.

I took her out early before my Aunt brought everyone out in her van. I walked and walked Indigo. She had one minor hop when the neighbors came around their row of trees with two snowmobiles (going slowly thank goodness) but other than that she was a complete doll. She knew she was going to be walking more than trotting and pulling and she did just that, being VERY lazy.

My cousin Ken's wife Alaina and I.

Did you know?: In Ontario (and most states in the USA too) from when drivers did not have windows to roll up, every person traveling on a road or near a road with a horse or any other animal drawn sled or sleigh must have two bells per animal, attached to the harness, sled or sleigh in a manner that gives ample warning sound. There is a $30 fine for no bells! Of course I am sure this is a grandfather law and no police officer in my area would know to fine us.

I use sleigh bells because they sound lovely. It's almost as much of going for a sleigh ride as the sleigh is.

Here is a video my aunt took. She was in her van. I love the trot Indigo automatically breaks into now. It's not too fast, there's no time where I have to hold her back she just knows from the work we did in the summer she better pick up a slower more level trot because we might be trotting for a wile. It's almost like a jog, it seems so effortless riding or driving her when she trots like that.

So even though it may be cold and snowy I am still finding time to work Indigo on a regular basis at least a few times a week. Sleigh rides when I can, pulling a log out of the bush, bareback rides you name it shes not sitting around by any means. Boy is she gonna be happy when I leave for school, 12 weeks of rest she sure deserved it.

Bitless: Flash in the Pan or a Paradigm Shift?‏

2011-01-12T09:19:00.006-05:00

Recently in the bitless yahoo group a discussion was started by Zoe, the inventor of the Nurtural bitless bridles about an upcoming talk she has to give. She has asked us for our input.

Zoe riding Collin in Ireland at the Slieve Aughty Centre last May.

Bitless bridles of all kinds have taken horsemanship by storm. There are so many options and people are realizing that not only is it just as easy to control your horse, it's usually easier because there's not the anxiety on the horses part as well as some physical problems. Five years ago bitless was taboo. Hardly anyone rode their horses without a bit and if they did it was in a harsh mechanical hackamore or western bosal. Those were really the only options. Now the limit is the sky and more people are trying bitless instead of turning their noses up at it. They realize not every horse bitless is well trained or ridden by a professional.
I went from having a couple readers riding bitless to many in the past three years I have had this blog open. I get e-mails weekly from people who are now riding their horses faithfully bitless because of this blog. They have seen myself and others do just about every discipline bitless. I have to say this blog would not have survived without all the great input from you readers.

Having said this lets start a discussion for those of you who ride bitless. This discussion is not brand specific, but rather talks about bitless as a whole. This is what Zoe asked:

Hi Folks,

Happy New Year!!

Can I ask your help again – with a presentation I will be doing at the Maryland Horse World Expo later this month? Can you send some quotes and photos to share?

What do you think: Are we changing the world, or will 'the non-believers' hang on to their bits forever? Will / when will the rules change? What will it take?

This is brand-neutral! Just promoting bitless in general.

Here are the specific questions:
Can you really: Stop a horse quickly; Collect a horse; Jump, Ride Crosscountry; Fox Hunt; Perform Dressage; Train young horses; Teach new riders,; Drive minis to drafts to standardbreds; Trail ride; Endurance ride; Develop & relax your competition horse; Create a closer bond; Create a winning team!

Looking forward to your thoughts!

Zoe

So of course I put in some of my input as I was asked:

As a species the human race has made leaps and bounds in evolution in merely decades. However with horses we seem to stand still. The bit was effectively in use around the time Genghis Khan ruled. He was a cruel, barbaric ruler who thought very little of hurting others. This was also a time us humans believed the world was completely flat! If we have outdated things like cruel training practices, painful blistering of a horses legs to make him "sound" and even in recent times soaring why do we continue to use something that obviously at one point or another causes a horse pain and distress? I do think the rules will change and they are. When bitless was mentioned before people thought it was something a well trained horse could only be capable of. Now more and more people are training with their heads rather than brute force they realize horses are not all out to gallop away with us the second we take away a false sense of control.
This day and age it is a much better time for the horse as he is used mostly for recreation and seldom called upon to do real work. People wanting to ride bitless are those that want to understand the horse as a partner and not a tool we can force into doing what we wish. They want to better themselves as riders and their horses as members of the equine community. Riders who ride bitless find they need more seat and legs and less hand, for riding the horse should not be about tugging a rein left, right or back and having the horse follow for that only engages your arms and his front end, not both of your bodies as a whole.
I don't think people know enough about bits, rather than bitless bridles. They do not look at the anatomy of the horses head, lips, mouth, surrounding tissues and most importantly the nerves that bits can cause pain on in the horses face. The horses mouth is arguably the most sensitive part of his body. With a lip that can pick tiny blades of grass out amongst rocks and dirt the horse can feel a lot more than we know. By placing a bit as a solid, usually metal object in his mouth we are not only compromising his comfort but his health when so many riders do not look at what type of bit would be most suited to what mouth and face conformation. Teeth become eroded or even fractured, nerves are pressed upon causing pain or at the very least discomfort. It's a proven fact that a horse learns and retains a lesson better when taught by positive reinforcement rather than negative though both are very important tools of horsemanship. I think if people knew more about bits there would be less people using them.

Having said that and answered many, many questions about bitless because I have driven, ridden and trained horses ages 2 to 21 this year one of the most common questions after will my horse stop is will he go "on the bit". The riders asking this are the ones who do not understand the concept of collection. Collection is when the horse actively engages himself from his hind end, lifts his back and breaks at the poll, driving himself from his hind end forward and engaging every muscle in his body. Proper collection takes a long time to achieve with a horse because muscle and strength must be built. What most riders want is "breaking at the poll" AKA- on the bit, on the vertical or as some people wrongly believe but is not, collection. A horse that is flexing vertically (breaking at the poll) has learned to give to the pressure of the bridle, be it bit in his mouth or pressure on his nose from a bitless bridle. A horse that is flexing vertically and does not have the rest of his body engaged is usually on the forehand, not engaging his hind end with a hollow back. His other parts of the body are not engaged to properly drive him forward. Having said that being "on the bit" is merely a headset, and not true collection but can indeed be taught to give to pressure as well as with a bit, only now we have to teach him with a bitless bridle, not force him with the pain of the bit in his mouth. This is why so many riders have problems with a newly bitless horse being "on the bit".

Every person I teach rides or drives bitless if they are using my horse. Not one of them have ever had problems with control. Horses used for lessons with learning riders that may do some harsh, unforgiving things on the horses mouth are now painless, creating confused signals yes, but pain which can lead to training problems and even the condition of learned helplessness, no. I have found a bitless school horse needs far less tune ups than a bitted one, no matter how gentle the specific bit may be considered.

And as the famous Loriner (bit maker) Benjamin Latchford once said: "I frequently tell my friends that out of every twenty bits I make, nineteen are for men's heads and not more than one really for the horse's head"

--------------

So there we have it folks. Why do you ride bitless? Why not? Have you just not had the option or are you afraid your horse is not going to listen? Speak up, Zoe, the rest of us and myself would love to know. If you have pictures you would like to let Zoe use please do send the links our way or join the bitless yahoo group.

p.s- Due to comments I'm going to ad I am not anti bit by any means I just see far more horses improperly bitted than properly bitted ones. I believe a horse is only as good as it's rider and the tools only as humane as they are used. I wish to further everyones knowledge on a subject (bits and bitless) people know little about. There seems to be endless sources on how to train your horse, groom your horse, select saddles and pads but nothing on bitting.

p.p.s- Please take a gander at the post below. I think this one kind of overshadowed it. I would love to know why you own your horse.

p.p.p.s- For those of you not being able to afford a bitless bridle why not hire one to try it Bitlesshorse.com

Evaluation

2011-01-11T22:45:00.000-05:00

In the last two weeks I have discussed this more than once so I thought it might be a good post. With new years goals comes all sorts of riding goals for ourselves and our horses at this point we start to re-evaluate things in our life. We re-evaluate what we want to do with our horses and why.

Everyone has a different reason for owning their horse. Some just want a hay burner that they can look at out the window, others look for a horse that can be of a specific discipline.
Personally when I look at a horse I want to be able to pursuit driving even though I started out with horses riding western. I love driving, it brings upon so many different things you can do with your horse. Once your horse drives there's room for so much more in the world because lets face it, driving is not an easy thing for a horse to take on mentally. There's all sorts of straps, noises and pressure in all sorts of places once the cart is attached that should make him want to get the hell out of Dodge but when we train them properly they learn not to fear all these noises and take it in stride. Once a horse has mastered driving, riding and all sorts of other activities can fall in place. Now I am not saying a riding horse cannot become a driving horse. In my experience a driving horse is much easier to train to ride than vice versa. By the time you go to ride a driving horse the saddle is just another piece of harness and the verbal cues and trust are already there. Of course not all driving horses make good riding horses and not a lot of riding horses make driving horses.
Having said that I also want something I can ride. I want a horse I can trust to put in new situations that isn't going to panic first and ask questions later. I want that horse to approach a new thing with an open mind and try for me not put on the breaks and say no way Jose. This could be everything from some dressage, trail riding, learning some reining moves etc. I want a horse with some try that tries honestly in everything I ask it. Every horse has a different purpose, it's up to us as owners and riders to either find a way to bring out the best in them or hand them to someone else to help them on their career. Some of us are better at evaluating this than others.

For example last week I was tacking up to ride a 6 year old I broke in the summer. He needed a little tuning up for his owner before I leave. Another boarder at the barn was tacking up his horse too. We discussed why he had his horse and what he wanted to do and why I was riding the 6 year old and what the owner wanted to do with it. He has his horse to ride dressage. He wants and needs a horse capable of working 6 days a week on sometimes 3rd level dressage movements. His horse has to be sane and personable, not difficult.
The 6 year old is also for a career in dressage. He has the movement and ability but he knows when his rider is unsure and plays with that. His owner with a bit more experience on him is going to take him to 2nd level dressage but needed the foundation from me as a more flexible, knowledgeable rider at teaching an unbroken horse. Though I find no matter what discipline I am riding, I always come back to dressage.

As we tacked up and talked another horse owner came in. She used to ride dressage, she was a pretty competitive rider at one point. She had owned some very nice horses but as she aged they outgrew her. She now has a young warmbloody (absolutely batsh*t crazy), gorgeous (but completely insane) talented (but might trample you if something scares her), is going to go incredibly far in dressage (yeah, right across the border to the US of A), mare. She has what we summed up as "dressage queen mentality". Riders who have huge horses that are capable of doing fancy movements but are not trustworthy or rideable. They would turn their noises completely up at the mention of a quiet level headed horse because they want the "big warmblood movements" which are hard to come by in say a quarterhorse that might have a more easy demeanor. I wish I could say I have seen it but I do not think this women enjoys her horse. She wants to ride, and will hop on any other quiet horse but still talks about the horse doing great things wile she makes sure the mare does not spook and kill her in the cross ties. Of course this is not simply a dressage stereotype, it is in all horse disciplines I just happen to see more dressage riders than any other discipline here in my county.

Most horses could become better with consistent work. Of course we need to evaluate the horses energy plus the horses mentality plus the ability of the rider (if one can admit to their abilities) plus time of the rider plus what we want the horse to be able to do equaling the proper horse and rider combination. If the equation's answer is incorrect you will likely end up hurt, or at the very least staring at a horse burning hay you wish you could do something with.

So if our horses are not doing what we have them for we need to re-evaluate why we own this animal. Would it be more wise to sell the horse and find another suited to the discipline, ourselves? Or perhaps change our path to something more suited to the horse, for example going from dressage to jumping so to make the horse more agreeable and happy in his work. Or are there some of us simply doomed to stare at our horses mowing grass because we cannot do either? Some of us are better at re-evaluation than others. Have you ever had to sit back and think "why do I have this horse" or perhaps you went from a horse that gave you the correct equation answer to one more suiting? Why do you have your horse and do you two make up the right equation answer in the horse and rider evaluation?

Sunday stills:

2011-01-09T00:00:00.003-05:00

Now excuse me if I am wrong but I did things that start with the letter W rather than the letter W itself. I honestly did not think about this until now. I got a few shots but nothing to write home about. I had a big bout of winter, not at home necessarily but on my road trip 14 hours up north.

After a sizable storm dumping a good foot of snow on us and the worst white knuckle drive of my life in a storm I awoke the next day to a lovely windless winter day. I quickly donned my boots and grabbed my camera and took a hike up the hill behind my friends house. No one else wanted to come, the winter was too much for them. So alone I scrambled up the hill, quite literally as it was steep and there was ice under the fresh foot of powder. The further I trekked the more beautiful it became. Far into the bush no wind touched these trees that were lower down.

Winter wonderland

There was no evidence of any other life having walked where I did since the storm but back in the bush where there is no wind it's eerie. I could hear old pines creaking as they leaned up against each other and swayed gently in the wind. I could hear ravens cackling not far off, watching me from their roosts in the trees. I really did intend on walking to the river but my path was blocked by a large tree that fell down with really no way to get over or under it without breaking my neck on the ice. Oh well, another time. I got smart on the way down the hill and took out my trusty leatherman (oh how I love it and it's many tools like the saw) and sawed myself a nice walking stick. It was a lovely hike.

We have been getting a centimeter or so of snow here a day. It makes for little icicles on horse whiskers and great bokeh shots (more on that for an upcoming post)

Wintery whiskers.

Whats the weather like where you are? I never thought I would say this but I kind of, sort of hope we get more snow before I head to school in Oklahoma. That would be nice to take the sleigh out one more time.

Resolve

2011-01-07T23:27:00.000-05:00

So I was AWOL for a few days, sorry those blogs I did not visit I'll try and catch up between my scatter brained running around. I've been trying to write this post for two days but everything keeps on taking me away from sitting a the computer.

Things like watching snow fall, being stuck in cars watching snow fall and well, snow. Until I got home anyway because it didn't snow much here.
I took a sort of short notice trip 14 hours to see a good old friend a week ago and have some fun in the snowy north of Ontario before I leave for Oklahoma in two weeks.

Having said that a very great deal of things has happened. Firstly my power supply on my computer decided to die. New power supply and it's back up and running. Stupid technology!! *shakesfist* Secondly I FINALLY got my new SEVIS papers from school with my name written correctly this time. Phew. You don't even know, every time the purolator or UPS truck drove down the road I plastered my face to the door hoping they would stop, but they didn't until the Wednesday after the school said I would have my new papers. The good thing is I actually have them in my hands now. The third thing, cause you all know these things come in threes. Well the bank. Don't get me wrong I love my bank the ladies are kind and always know who I am and my account number but for my student loans for school...UGH! That is a whole other nightmare with them having me sign the wrong papers and assigned me to the wrong bank person I've been in there more times than I would like signing my life away.

On my way up north I stopped by Zoe and Gerry's farm (AKA the owners and creators of the Nurtural bridle) I've driven past their farm numerous times on my way up north, but never had the chance to stop. I had a nice visit with them, seeing their horses and nearly 100 year old barn. The barn was built in 1925, after the first one burnt to the ground.

All the stalls are literally underground and you have to walk down a flight of stairs. Really neat old barn, gorgeous land, lovely horses, great people.

Heres looking down from the ground level part of the barn into the underground stall area.

Beautiful northern Ontario winter with some of Zoe and Gerry's Nurtural horse, horses.

I still have tack for sale. After getting some more tack for Christmas I still have an English saddle package for sale, my natural ride bareback pad (the first deal went through when the buyer didn't pay) and about a million different colour polo's I'm never going to use. E-mail me if your interested I can put them up on e-bay and give you other details. Seriously, it would really help me pay for my schooling and get rid of some very well cared for tack. I've sold a lot of what was for sale last year but this stuff has gotta go.

As for new years resolutions. I guess since everyone else makes them I should too. I don't really make resolutions or resolve to fix something because I find so many people say "I am going to do this or that or whatnot" and never end up doing it. Instead I am making goals. I met all of my goals last year and far surpassed the horse related ones.

I took lessons. Dressage lessons to be exact. I find no matter what discipline I am riding or training a horse in I find I go back to dressage principals for every single horse.
I also made it to three shows with Indigo and we drove and rode bitless and won some ribbons. In total I did 6 shows riding a couple other horses than mine and one show overseas in Ireland. I wish I could have got to a few more riding ones and some local dressage ones turned me away because I was bitless and would not have that because of their silly rules (we all know the riders who force their heads into a "frame" with the bit like my one sunday stills picture posted last challenge who "look" like they are "collected" because they are broken at the poll and carrying their weight on the forehand will win those classes, not the properly collected ones. Tisk tisk. Big difference between a headset and true collection if you can't see it might I suggest some dressage lessons. /endrant)

I worked, worked, worked and worked. Did I mention I worked? I worked my butt off last year to pay for stuff and get ready to get my butt off to Oklahoma this year. I just have one last horse that is not mine that I started in the Fall to hand over to the owner. The owner paid for me to ride a few times a week on this now 4 year old until I go away to school. I feel very accomplished in the rider sense this year. I feel like I went from a horse exerciser to a horse worker. The difference being before I got on a horse and went through what he knew. I would work on whatever the horse knew. Last year I can say every horse I rode or drove I had something I could help him improve on weather it being lighter cues, new movements, collection, balance, rhythm, calmness and understanding. I find that is sticking out in my riding the more I think about it. Horses I ride regularly seem more agreeable and I see this mostly and importantly in a couple problem horses I rode and even in my own Indigo. Not only has she become less reactive to spook at things like bushes and fallen tress and bushes and fallen tress but lets not forget drain pipes of doom she seems to be learning how to spook in place, rather than get the hell out of Dodge and think about the situation later. I really noticed last fall how she was never in a hurry to get someplace and when something upset her she would go back to being calm very quickly instead of worrying about getting home or away from what bothered her. I guess I idealize around her because most other horses I ride a handful of times a week but Indigo and I go out nearly every day, even if for 10 minutes bareback down the field. I notice the littlest differences in her because I see her every single day rather than a few times a week. There's no "behind the scenes" to get between us.

Fun, boy I had a lot of fun! I worked horses and didn't have the usual horse owners problem with motivation. The horses were my motivation. I wanted to say my horses were quiet and fit because they were being worked and handled consistently, daily unlike a lot of horses only going out once or twice a week. It showed. Mr.Pony was on his best behavior he has ever been and same with Indigo. The summer and fall did good for them. I feel more confident that they will handle situations which makes them both more fun because I am not limited to what I can do. I can go out for example as I did with Indigo the other day, get a chain and drag some large limbs from the bush back to the farm without worrying about her having a fit when she hears the strange noise they make. I can trust pony to evaluate a situation and go through it cautiously if he is unsure rather than panic and think about it after I have to go through it with him again to make him understand nothing is going to hurt him. It makes their comfort zones much bigger and in turn makes them both more confident in new situations. I also went out several times to different places and had a blast camping, visiting relatives, friends and making many new ones.

This year my resolutions, or goals rather are kind of simple. I want to work on more collection and with Indigo. Shes plenty supple and collects and extends nicely at the walk and trot. Canter on the other hand, well she wants to stick her nose out and fall in on her inside shoulder. It's a messy mess but I have a feeling we can do it. I would love to be allowed to do some dressage tests locally and perhaps some more on Interdressage. Lots of driving of course. I also want to get a collar for Mr.Pony and start him pulling things other than his cart. Hes always been really strange about new noises and I would love for him to become accustomed to new sounds without a thought or fight with me. I was just thinking about the first time I hitched him and he nearly mowed me down with the training cart. I want him to be calm and cool the first time I hitch him to something new, not having to go back to square one each time with a new noise (I blame that on the hackney in him which comes out every so often for no given reason).

I also have the goal of getting good marks in school. I'm very much a hands on person. Any math sets me off the deep end; the deep end of being lost in number hell without being able to grow enough fingers and toes.

So what are your horse/non horse related goals for this year?

Sunday stills: My best shot

2011-01-02T00:00:00.001-05:00

My best shot of 2010. I guess most of these were not for Sunday stills but they have that little something. I couldn't pick favorites but here are some that struck something in me and make me keep wanting to go back and view them time and time again.

This is Mike a registered Halfling gelding I backed quite the bit this year. He went bitless as usual.

Indigo. This was actually quite an accident. It just started to rain and I intended to get some riding in but I ended up cleaning my tack trunk instead.

My cousin Ken for our tea and coffee mugs challenge. I can't quite figure what makes this picture so awesome but colour does not do it any justice it must be viewed in black and white.

My boots. Where would I be without a good pair of boots? Although I love these Ariat boots nothing to me can replace a good ol pair of blundstones.

This picture not because it's beautiful. It is everything but. It is absolutely horrible to see so many riders at this particular show that have their horse incorrectly bitted coupled with heavy, unforgiving hands. God forbid the horse try and evade this pressure and open his mouth because we can just strap it shut. I hope in the future riders know more about mouth anatomy and choosing a bit (Or lack thereof) for their horses mouth type. Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. I aspire to know all I can about bitting; It's become a bit of an obsession.

My lovely friends Amanda and Mike on their wedding day. They are kooky and crazy and just had a beautiful, healthy baby girl named Leah. Mike is an awesome husband I honestly don't think Amanda has had to change one diaper yet. Leah is lucky to have two great parents.

Can you say Omnomnom?

So this one. It's a cowboy on a horse. It's very busy in the background and the composition is so-so but what we really should be focusing on is the cowboy on the horse. I think hes wearing wranglers, or levi's but who cares it's a cowboy on a horse.

If there were one image that could describe my horse without meeting her this would be it. Watch your white clothes.

I just really like this bucket of apples. It makes me miss getting good apples off the stand instead of the ones at the grocery store. It also makes me miss summer when I bought all these apples.

Happy new year everyone, see you in a few days.

Another year of Indigo

2010-12-28T19:30:00.001-05:00

Warning: Large photo post. Let it load a wile.

Every year around this time I post some of my favorite shots of Indigo I took (and others did) through the year.

Sit back and enjoy. If a picture strikes your fancy and you want to know more feel free to browse the months posts for 2010 and find the post which the picture belongs to.

January

February

March

April

(Picture by Sarah)May

June

July
(Following picture by Sarah)
(Following picture by Sarah)

August
(Following picture by Sarah)
(following three photo's by Robin)

September
(Following three photos are from Robin again. Shes such a wonderful photographer to catch me and her daughter lil'red cowgirl at our shows)

October

November

December

(The following pictures are by Robin. These are the pictures everyone keeps asking about from our little town's Christmas parade. Indigo was a complete doll compared to Santa parade 09 where she had a big temper tantrum in the middle of it. No Santa did not get picked up at the shooters bar door this year and was not inebriated.)

It's been a wild ride of a year I can only hope next year brings as many interesting adventures our way.

Well the cat is out of the bag

2010-12-27T00:00:00.000-05:00

I did not want to put this on here until I knew for sure but now I know. I told everyone close to me when I remembered but really it was just one of those things that I was doing regardless of what anyone said because it was not something I talked about then forgot. This idea has been with me for years.

See before I did my equine science Diploma with Guelph I aspired to pursuit a study of the horses hoof. I contacted several schools of horse shoeing in Canada and the USA. I was greatly disappointed by the closest one to me in Canada after the head instructor was incredibly rude to me over the phone and the large sizes of the class put me off of ever thinking about going there. I heard more than one case of people who went in pursuit of a career in farriery only to not get the training they needed in school. There were far more students than the instructor could give hands on in a day. So I went in search of a school that had small class sizes and offered more hours of hands on than lectures or watching someone else. I wanted to handle a horse from day one.

My mothers best friend Souix was a farrier. In fact one of my first memories of riding was with Souix's daughter and friend of mine, Mindy when I was very young. The memory of Souix's rasp and hoof nippers stuck with me my whole life.

Souix went to Belleville school of horseshoeing in Michigan, owned by Red Tomlinson. Red offered me a couple years ago being good friends with Souix, a scholarship to his school in Michigan. It is only a few minutes walk from my cousins house. At the time everyone told me not to do it, not to take such a big risk and I half halfheartedly listened to them. I pleased my mom and dad and finished my diploma at Guelph with distinction. Then I went to work. I've been riding and doing management and barn cleanup. It's true that I make more than the average sh*t shoveler and have a very excellent reputation. But I was still left with this void. It certainly wasn't enough to live off of and I felt like my learning had halted to a crawl.

Not being a person to sit around and wait for results I bucked up and pulled out the old applications I had filled a few years back but never sent in. I looked again at all the schools I had decided were worthy and made my final decision. I am going to the Oklahoma school of horse shoeing. One because it's got amazing reviews. I've talked to many different farriers and they exclaimed although they thought other schools were great Oklahoma was not only one of the best in the USA, the class sizes were small, a new class starting every Monday but many good farriers and even vets resided there to help the learning process.

So I finally got my acceptance papers in the mail Thursday. As I peeled open the envelope and started reading the letters and looking at the other papers I realized there were two things very wrong.

First of all the week they said I was to start was the first week of Jan. My eyes must have popped out of my head. Not the week I applied for. Mild panic attack. I started pacing and reading more. Because I am officially living in Canada I have to complete papers and hand them into the US customs. Everything was printed out on them except my name. Now if you know me I was named Sydney for my grandfather who lived in Perth Australia for a number of years and always wanted to go back. Sydney Australia is spelt with a Y. My name was printed Sidney. Not like I could just take a pen and correct it. I think the whole world could have heard me palmface at that point. Of all the papers they could spell my name wrong on, the customs papers were the only ones.

After a bunch of frantic phone calls I should have my new papers and the correct date of me starting school (the 24th of Jan) by next Wednesday. I've never wanted the mail to come so bad so I can get all my loans and travel plans finalized. What a headache.

Then my main computers power supply died Christmas eve. It's still dead. I am really mad at it.
So if bad things come in threes whats next? Spare me karma, please?

So in all of this the hardest part is going to be leaving my horses. I've never been a homesick person, my sister covered that but I am going to miss for 12 weeks my horses so dearly.

Sunday stills: hats

2010-12-26T00:00:00.001-05:00

Due to a series of events I have been running in all directions. I did get hat pictures yes. However the said hat pictures are in RAW. The craptop does not have a raw processing program. Ho Hum.

See first I got my acceptance letters for school telling me what week my classes were going to start. First they had the wrong week on the customs papers. Ok, minor panic attack. The major one was when I realized they spelt my name with an i instead of a y. Like Australia people, seriously.
More on that for another post.

Second I go to turn on my computer and I get a wirrr of the fan then nothing. I press the button again and my power button starts blinking furiously. Oh joy. So my power supply died. Died, dead, done. On Christmas eve no less so here I am, that's my story and I am sticking to it. When the stores in the city will be open to get a new one I do not know. So here I am on the craptop babbling on.

So without further adeu, here is Leah Michelle. Leah, just hours old wearing her cute little hat is one of my best friend Amanda and her husband Mikes first little girl. Shes the most quiet, chilling baby ever and tolerated many, many pictures only literally opening her mouth once when I was there in protest to being burped before she fell asleep again.

Seasons WTF!? greetings

2010-12-24T00:00:00.001-05:00

(Please if you take offense please divert your eyes to another blog thank you. ps- Seasons greetings)

So I love living in a small town, especially when I see things like the photo on this post.

You know everyone.
Everyone knows you.
You go to school with the same group of kids and can still call them by name all these years later.
You can walk into the deli and the person behind the counter says to you before you even order "Lamb Gyro, no onions, bottle of white creme soda" yup. Mmmm.

In a small town people need to find things to do considering the big city is a good distance away. Sometimes they entertain themselves by wreaking havoc but chances are they don't because your mom knows what you did before you even get back in the door. That is the kind of town I was born and raised in.
Once and a wile they give you the desperately needed dose of WTF!? (What the F***!?)

Today in the early morning hours I was driving back after getting an E-test on my car (which has over 300 thousand KM on it and tosses out a test of 3/4 lower than the max allowed amount. Good car, good) and doing my morning barns when I see something on the side of the road.
I squinted and strained to see what it was. It was red and green and sticking out of a snow bank. As I drove by I realized it was this fellow, whom I came back a wile later to take pictures after nearly swerving off the road I was laughing that hard.

Do you think the people who ran him over came back trying to make peace with his vengeful soul?

Solstice eclipse

2010-12-21T02:40:00.004-05:00

Sometimes I gaze up at the sky and wonder...
On this little big planet...

Separated by miles, mountains and even oceans...

When we look up into the sky...
Do you see the same moon as I do?

Unbearable

2010-12-20T22:20:00.002-05:00

In 1877 a book called Black beauty was published by an english writer Anna Sewell. Just months after the novel was published she passed away. I think every single one of us horse people have either read the book or seen the movie so we can relate. The message of this book carries on over one hundred years after its debut; treating others with the kindness and respect you would like in return, especially when it comes to animal welfare.
Wile reading the many reviews of the book I have heard time and time again the book was not written for children but rather ""to induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses"- Anna Sewell. Are we really that far off these days from from what Anna wanted the world to know those many years ago?
The truth is sometimes we are farther from it.

Something the book was said to have helped abolish was the use of the "bearing rein".

The bearing rein was what we modernly call a check (over check, side check, check rein etc. etc.). In Anna's time the rein was tightened as to cause the horse to carry his head unnaturally high in the air. This was mainly for fashion because the horse was a tool in those days. A tool to show ones status, a tool to make money, a tool that could be disposed of and replaced.
A bearing rein or check is traditionally run from the center of the back pad, either between the ears and down the face or on the sides of the bridle and to the bit or on a completely separate bit.

Back in the day the bearing rein was shown to cause many ailments in the horse, even going as far as causing some to become crippled for life. To be able to pull a horse has to be able to push his weight into the collar or breast strap which requires putting his head down, much like how we lean forward to push something heavy ourselves. The bearing rein, or modern check tightened keeping a horse from pulling properly causes improper muscle development, fatigue and as mentioned, long lasting physical ailments.
Now everyone has a different use for a check. In show for pleasure you are not permitted to have a check on your horse. However normally when I am driving on grass or using a collar I use a check for several reasons.
The first being if a horse gets his head down say to eat grass (Indigo) they can put a foot over a line, then your in trouble. Some horses learn early on that eating is not an option and some learn that early on but continue to test it every single time (Indigo).
The second being when you drive with a collar and do not have a check on the horse can put his head down. The horse puts his head down and if there isn't enough tension on the tugs the collar can actually slide down their neck. I had this happen once with Indigo, I had her in the barn after driving, un-did her check and she put her head down. Before I could grab it the collar slid down her neck and bonked her in the head, giving her a good scare.
Having said I drive with a check I do so loosely. I want my horse to be able to put it's head down, pull if necessary and relax when I ask them to stop rather than having to lean on the check. My horse normally cannot get their head lower than their withers without putting tension on the check. When we walk or trot normally it is very loose, not putting any pressure on the bridle.

Take this example of Indigo driving in the sleigh last winter. Shes relaxed, the check is loose yet it prevents her from putting her head down lower than her withers to eat the dead alfalfa (theres a lot more snow in the field than there looks)

A lot of draft breeds want the head in the air and the nose pointing out.
Is there a terribly large variation between this Percheron and the horse in the first image in this post?
Personally a horse travels more correctly and comfortably if he is engaged from the hind end, driving into the bridle and forward. He can see ahead of himself properly and would not have the muscle fatigue.

Then of course sometimes in show according to breed regulations you can have a very tight overcheck to keep the horses head up and a running martingale to keep them from tossing it higher.
It's been a pretty recent topic around here with fellow drivers. Fashion vs correctly traveling. What wins in the big show rings where it counts? Take a wild guess because it starts with an F.

Within the last month I have adjusted the check's on three horses and stopped their head tossing. Two were ponies and the other a horse who recently started the habit. After lengthy talks with the three ponies/horse owners and three follow ups all three stopped their head tossing and are more engaged because they can put their heads down and pull. They are all more relaxed and focused on their work.

So call me a modern day Anna Sewell but things done in the name of fashion or getting quick results that go against the way a horse naturally travels make the horse "loving" population seem a bit behind on times. Other things in the human race that have been around for thousands of years but within the last hundred or so years have evolved tremendously. Why are horse people so stuck in the past with different training methods and other practices of horse husbandry? Perhaps status is more important than we thought because to some the horse is still a tool, subject to fashion and not a living thing. It goes on way beyond the use of a check on a driving horse and into every single discipline. I bet we can all think of some.

(All images minus Indigo and I were from google images and belong to their respective owners)

Sunday stills: holiday decorations

2010-12-19T10:59:00.002-05:00

Since Christmas is the time of giving, even if your giving out big doses of humiliation to your animals. Savanah just wasn't quick enough.

I hates you.

Indigo was a good sport as usual with more effort on my part to get her to cooperate.
Mare-E Christmas everyone!

When life gives you santa hats....

2010-12-14T21:56:00.015-05:00

Cut ear holes in them and stick them on your horse.

The same hat from last year. I bet about now shes really wishing she had somehow destroyed the darned thing. She sees me coming with it and ducks away.
See there's just one thing...
Indigo hates her ears manhandled in any way other than light petting or rubbing. When I first got her handling her ears, let alone clipping them for any show was a big battle. Every time I tried to get a hand around an ear to cup it or fold it shut she would rip her head away and shake violently. It's not that she was ever mishandled shes just very possessive over those cute spotty ears of hers. Recently stuck one of those ear bonnets on her and she was completely convinced her ears could not move. She stood there with her ears back making the most upset faces and gnashing her teeth in the cross ties, really not impressed by my fit of hilarity at her expense. She is pretty good about it now, knowing I am not going to harm her precious little ears she lets me handle them however I want.

So when I decided I wanted some sort of Christmas picture with the hat and my brow band that I wrapped in ribbon she was having absolutely none of it. Though she did take a few attempts at eating the garland and lights around her neck, even nickering at me thinking it was food as I slipped it over her head.
But alas, not even carrots could get more than one ear forward.

This is exactly what she thinks of all this.

And this too. Her teeth gnashing with displeasure from standing still this long.

She tried shaking it off...

she succeeded several times before I got smart and tucked it under the crownpiece and brow band.

So in a final ditch effort to get those ears forward I removed one of my gloves and tossed it into the air above me. It caught her attention long enough for this.

So I got a good result and I was starting to freeze really bad having been out there for at least 20 minutes I tossed my second glove...A big gust of wind caught it making it wizz too close for comfort past her head. Hence this face.

Not a split second after the shutter released was she got the hell out of dodge. I was laughing, thinking the glove landed beside me like the first one. Uh oh, where did that glove go? After a few minutes of looking I realized when the bigger gust of wind caught it that it flew into the bushes on the other side of the fence.

After all this I still didn't get a decent shot I was 100% happy with. This one was the winner from the bunch after some editing.

The good news is today I hitched her up to the sleigh and we went for a ride. Compared to last years sleigh ride where she scared the living daylights out of a certain passenger when my aunt hollered, causing Indigo to have a little bit of a tantrum and buck a couple times -bad girl!- when my aunt hollered just out of her eyesight. She was a complete angel only getting a little worried as a snow plow passed us with the blade down making a loud scraping noise pretty close to us.

This is where I can see stone boating her has helped her overall attitude this year. She not only knows how to pull better, she doesn't think that going faster is going to be less work (AKA when the cart starts rolling it's easier to pull, not the same with a stone boat or sleigh). She throws her weight into the collar and walks without worrying if we are going to trot or not because theres some harder work to be done. When it comes time to stand still she knows standing is easier than pulling the sleigh so she stands like a statue, much like she learned with the stone boat when I was loading up rocks onto it. I am starting to like the idea of stone boating horses more and more.

It looks like our snow is here to stick around for a week or more since the temperature is not going above freezing in the future forcast. One of the 400 series highways not terrible far from here has a few hundred cars stranded on it since early yesterday. They have been taking out people by snowmobile and even helicopter declaring it some state of emergency because people do not have food, fuel or medicine. They will have to tow most of the vehicles out because of the drifting.
First it rained on Saturday and snowed late. Then on Sunday it froze and continued to snow giving us about a half a foot or so of powdery white stuff, sometimes more in drifts. The real kicker is the wind. Boy is it windy. The roads are still not great this evening and they have been plowing and salting them for three days now. I mean not that I am complaining because according to most of the non Canadian traveling population I should be riding a polar bear to work and living in an igloo. Though I do complain about the citiots. Sunday evening when the real snow was flying and it was just starting to freeze I was driving home. One car passed in the opposite lane, no problem but the guy behind him was driving right down the center of the road. Sigh. I ended up in the ditch, not a big one but enough that I was spinning my tires and everyone was just passing me. Of course I also had no cell reception there. After getting out, shoveling, reverse, drive, reverse, drive it came unstuck. I have a feeling this is going to be a fuuuuuuun winter if this is our first snow and they are predicting much more.

Sunday stills: Pets

2010-12-12T00:00:00.000-05:00

Another year rolls by and Sunday stills is still going strong.
As usual for this subject I do not post pictures of my own pets since you can see them on a lot of them, but rather other peoples pets.

First is Walter. Walter is my good friend Jo's cat. Walter is a very special kitty because he is blind. The ever kind hearted Jo rescued him from her work where as a kitten he had suffered damage to his body by ingesting steel dust and chemicals from the factory she works at. He is completely blind, you can even do the wave test if you don't believe it. Remarkably you can play with him just like any other cat. He has outstanding hearing and smell. I played with him with a string and it floored me how he could hear where that string had hit the ground and would nail it with a paw every time. He listens for the sound of your fingers rubbing together to tell him where you are and to come get pets. He smells you before you even extend your hand. If you watch him you can see how he strains to locate where you are by moving his head to hear sounds better and sniffing the air to locate you. It's an amazing thing what the other senses can compensate for when one is missing.

This is my friend Tammy's cat Dexter. Yes, he was named after the Dexter on the show Dexter. Dexter was rescued as a week old kitten when his mother abandoned him and his siblings. He was the only one who survived. He is a very handsome tabby. He is also just that, a tabby. He will tolerate about two or three pets before he growls. He had some serious cattitude which usually warrants me mauling him with love until he gets fed up and runs away to growl out of the reach of my petting hands AKA: under the dinner table. Cattitude.

This is Simba, a purebred english lab. Hes the definition of exuberant let me tell you. I can handle a 1000+ pound horse but when it comes to four golden labs I was lying face down on my back being rolled on, licked, pawed and slobbered in what I can guess was 2.5 seconds after I let the last one out of the kennel.

If you want to see any of my pets just take a gander through my blog. They pop up here and there and everywhere. If you haven't today hug a cat, especially if they are not wanting to be mauled with love and hugs. Chances are they were already planning to kill you in your sleep anyway.

So are you a cat or a dog person? Why?

Before and after

2010-12-08T20:26:00.005-05:00

Some people argue using photoshop, lightroom or other similar photo editing software is a cheap trick to make bad photography look better.
The thing I found (as goes for the people who bash horsemanship training practices) is they have never tried it, do not know what it is about and are jumping to conclusions.

These images you see here would have been disregarded if it were not for the wonderful technology of image editing software. I do not claim to be an expert at this, I do what simply looks best. It can be a lot of fun, or a lot of frustration.

Roll your mouse over each edited image to see the before.

And another.

See the difference? What do you prefer?
Who can spot what I did with one of the image sets. Hmm tricky, tricky. (Don't post if you have already seen the "original, original" let others guess.)

Sometimes I post SOOC (Strait out of camera) images but most of the time there are small changes made or just a signature added.
I also shoot in RAW (RAW is basically a digital negative and it needs to be processed in light room or similar program before it can be viewed as a JPG or other image file type) so I have to process every image I take. I use lightroom and photoshop but I have been known time to time when in a pinch to use the free software on this handy dandy site Picnik. If you don't want to spend the couple hundred $$ on photo editing software it might be worth it to pay for premium Picnik. If you are just puttering around it's far more worth your money to use this neat site. Check it out.

What photo editing software do you use? Or are you a SOOC person?

Sunday stills: potluck

2010-12-05T00:00:00.000-05:00

Here's a few pictures. Tell me which one you like and why.

My friends dog Pirate. I had this picture a long time but never processed it from RAW into a JPG. Shes wearing my fedora. Suits her quite well.

John deere. I like driving this little loader tractor at my one barn when it's not soggy out.

And last but not least, Indigo found a corn stalk in the driveway. She stood completely stock still the other week as I grabbed my camera and took this picture. She was totally distracted by eating that stalk.

Been awful busy. Drove Friday for an event, did a parade Saturday (Which Indigo did not have a temper tantrum at this year) and have to head off to the local homestead with her Sunday. Sorry if I have not made it to all your blogs, I might miss commenting on a post or two but I do read them all, promise.

The horse who couldn't climb a tree

2010-12-03T13:16:00.007-05:00

I bet everyone here can relate and say you know someone as a kid (or adult) that was the kid who was never allowed to climb the tree.
I also bet most of you are scratching your heads right now going "say what?" How does this relate to horses? Well it does, let me elaborate.

See I work at many different places. I see, handle and take care of many different horses.
Seeing how different people manage and take care of their horses on a daily basis made me realize how I want to keep my horses, and how I will never keep my horses.

A common theme I see is keeping horses by themselves, in small paddocks and with no contact to their own kind. I would be generous in saying these lot of horses get 2 hours of turnout a day, even if they are worked regularly. They do not have direct contact with their own species other than seeing them over the fence, watching them walk down the barn isle or trying to gnaw the others faces off at feeding time over the stall wall next to them.

The result? Sometimes you will get a quiet horse that sucks everything in and takes their solitary confinement in stride. That is if they don't have some sort of stereotypie to begin with.
The seeming regular behavior? A horse that is batsh*t crazy! Something seems to short fuse in their brain from lack of being able to be a horse. Handling them can be a nightmare, they run through fences and kick the living crap out of other horses if they have the virtue of a pasture mate. They can't just stop and graze, they have to run, run, run, run, attack, attack, attack, attack! Then they get solitary confinement when it comes to turnout.

FYI- A stereotypies is the correct word for what we call a "vice. Stereotypical behavior such as cribbing, weaving, stall walking etc is caused by a lack of natural locomotory or oral behaviors in horses. A "vice" is something that is deemed inconvenient. Head bobbing, stall kicking, cribbing or weaving are things convenient to the horse because his natural behaviors have been removed from his environment. eg- Walking and grazing at the same time and socialization with other horses. "vices" as we call them are only inconvenient to humans when horses destroy stalls, colic themselves or cause joint damage. Stereotypies is for a whole other post.

When I look at how Indigo is, shes outside 24/7.

I am proud of the fact my horse gets this muddy.

She has a shelter, is dirty a lot of the time and is almost always with another horse. She has her fair share of battle scars. As I explained the other day to a new lady at one barn with a cute little quarter horse gelding she reined that Indigo was outside 24/7 with the rest of the horses and she got hurt sometimes and usually was caked in a thick layer of mud. The lady just about fainted. "Why don't you blanket her!? How do you deal with grooming her?" Her little gelding, although cute and mannerly destroys blankets, turning them into a spaghetti of material and straps in a matter of a month. He also cribs like it's going out of style and beats the living snot out of any other horse within range of his teeth and hooves, which is the whole paddock. That is what he gets, the whole paddock to himself. He hasn't been turned out consistently with another horse since he was a weanling with his mother. He is a blanked pansy "human horse".

Quite frankly in my opinion the horse came before the barn did. The "blanket" of mud keeps horses skin healthy and them happy. The scientific view of not blanketing a horse to me makes a lot of sense. When you or a horse is cold your hair stands on end. The hair standing on end traps the heat from escaping into the open and keeps it closer to your body longer than when the hair lies flat. By putting a blanket on a horse that is not shivering you flatten the hair, stopping the bodies natural heat shield from engaging properly. A lot of the time this can make a horse colder. However for old horses or ones that seem to lose weight in the winter, blanketing can be a good idea to prevent shivering and weight loss. Don't get me wrong. I have a blanket for Indigo, just in case but it's just a rain sheet to keep the wind and elements off her. I have never used it. I also take time to cool a horse down in the winter after working them rather than plastering them with layers of blankets and putting them under lights to keep their coats fine so they cool out quicker. Horses evolved, lived and survived many years before blankets were in use.

Another FYI- Did you know that it is actually the horses body reacting to the increase/decrease in daylight hours that causes the thyroid to adjust hormones in the horses body and grow hair/shed it? Not the change in temperature.

This brings me to the point of this post: The kid who wasn't allowed to climb the tree. Everyone knows one. The kid who's parents never let them do anything that might get them in trouble, hurt or possibly give them any ideas other than the angelic protege poster child might have. They grow up, have issues making and keeping friends and have issues with all sorts of other stuff, sometimes life itself. I had a few friends like that. Their mother did not let them do anything, have any friends over or get into any normal kid mischief. Now they are growin up, have issues because they are doing things now as adults they should have done when they were kids. It's getting them into a lot of trouble because they were the kids who didn't climb the tree.

So having said this, don't let your horse be the horse who wasn't allowed to climb the tree. Let them be horses. Roll in mud, probably get into a fight or two and be bullied (hopefully so they learn some horse manners in the herd) by their herd mates and buck and kick and be a horse. In the end isn't it worth having the horse that climbed the metaphorical tree? Even if they did fall out and hurt themselves a few times along the way?

Indigo last winter giving Sebastian a what for.

How do you keep your horses? Are they stalled 24/7, blanketed, wrapped in bubble wrap? Did you ever see horses that were unhappy with their living arrangements in their behaviors? If you could make any improvements to your current barn/pasture etc to make it more acceptable for normal horse behavior what would you do? Speak up I would love to hear how you all keep your horses.

Stealing days back

2010-11-29T17:49:00.003-05:00

Stealing days and post titles from All horse stuff.

When the weather is nice enough in any given day -right now- "We steal it back from winter" to go riding!

It was such a beautiful day today. I didn't think I was going to be able to ride because I had an extra barn to stop at but that fell through so I came back, saddled up and went for a ride, my compact camera in tow.

Come along for the ride! (Make sure to pause my playlist first and hear one of my favorite songs in the video)

I almost ate dirt in the making of this video.
Shortly after the gallop in the video we were going through the tall grasses on the field to the right. I was looking down at the camera when Indigo had a "get the hell out of dodge" moment. I sure didn't even have a second to know what the heck Indigo was galloping sideways about let alone see the deer as we were basically going in the other direction. When I stopped her 30 or so feet later, clinging onto her barrel sideways I planted my feet on the ground and looked to see three white tails bouncing off. The reason Indigo spooked so hard was normally deer run away from you. These deer ran sideways, pretty much in our direction. Soon she realized they were indeed not killer deer and snorted a few times before I got back on and we resumed our ride.

To think I was thinking as I haltered her in the barnyard "I haven't seen any deer in a couple days" Boy was I wrong.

Deer just might be the death of me.

Sunday stills: Me, Myself and I

2010-11-28T00:00:00.000-05:00

This Sunday stills is self portraits, only this time they don't have to be self taken.

I do have to say I only have a handful of images that were taken of me with my camera since it barely ever leaves my own hands when it comes to taking pictures.

I will post a few images I have, and for every image I will tell you something about where I was and why it was taken.

This picture is probably my favorite. I asked my best friend Lisa to come out and take some pictures of me for a magazine I was published in. They wanted an author bio with a picture for their website. There were a lot of funny faces that day but this one was decent. Indigo and I were watching the neighbor try and fix a lawnmower that kept backfiring every couple minutes.

My Aunt Gaye and I were off to the Michigan Ren fest. I wanted a picture of me in my pirate costume. I guess it so happened you could see my tattoo (which is still not completely finished). That was a fun day, rain and all.

I was at my friend Amanda's parents farm a county over. They have chickens. I love chickens. I wanted to pet them and chase them around and feed them things. These chickens happen to like to be held and petted and all that non-chickeny stuff. I held it, it laid it's head down on my shoulder and hugged it back going "AWW! It's like a chicken hug".
In mild terror it pooped on my sleeve. Thanks.

I know, I know. Supporter of helmets not wearing a helmet. I am young and sometimes stupid. I am also apparently ignorant to self tanner at this point as my upper body and lower do not match. Not to mention the fashion statement of shorts and cowboy boots. Go ahead, scream, run, hide. I am a terrible person.

This is not my face. This is my boot. I like boots. I won these boots from Ariat. Indigo likes my boots. She always smells my boots. Shes a boot sniffer and sometimes a boot licker. Chances are if you know me I am almost always wearing boots.

My camera got commandeered by my friend Korinne. We were at the beach down the road jumping in the water like little kids and taking stilly pictures. I loved these blue ones until they met the tile floor. I need another pair of blue mirrored aviators. I must have another pair of blue mirrored aviators. Anyone who finds me a pair of blue mirrored aviators can have my first born, but not "the firstborn". AKA my leatherman.

This was me after I cut my hair last. Family and friends far away wanted to see how much I cut knowing I always have long hair. Everyone seemed to love this picture. I like it too.

When I went to get my tattoo done Lisa took my camera yet again and got the "why are you taking my picture" look. This is the "yes I am up to no good" face.

This was the last picture of me taken that I can recall. Korinne wanted to go on an adventure to the city. She needed a cheap compact camera and got a Canon cybershot (highly recommend them if you are needed a compact). I was crunching up ice from an iced tea I had bought as I drove. Notice the aviator trend? This is my last living pair of aviators. Funny enough I have had them the longest. I paid $4 for them. I desperately need a new pair. Maybe a blue mirrored pair?

This has been a lot of fun. Thanks to Ed for hosting a challenge every week. I hope it never stops.

Cows

2010-11-27T11:26:00.000-05:00

I like cows.

I used to milk cows.
I have been stepped on, squished, kicked, peed and pooped on (AKA: Christened).
Their tongues are like raspy sandpaper. When feeding they would find ways to scrape their tongues across unguarded skin.

Cows can be pretty dumb by human standards and in comparison to other livestock. IMO- They have the intelligence of potatoes, and taste good with potatoes. What more would one want from their future dinner? (I am sorry right now to all those anti cow eaters that may be reading this I can't help but love steak it's my favorite. I am a die hard member of PETA- People Eating Tasty Animals. No hard feelings ok?)

However cows can recognize up to 100 other cows in their herd. I guess that makes them pretty smart when they aren't oozing slime from every orifice. Which is always.

The first cow in America arrived in Jamestown colony in 1611. Until the 1850's, nearly every family had its own cow. The first regular shipment of milk by railroad was between Orange County, New York, and New York City and began in 1841.

In 1856, Gail Borden invented the condensed milk process. This process removed some of the water from milk so it would take up less space. Refrigeration came into use in 1880, and the first pasteurizing machine was introduced in 1895.

Dairying has improved through the years. Today, one cow can produce the milk that it once took 10 cows to produce. Before milking machines were invented in 1894, farmers could only milk about 6 cows per hour. Today, farmers use machines to milk more than 100 cows per hour.
It takes 30 gallons of milk to make 1 pound of butter!
The calcium in soy milk is not as usable in the human body as calcium in milk from a cow.

Cows are ruminants, which are cud chewing mammals. Sheep and camels also are ruminants.
A cow chews it's cud (Cud is regurgitated, partially digested food) for up to 8 hours each day.
Cows drink about a bathtub full of water and eat around 40 pounds of food a day.

Contrary to popular belief, cows do not have 4 stomachs; they have 4 digestive compartments:

The rumen holds up to 50 gallons of partially digested food. This is where cud comes from. Good bacteria in the rumen helps digest the cows food and provides protein.
The reticulum, also called the hardware stomach because if cows eat hardware (like a piece of fencing or other metal), it will often lodge here causing no further damage.
The omasum is like a filter.
The abomasum is like our stomach

Cows can jump. I recall watching Sebastian as a weanling chase some poor cows around in the pasture until they jumped the fence with very little effort. The cows no longer got turned out with the horses because of that..

Someday I will have a cow. It might just be a big fat angus. I might just name it t-bone because thats how I roll.

A review: Absorbine finishing spray

2010-11-24T19:03:00.006-05:00

So last week I did a review on Detanglers I noted at the bottom how the review was of my own doing and the company who made said products likely did not know of me or the bitless horse blog. Well it seemed like minutes before I got an e-mail signed Sean from Absorbine. He said he had seen my post about the detanglers, was very glad I loved the Santa-Fe line and had an improved show sheen product for me to try. How awesome is that?
Of course I accepted the trial. The product he was sending isn't even distributed in Canada yet and I was more than willing to give it a shot.

So a day or so later this showed up at the door. From the images I seen it was the same type of non-aerosol bottle my sunscreen came in. I was correct, only it was much larger than I thought again comparing it to my little bottle of sunscreen. The cool thing about this was it was labeled for horses, cattle, dogs, camels, lamas (etc etc?) right on the bottle.

This is Absorbines Show sheen finishing mist.
Strait from the Absorbine website:

Celebrated worldwide as the best-selling hair polish in over 25 countries, ShowSheen is now available as a Finishing Mist. Perfect for last-minute touch-ups, ShowSheen Finishing Mist has a continuous, quiet sprayer that won't spook your horse and even sprays upside down.

• Continuous sprayer for uniform and complete coverage
• Original ShowSheen® is now enriched with Pro Vitamins and Silk Proteins to shine and strengthen better than ever
• Pro Vitamins nourish coat for a world class shine
• Silk Proteins strengthen mane and tail hair for a more beautiful appearance
• Repels dust and dirt to save grooming time
• ShowSheen® is the best selling hair polish in over 25 countries around the world
• Fresh scents of Jasmine and Sandalwood pamper your horse

I know some of you are gonna think I am crazy but the smell of original show sheen didn't make me want to sniff manes all day. This stuff however smells amazing.

Unfortunately I really did not get to try it right away. I had three (and a bit) days of carriage rides ahead of me. I sprayed it into Indigo's mane and on her hindquarters and left it. Between that time I didn't brush her mane or tail because I was driving a horse or sleeping it felt like. It rained really good a night ago and the wind was insane. Long mane + Wind = dreadlocks. Fortunately there were none to be seen. Her mane was still manageable, as in I could finger comb it relatively easy. This was three days later.

So yesterday I wanted to see what it was really like.

Insert dirt horse.
Indigo has a very naturally soft, fine coat. She almost always feels slick and soft. Softer than any horse I have met and anyone who pets her agrees with me. In the winter it statics easily and collects mud (as any spotty white horse will). Fortunately for me her hair coat seems to be infused with teflon because the moment the dirt dries it brushes right off and she looks "white" again, or as close to it. However she does get dust in her coat and every time I swipe a brush over a confirmed dust spot you can see streaks of dirt and no matter how much you brush they just never go away. Unless you take a shop vac to the horse (If you are on my facebook you would have heard about this) effective, but not many horses would likely stand well. This is where sprays like this come in handy. The dirt does not stick in the hair and on the skin the same if they are sprayed with some sort of coat spray.

I sprayed her hocks a day before.

Look! They are actually clean no pee stains! It's a miracle they are still shiny and this is before I brushed them. Why didn't I think of this before?

Her tail was easily finger combed after a minute or two of letting this dry without any snags or tangles.

Her mane was soft and manageable too. It continues to be soft and manageable.

Since Indigo really wasn't a completely filthy wild pony beast I brought in Stormy who desperately needed the burs taken out of her everything.

Her mane is so thick you can't even see the burs wound up in there not to mention several little tree's.

What was a forelock.

And her tail. What the heck did she do to the top? It was glued down with mud.I got to spraying some on and literally combed out the burs. No getting the little stickers stuck in my fingers like when I tugged them out by hand. I combed them out. I also found my sheepskin mitt was helpful. I sprayed it on and smoothed it with the mitt. The reason I did this was because I found it really made my hands slick long after it actually dried off my palms.

Lovely mane after

And forelock
And tail

So there we have it.

The pro's and con's of Absorbine finishing mist.

Pro's- The spray is quiet and even the sprayophobe Sheba didn't flinch. It's non aerosol and friendly for the atmosphere. It smells awesome. Better than the original show sheen. It makes me want to sniff manes all day (I admit I may have a problem) it does indeed de-tangle though it is meant as a coat spray. The spray is very accurate enabling you to target little areas which is convenient for de-tangling. It lasts through weather for a few days. It keeps dust and dirt at bay on the hair coat.
NOTE: I have been using it for about a week now and I think it is safe to say it does not dry the coat like original show sheen does.

Con's- It is very slippery. It is labeled right on the bottle "do not use near saddle area". I find my hands are slick as snot after smoothing it into the hair so I found a sheepskin mitt very convenient ($7 at wal mart in the auto section) either that or you need to wash your hands or wear gloves if you intend to ride. The spray is very accurate. I both love and loathe this because sometimes you want a little bit of spray in a large area not the opposite. Depends on what you are using it for I guess. I am afraid to leave this in the barn because it's getting colder. Even under the heat lamp in fear it might explode with the cooler temperatures if it froze a little bit. Made braiding very difficult.

My conclusion- If you show and you need your horse to look shiny this stuff is a must have. It really did, in my opinion work better than original show sheen. It made the hair softer, repelled dust and smells great. I imagine if I need more and it's in our local tack shop I will pick up another bottle for next show season. Santa fe is still my favorite as far as concentrated detanglers, which Absorbine makes.

Plus the neat thing about the Absorbine company is it's a family run company having been passed down genorations. Sean explained in his e-mail:

"We are continuing to make ShowSheen in the regular bottles (16 oz, 32 oz spray, 32 oz refill and gallon) but are also offering it now in the "continuous spray" non-aerosol can that I'm sending you. Both the traditional style bottle and the new "Mist" style contain the same new formula- same stuff, two different delivery systems. I would like to stress that the new formula has all of the same properties folks have come to expect from ShowSheen, just that we've added even more nutritives to make the hair healthier. You can recognize the new ShowSheen that has added hair health ingredients by it's new bottle color and label (the bottle has a "pearl" color to it) or if it's in the Mist style can. We've had many reports form barns that the horses who use the new formula have nicer manes, tails and coats that the one who don't. "

I was sure glad to hear that. People usually get bent out of shape when a long loved product changes. I think this new finishing spray is a very good idea. Plus if I didn't love absorbines products before I read the history on their blog.
I love, love, love, love that the original absorbine was created as the alternative to painful methods of blistering. The history tells us right there that back in the day when the product was created the horses welfare was thought of first when it usually was last because the horse was thought of as a tool. Treating animals as we would like to be treated, something some people still fail to realize even in this day and age.

So who else out there has used the finishing mist? It's pretty new. How did you like it. Is there anything I missed?

Sunday stills: High tech/Low tech

2010-11-21T00:00:00.001-05:00

This truely was a challenge. Not necessarily finding something but finding the time.

This is a hand forged clasp at the local John. R. Park homestead. This clasp belongs to the back door in the forge which is well over a hundred years old. However since modern thieves and no-gooders do not pay attention to a little latch (look carefully in the picture) a modern lock and key must be used.

A lot of the detailing of the barns and other buildings at J.R.Park are original right down to hand made nails to pound on the fixtures which I learned to make in the forge there.
This was me working in the forge a couple summers ago, complete with soot on my forhead.

It's a super neat old place with wonderful staff that are great about bringing modern civilization back in time to one of the first homesteads in our area.

For more high and low tech things check out Sunday stills

Oh deer!

2010-11-18T17:00:00.002-05:00

With cool fall days come cool fall rides. The kind of lazy rides where my horse and I have been working hard all summer and need to wind down. Lots of walking and bareback rides are always on the agenda. I love riding bareback in the colder months. Actually I love riding bareback in general but there's something ever so toasty about your bottom on a warm, fluffy horse back.

Of course with fall comes the harvesting of crops and with the harvesting of crops brings in all sorts of animals. Mice to houses, coyotes out of hiding and deer to the fields.
Corn fields in particular.

Last year I seen a total of three deer in total when riding.
One was a big buck that ran out of the field in front of us and darted around the corner out of sight.
The second and third if you have been reading this blog will remember our first ride out after Indigo lacerated her shoulder. We came to the horse eating bush. The horse eating bush should not be big enough for a deer to hide in but they did. Literally right next to us this HUGE buck exploded out of the horse eating bush, bounding away from us. It nearly gave both of us a heart attack. Not even fifteen feet later and a horse with a "get the hell out of dodge" mentality a second deer exploded out of the horse eating bush going in the same direction as the first deer. Indigo was completely beside herself. The anguish that bush causes that horse I am telling ya.

Normally Indigo is not afraid of deer unless they are rocketing themselves out of bushes or fields like someone lit a firecracker under their white tails. Just like cows she knows they run when she goes in their direction so they cause her no grief once she knows what they are. It's pretty easy for deer to hide themselves in a bush or forest but a harvested corn field?
Four times now just in the last week have deer been sleeping in whats left of the short cut corn stalks only to hear us crunching through the corn rows, jump up alarmed before bounding of. Talk about giving me and my spotty horse a heart attack. Normally she jumps back a couple steps then stops and stares intently as they bounce away. However these deer are either a) deaf b) really not afraid. I seem to be able to get really close to them before they jump up and head for the hills. About 100 feet or less.

Yesterday and the day before I have seen 4 deer together

"Oh no! The deer eater is coming."

(The fourth was just off the image I did not see it until after) .
The day before yesterday they were grazing quietly under the turbine. Indigo stared at them with only a few double takes. They ran off

"RUN AWWAAYYY!!!"

except one that seemed oblivious to the fact I was there.

We continued on.

Yesterday we were headed down the side of the field, almost to the end where there were a few acres mowed down really flat. Suddenly as I let Indigo stop to grab a corn husk stuck to a tall uncut stalk the four deer sprung up surprised about 50 feet away. Boy were we surprised too! I just about had a heart attack and Indigo jumped backwards a couple steps and bugged her eyes out. She quickly realized they were deer and resumed her corn husk munching. Two split off in the direction of the small bush and the other two were gone someplace in a neighboring ditch. We rode around the field without further incidence of more jumping up.

On the weekend I was out in the corn field riding Indigo bareback when she suddenly snapped her head around fast enough to give herself whiplash. There not 20 feet away was this little deer. It was small, probably adolescent, had no horns and I really did think upon first glance it was the neighbors mamoth black lab. But no, it was a deer. A nearly black deer. We both stared for a long time. It didn't move and it was so close to us! Then the neighbor came down the lane on his four wheeler and it ran to the first bush, dark, dark brown and no white tail.

(Image of the dark deer courtesy of google images)

If the neighbor hadn't seen it I would have thought I was nuts. But he seen it too and confirmed it with me as I met him on his way back that he seen the deer, but not me on the big white horse across the field. I thought it was really peculiar but didn't put much more thought into it other than possibly thinking it was a genetic mutate.

Then on Monday I seen it again in almost the same spot only it was standing already. We were far enough away it did not run right away but it stared at us with interest before bounding off, characteristic white tail, without a white tail. So a phone conversation last night got me thinking, what if it really was some sort of genetic mutate?

I looked it up and apparently there are such a thing as black deer. Well not black but melanistic.
A melanistic deer means it's a deer that creates excessive melanin, making most of it's body a very dark, sometimes black colour rather than the traditional tan a white tailed deer exhibits.

According to a hunting site:
"Melanistic whitetails are very rare, even more rare than piebald or albino deer. You can recognize a melanistic deer because their bodies produce far too much of the pigment known as melanin which makes them much darker than your average whitetail. Of the millions of deer taken each year only a few with melanism have been reported. Most people don't know they exist due to the extreme rarity, making a melonistic buck a true trophy. "

Some have white tails, some do not (being a white tail deer). This one did not that is what struck me so odd. Normally their white tails flashing as they bound off is such an eye catcher but both times this little guy was alone and bounded off without so much of a fluff of white.
I really hope no one shoots it. I don't think they would as most are after bucks and their horns. What a neat little guy this deer is. There really are very few sites talking about melanistic deer so hes kind of a mystery. I wonder, will there be more black deer in the future like this one if he/she survives long enough to have babies? Only time (and luck of seeing them) will tell.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-11-17T00:00:00.000-05:00

A review: De tanglers comparison

2010-11-16T00:00:00.006-05:00

After doing the Taming the tail tutorial lots of people asked what I used on manes, or between washes to keep the hair from tangling, dread locking or in general becoming an unmanageable mess. Especially with coarse hair types or horses that have oily skin it can be particularly hard to keep long manes and tails manageable. Burs, branches, nails or anything in general can catch tangled hair on and tug it out. There are a few products that I have used/use and would recommend.

When I look for something to de tangle I want a product that is going to

stay in the hair for a couple of days and make the next couple days combing either obsolete or very easy.
Not coat the hair in silicon. Basically a lot of products, particularly human detanglers or shampoo's will contain a silicon or silicon equivalent that will coat the hair shaft and make it soft, shiny and manageable. The downside is once you start using it the hair stops producing it's own protection. Once you stop using the product the hair does not have any protection anymore. This leaves the hair brittle and more prone to breakage, defeating the purpose all together of using a product to protect the hair.
Not break the bank. No one wants to spend a ton of money on something that you need to use a lot of and then buy a lot of.
Not attract dirt. This is super important because of Indigo, the grey, dirt loving, manure lying in spotty horse. Again with a lot of products like this they are oil based and collect dirt which can weaken the hairs.

Cowboy magic detangler-
Sizes- Comes in more than one size
Price- Moderate. Between $12-$17 for the 8 oz size. 29-$40 for the bigger one.
Pro's- It makes the mane really soft and super shiny. Does not attract dust. Seems to last a good amount of time even outside. Dermatology tested, can be used on any animal or human. Smells great. Detangles hair really fast.
Con's- It is crazy slippery. My friend and I groomed her horse for a show and some of this and other cowboy magic product got near the saddle area. Her saddle fits pretty good and it slipped, causing her to fall. Word of the wise: be very cautious when this is near your saddle area! It also seemed to make the hair more prone to static and fly aways.

Santa fe detangler-
Sizes- One size, 8 oz
Price- Moderate $13-$15
Pro's- It smells great. Not strong to attract bugs or be offending like some hair products. A little goes a looooong way. It also eliminates fly aways and leaves the hair easy to detangle but also very manageable for braiding. The hair is light but not weighed down like heavier products. Does not attract dirt. Lasts a few days but washes right out with water. Has vitamin E and sunblock in it so you don't have to worry about it burning if it accidentally gets on skin. Not slippery on the hair coat.
Con's- If your horse is outside and it rains or is very damp you might have to use this every day. If you use too much it will make the hair a little greasy feeling and will stick together until it dries but nothing drastic.

Absorbine show sheen moisturizing detangler-
Size- One size 8 oz
Price- Moderate $15 and up
Pro's- Contains a lot of vitamin E and other proteins to enrich hair and keep it moisturized to prevent breaking. Detangles with a unique gel formula. Seems to stay in with wet or dry hair and does not evaporate out. Pleasant smell. Kept the hair detangled.
Con's- It's more of a gel. I wasted a lot because the gel slipped off my palm. I also found it was harder to distribute evenly. I found I had blobs all over the place where they others were more like an oil that I could rub between my hands and run my fingers through the hair. Made hair slippery.

Shapleys original MTG-
Size- 32 and 6 OZ
Price- $10 and under for the 6oz $15-$25 for the 32 oz
Pro's- This does detangle the mane and tail. It also makes the mane and tail grow, especially if a horse has an itchy spot they like to rub or a thin mane. It also works on just about every other thing you can think of skin or hair related including growing back hair and loosening scabs to ridding the horse of things like rain rot, sweet itch and scratches. It's an all in one miracle product. I gave some to a friend who had a rescue dog that had very little hair on it. Within a few days the dogs hair was noticeably thicker, actually growing in and the itchiness that caused the hair loss was gone. With repeated use it makes the hair softer and moisturized without silicon products. I also put this religiously on my pony every other day. It is the only thing other than steroids that will keep his allergic sweet itch down during the summer months.
Con's- It smells. I mean it smells like some sort of bacon campfire and it's hard to get off yourself. I use rubber gloves because the smell seems to stick to your skin for a long time. You have to shake it really well every time and make sure you distribute it evenly because it's a very loose liquid compared to other products. It's mainly oil so it can cause sunburn so not wise to use it during the daylight hours your horse is outside. It also collects dirt and grime like crazy. A white horse (See Indigo) will be looking dirty for days on end as the spots you used the MTG will stick out like a sore thumb with dirt. It's also hard to wash out so don't go using it the day before a show.
However I do firmly believe the usefulness of this product outweigh the con's.

Baby oil-
Size- All different sizes
Price- Very cheap, you can get a good sized bottle for $1 at the dollar store.
Pro's- It's cheap. When it comes to burs and bad dreadlocks it's the way to go because you can waste a whole bottle and not feel your wallet depress. You can also get non scented for those sensitive horses/people. Very safe and effective at detangling. Can also be used as a muzzle and eye highlighter for shows.
Con's- It's very oily. It collects a lot of dirt and quick. It can burn a horse to a crisp in a few minutes. It's also hard to wash off. Don't plan on using it a few days before a show because it's going to require some effort to wash out unless you use dawn or other grease cutting soap.

WD-40
Size- All different sizes
Price- Cheap, $2-20 or more for a large jug of it.
Pro's- I know your all laughing, all purpose lubricant. But it works, It's cheap and not only can you use it on bad burs and things without having to cut the hair but you can use it various other places around the barn and farm. It's uses are endless and if you are in a pinch and do not have anything else it can get out a witches knot without scissors. Leaves the mane and tail super shiny. Stays on the hair for a long time. Detangles super fast.
Con's- Do not use this on a horse that is turned out with another that chews tails/manes. It does have some toxic qualities if ingested. It also collects dirt after a wile and will make a saddle slip. I imagine it might burn too. I have only used it in spots that had burs or a large snarl that would have had to be cut out.

Other products- Is there something I missed? I have used a couple more but I want to specifically focus on generally/specifically products used on manes and tails. These are also ones I had somewhat satisfying results with.

My favorite:
Santa fe: It does not slip or slide, makes those fly aways lie flat and the smell makes me want to sniff manes all day long. The last time I bought a bottle it came into the house before making it's way to the barn. In that time my hairdresser mother found it. She discovered it's useful properties on her hair, fell in love and they have been married ever since.
I also use it on my own hair because my hair is long, thick, fine and strait all in one. Static shock anyone? Well it prevents that. No other product I ever came across did that without making my fine hair a greasy mess. I also love, love, love their coat spray and shampoo. Just an all round winning product line that has not been around a terrible long time and is often overshadowed by absorbines other products like show sheen. It out performs every other product I have come across.

I would not overlook:
MTG: I just can't say enough good about this stuff. It really does all it claims and more. It was actually originally made for men who balded in 1938! Now it's been proven time and time again to be a must have in the barn. I promise you will not be disappointed.
Cowboy Magic: In a pinch it works. I do love their green spot remover and rosewater shampoo. I would be lost in hades someplace without their green spot remover at horse shows. They have very good prices too.

Of course none of these (in exception to MTG) will miraculously make hair thicker or longer. Genetics play the biggest part in how hair grows. I want to prevent the hair from becoming tangled which might require more pulling or breaking and in the end thin the mane or tail. Thus these products are a must have for growing a long, thick mane and tail without breaking the crap out of the hairs every time you brush. It makes grooming a thick tail a breeze.

What is your favorite grooming product? It doesn't have to be mane and tail. Just list the price, pro's and con's. I would love to hear and possibly try it.

PS- I did not add mane n tail detangler in here because I wanted to focus on concentrated detanglers rather than sprays. I am also not that fond of their detangler. It leaves almost a dry, gritty feeling on Indigo's fine mane hairs, does not last as long and leaves a slippery silicon feeling on my hands. I do love their hoofmaker for my own hands and horses feet though so they are not excluded.

Note: This is not a paid review. I mean I paid for these products but in no way do the manufacturers very likely know of me or this blog. I just happen to like this stuff.

2010-11-15T00:00:00.000-05:00

To learn all that a horse could teach, was a
world of knowledge, but only a beginning...
Look into a horses eye and you instantly know
if you can trust him.
-Mary O'Hara

Sunday stills: Coffee or tea cups

2010-11-14T00:00:00.001-05:00

For lack of better tea cups I looked to the first willing ~~victim~~ volunteer to stand around and drink out of a cup.

This is my cousin Ken. I hadn't seen ken in a couple years. A couple years too many because he got married to a wonderful woman, Alaina whom I had never met until last Thursday. Now that I know where they both live I shall be making more frequent visits to have a fun day like we did Thursday.

When they asked if I wanted tea I jumped at the opportunity; not for tea but for teacups. I asked if they minded me taking pictures and they obliged.

Ken had ideas of drinking tea like he normally did out of a mostly manly, boring but functional cup. Alaina had better ideas and broke out the "bane of her existence" AKA a set of cups Ken is drinking out of in this photo.

They are quite retro. I mean that's back in style anyway.

For more coffee and tea cups check out others on Sunday Stills

What have we accomplished.

2010-11-10T19:17:00.001-05:00

Note: My natural ride bareback pad is still up for auction and open to best offers.

Today as I was out on a leisurely bareback rider on Indigo around the harvested corn field I got to thinking how much me and my little spotty horse have done this year.

It may not seem like a lot but she has gone 365 and a few days without being injured. *knock on a lot of wood*
What does this have to do with accomplishing things? A lot considering she hasn't had to be off because of some large cut, scrape, bump or bruise.
If you have been following this blog for any period of time you will know this is almost unheard of. Indigo, without any injuries? *again knock on more wood*
From spring this year and still ongoing she has been worked 5-7 days a week. Some days we just go around bareback, others we drive a few miles at a trot, working hard and walking a lot.

We came.

We rode bitless.

We drove bitless.

We won.

So did lil'red cowgirl.

She sure had a lot of fun following us around to horse shows this summer for the opportunity to take my spotty pill into a few classes, who I might add behaved excellently for lil'red and earned themselves some ribbons and winnings.
Photo's by Robin

Lately we have been working on not having meltdowns over little things (like people walking way off in the distance) and shes been doing amazing. She gets a little unsure of things still but instead of teleporting fifteen feet to the side and then assessing if it's a threat or not shes been stopping and staring at whats got her attention. I am much more happy to deal with this and encourage her to walk on when she stops. I want her to know the option to stop and look is there but the option to run away isn't going to get her any closer to home.

I credit a lot of this to my doing. Both causing some of her big spooks and now calming her before she has that spook.

See when I first got Indigo she was ridden by her previous owners husband. He is not a horseman but he wanted to ride with his wife, probably the reason why she was described as "not husband safe". In short if Indigo decided if it was time to trot off they trotted off. If Indigo decided it was time to stop and snack on things it was time to stop and snack on things. So long story short when I got her not only was her reign of terror over but there would be a lot more hard work involved than working when she wanted to (see trotting off).

Naturally being the opinionated mare she is Indigo rebelled. She dove at grass and weeds, yanking the reins out of my hands no matter how hard I made her work because of it. Every last tiny blade of grass was worth the work in her eyes. She trotted off when she felt it was time to trot, leaving me up on her back as a passenger instead of her partner. She took matters of how fast we went into her own hooves but never took off at any fast speed or was ever dangerous for me to handle. She threw a few big spooking fits in there too and got me all flustered.
I hollered, kicked, screamed a few times. "you should not be spooking you have seen -insert one of two: Objects that move and objects that do not- a thousand times!"
I would get mad at her and get after her for spooking. She would smarten up for a short wile but always find something else to be unsure and spooky about. I thought she was trying to get out of work. She thought I was a monster I am sure but put up with me through both of our confusions.

Sometimes this mare is a harder nut to crack than the young horses I have trained. She has some bad habits that came with her and had been doing those irritating habits for many years. A young untrained horse has the ability to be molded by you without the presence of those bad habits in the way.

I've ridden more horses this spring/summer/fall than I have all other summers. It's given me some valuable ideas and information especially towards Indigo.
Indigo is 18. Most of the horses I have broke or finished this year have been 5 or under in the exception to an unbroken 11 year old ex broodmare, a 10 year old gelding and a 21 year old mare that had not been ridden in 12 years. I treated them all the same: like they were a 2 year old being introduced for the first time to things.

So being the perfectionist I am I got to thinking, how come I could get these inexperienced horses to be calm and collected about scary situations, but Indigo would have a fit and want to get the hell out of dodge?
I thought about how I handled it.
An inexperienced horse would spook or become unsure I would scratch it's neck, give it plenty of rein and reassure it that whatever was scary was not going to hurt it and they would usually snort a few times and carry on.

Indigo, I mean she is 18. She should have a been there done that attitude being all the places shes been. I got mad a lot of the time because she would spook at things that shouldn't have been a big deal. Normally I would use some sort of negative reinforcement such as giving her more work for spooking. This only made her more anxious the next time she was to spook.
Finally I put two and two together and started riding her like she was two. Slowly but surely accompanied by some no-nonsense work (as in ignoring shying when we worked or reassuring her it's ok but not letting her stop) shes come to the point where rather than trying to gather up and spook at things she will a) stop, usually more than once and take a good hard look at what might be bothering her or b) make a wide berth around it. This isn't the end of the line but it's better than alternative c) get the hell out of dodge.

With breaking a horse I have said and still say miles and miles of WALKING is what breaks a horse. Not trotting or cantering or galloping. Walking. It sure came true. When we were headed back in the general direction of home and Indigo got a little upset and wanted to jig or trot home I insisted we walked. No thought to it might take us two times as long to get home, we walked, and walked, and walked and if she anticipated a place where we were going to change gait before I asked we walked that whole spot too. Soon she just thought about walking. Walking the whole few miles was always an option and if she behaved and walked until I said so and she did indeed get to pick up the pace.
The result? Well she doesn't anticipate changing gait anywhere other than the odd day she has a little burst of energy but instead of a battle about walking she quietly goes back to a walk and we resume what we were doing.

So as far as this year we certainly have accomplished a lot as a horse and rider team even further than showing and spooking. Not only have we accomplished my new years resolutions Indigo has become incredibly tuned into my cues and even more supple to the bridle both direct contact and her new found love of neck reining. Collection is a breeze now, she can feel my cues and I can feel her whole body round up and that lovely swinging motion of her stepping under herself when we ride.

I can only hope we can follow up with this through the winter and all through next year.

So how about the rest of you. What have you accomplished this year with a horse?

FYI- Some tack for sale

2010-11-07T22:51:00.007-05:00

I do not like to advertise things like this on my blog, it's not my style.

Buuuut since so many of you e-mailed me just today from a comment I left on another blog about the tack I am selling I thought I would mention the things I am tossing up on the block because I would love it if someone could use this stuff more than the use it's getting (little or none).

Yes, I am selling my natural ride bareback pad with a few extra goodies. It's on e-bay.
I love this bareback pad. Yes you can mount from the ground. Yes you can trot, canter, gallop and even jump with the stirrups on and it does not twist or slide. It's as secure as a treed saddle.
However it does not fit Indigo very well and she makes it very obvious she does not like it one bit. It's been well cared for and some other goodies are going along with it like a breast collar, sheepskin fuzzies and a crocheted ear bonnet.

I also have a pair of brand new size 00 original easy boots put on a horse once but never walked in. Selling them as a pair.

And a Thorowgood griffin close contact (jumping, more specifically) saddle (does not have fish), med-wide tree and 17 inch seat. Girth, irons, leathers and bitted bridle included.

Once used likit snak-a-ball. Won it in a likit contest. Indigo did not want anything to do with it and Mr.pony was on the warpath to beat the living snot out of it.

If you are interested in any of these items please e-mail me sydney@bitlesshorseblog.com with tack for sale in the subject or leave a comment here with your contact info (e-mail, blog etc).
Funds from selling these items will likely go into buying more ~~crap~~ tack I may or may not use.

If you have tack for sale and want more horse bloggers to know about it please also contact me and I will post it. I know it's getting near the holiday season and people are looking for tack items or looking to sell tack. I would love to help someone else out.

Sunday stills: Meal time

2010-11-07T12:00:00.000-05:00

I tried photographing my food. I just couldn't get a picture I was satisfied with. When in doubt go with the subject I know best. A horse.

Here we have three favorites: Buckeye grow n win, a carrot and an apple.

The food critic moves in for the taste test.

First a bite of grain. Pretty good.

Then a swipe at the carrot.

One bite, that thing didn't stand a chance.

But the apple, it's making a getaway.

And it's not getting away that easily.

It really did not have a chance.

Gone.

"Omnomnomnom"

I think the verdict is apples are definitely a favorite but grain and carrots are never overlooked either considering we have the equine equivalent of a garbage disposal here.

It is also totally appropriate to lick the plate.

For more meals check out Sunday Stills

I seem to have this effect on my subjects

2010-11-05T09:27:00.003-04:00

(This ones for you haffie lovers out there because there seem to be many of you in the horse blogosphere)

I seem to have this effect on my equine subjects.

I think I have more pictures of horses yawning than doing anything else.

Especially Indigo. That horse just sees me and starts gaping her mouth.
It's sort of a routine. I hop over the fence, Indigo nickers. I say hello, Indigo starts yawning (right after trying to mug me to see if I am going to fork something over). It never fails.

But really horses. For once can't you gallop or fart and buck or do something more lively?

Ears forward?

I guess I will have to make do.

(almost) wordless Wednesday

2010-11-03T14:47:00.003-04:00

Is this a sign that winter is gonna hit us hard and fast?
I mean look at the furry ears this Angus has.And the freshly dusted freshly cut corn silage nose. I think I want one. The cow, not the corn silage on my nose.

I've scraped frost off my vehicle's windows the last three mornings in a row. At 6 am it's pitch black. At 7:30 its sorta getting light and by 8 am the sun is still too low for my sun visor to prevent me from getting blinded when I drive.

Is it possible to have the winter blues before winter has even hit? Brrrr.

Sunday stills: Halloween

2010-10-31T12:45:00.002-04:00

Halloween, my favorite should be holiday.

If you were around last year you would remember what happens to pumpkins around here after they have been lit.

If not please indulge in last years Sunday stills post on Halloween pumpkins you won't be disappointed.

So once you have read that post you can only imagine the fate of our little friend here. Indigo had just discovered that he was around.

Have a fun and safe Halloween everyone.

Encore: The devil and the horse shoe

2010-10-30T12:08:00.003-04:00

I posted this on day short of a year ago last year. Since it is devils night/angels night today we need a story to start off the spooky season.
It's a story I grew up hearing from my mothers best friend. Not long before she passed away she sent me a bunch of horse related papers. This was a story in the bundle of horse related papers I acquired and remembered her telling me when I was young. Enjoy.

-------------------

I am sure each and every one of you have seen an old horse shoe hanging over the door. Do you know why we hang horseshoes over the door? For good luck right? Well that isn't the original reason behind it.
My mothers best friend was a farrier and gave me this story of the devil and the horseshoe when I was very little. According to her it is out of a a 1912 horseshoers journal. The legend however originated in Germany. I hope on this day my mothers friend is watching down on all the trick or treaters. Halloween was her favorite day of the year.

Many, many years ago, in a little German village a blacksmith was hard at work. The sounds of the anvil attracted the attention of the devil. He saw the man making horse shoes and thought getting his own hooves shod would be a good idea. The devil struck a deal with the man and put his foot up. But the blacksmith knew right away who he was dealing with and so he nailed a red hot shoe square into the devils hoof. The devil paid the man and left but the blacksmith was honest; he cast the money into the fire knowing it would bring him bad luck.
The devil left the forge walking a long distance. Soon he began to suffer in agony from the shoes. The more the devil danced, pranced, kicked, swore and played tricks on people the more torture he endured from the shoes. After going through the most painful agony he had ever imagined, the devil tore the shoes off and threw them away.
From that moment to this whenever the devil sees a horseshoe he runs in the opposite direction; eager to keep away from the torturous devices.
German peasants remember this legend and because of it you will scarcely find a doorway or barn that does ot have a horseshoe nailed above it.
Of course horse shoes to keep in the good luck if kept upright. To hang a horseshoe upside down you made all the luck fall out!

So on this halloween hang horseshoes above your doors and in your barns for you never know which ghoul, goblin or little demon might be making their ways onto your doorstep