My horse doesn't need a trainer....

...she needs an exorcist.

I went out to see princess and she was in her stall. Apparently she was SUPER naughty last night when being led in, bucking, rearing, and trying to take off. She saw dead people. It is suppose to get cold tonight and snow and they didn't want her to fall and hurt herself if she decided to play bucking bronco again.

Damn Mare!

When I got there I went into her stall and loved on her for a bit. She kept trying to rub her head on me, and was getting pissed when I wouldn't let her. Mare. I am not a scratching post. Also I know that rubbing can be dominance so I don't want to allow her to rub on me. We have enough issues.

She proceeded to scream for her girlfriend, who stood at the fence screaming at her.

Wonderful.

Overall Denali was fine with me. We obviously haven't worked together in a while. She forgot what the word "back" meant, and had to have a few reminders. I didn't take her out of her stall since I was the only one there, and if something happens I'm screwed. It's in the middle of nowhere.

After loving on Denali, and a visit from Piper's Mom, who's heard so much about the fire-breathing, flying beast, we went to Piper's barn. Piper's barn is also the home to Angie, Cashmere, Buckley, and .... (I know there are 4 of them that were saved by Angie's dad...sorry, I forgot their names!) Angie is also an OTTB who I met through this blog. Her dad and mom are super nice people. Angie is on stall rest for a heel injury. I dropped off my nibble net and some treats for Angie and Piper. Piper just had surgery on her leg for a broken splint bone. Poor Ponies!

What in the hell happened to Year of the Sound Horse? (Althought Piper had surgery in 2010 and Angie got hurt in 2010 too, so I'll let it slide...this time. ;0)

Since it's Sunday I went to work at the Giant Warmblood Barn. I am currently sucking at working with Pete and need to get on that SOON. The poor guy, he was so excited when I went into his stall and loved on him for a little bit. I wish I would have had more time to groom him and free lunge him.

After starting my shift the owner of the Giant Warmblood Barn (who I LOVE btw) called to ask me to hand-walk one of the Giants who is there to be sold. He apparently had broken a splint bone in his front leg, and needed to be hand walked.

Gulp. He is HUGE. If he wanted to do something, he could have.

However, much like all ponies there he was an angel. He walked right next to me, and quite fast for a pony who had surgery this week. It was a 10 minute walk so I took him to the giant outdoor arena to walk since the footing is so good. He was SO FRICKIN CUTE!! He walked really quietly, and like with Denali I decided to walk the dressage patterns that I remembered (even if he does Grand Prix, and even if they are old tests) I get bored just walking. At one point he arched his neck, I swear he looked like he was looking for contact, and started to do his fancy-shmancy ubber trot. He looked so cute, but I had to ask him to save the fancy moves for another day. Today. Today you're just walking. He gave me a super sad puppy-dog face and went back to walking.

Anyone have $80,000 dollars they want to loan me? He is a DOLL!!! Wonder if I throw in a mare if I will get a discount. I decided that he wouldn't fit in my Subaru, and that I would just go love on him some other time.

I love the ponies at the Giant Warmblood Barn. I keep forgetting that I get paid to love on them.

Back to the fire-breathing, flying hell-beast.

I've decided, that even though I am freaked out about training Denali, getting her trained, etc. I am going to just take VERY small baby steps. I'll take note of Pia's mom and her STP (Short Term Plan.) Rome isn't built in a day, and until I can make it out there at least 4 days a week, the hell-beast and I are not going to get anywhere.

Our goal for the week. Not to get killed. I ordered her a box (yes a box) of Cherry Lik-its so she better stick around long enough to eat them all. It still freaks me out that something else could be wrong. I wish I was rich so I could get that dumb scan done. I guess I'll just start saving my money. It will either go towards training or more diagnostics.

How it feels to own the world famous glass-legged thoroughbred.

On a non-hell-beast note: Welcome to my 150th follower! It excites me when it hits a 0 or a 5 in the ones place. I don't know why, and yes, yes, I'm strange.

Happy Monday

Year of the Horse

Yes, yes, I realize that according to the Chinese Zodiac this is going to be the year of the Rabbit, but according to MY calender it's going to be the year of the horse. Not just the horse, the sound horse.

I can think of at least three other bloggers' horses, Gogo, Lilly, and Laz who had a really rough 2010. Then there's SolitaireMare who lost her beloved Rugby and her Monty in 2009. I'm sure there are more that had a horrible year.

2010 sucked for so many people, which can only mean that 2011 has to be great right?

So, welcome to 2011, Year of the Sound Horse!

In other horse related news, I finally have a new computer after having to start mine in Safe Mode for almost 5 months to even get it to turn on, it finally died during the flood. RIP dear Sony Viao, you served me well. We ran to Best Buy and the had a really nice computer with loads of memory and a fast processor for $399.00 The lady didn't know why it was so cheap, all she knew was they got 7 of them in, there was 1 left and it was only 11am. SO, I bought it. Gulp. (Note: Dear Denali please remain uninjured for at least two months-thanks, mom.) This means I no longer need to borrow my husbands to blog, or do work on (see which one I see as more important and mention first ;0)

Yesterday I had to work at the Giant Warmblood Barn. I don't know how you guys keep horses at your house. Especially if you keep horses in the Northern states. Brr. It's cold out!

 I had the fun task of breaking the ice off of 46 buckets. No, I'm serious. It was fun. Crow bar in had I went from horse to horse visiting and breaking off the ice if they had any and throwing it into my giant bucket. It was repetitive and soothing. Warm horse breath on my neck and bashing things. Two of my favorite things!
When I got to one of the new horses, I knew right away that something was wrong. Her owner or someone hadn't put the straps through her stable blanket and it fell off and looked like a giant bib. It had somehow got wrapped around her leg and she couldn't stand up or move.

I always get nervous around horses I don't know. Especially horses who are wrapped up in blankets and have a distressed look on their face. I knew I couldn't leave her like that so I grabbed her halter and put it on and told her to stand still. She let out a huge sigh, and it made me feel a little better, like she wasn't planning on killing me when she was free. I took the blankets off and bundled her back up in a different blanket and left her to her grain. She seemed happy to be free.

How do you stay warm in this weather?? I wore kitchen gloves (the kind you use when you wash dishes) when I did the buckets and my hands stayed pretty warm. I'm glad I had them.

Pete

Yesterday after visiting with Denali I worked at the Giant Warmblood Barn. I love it there. I love the horses. They are some of the most amazing creatures ever. It's amazing to see them in their stalls, looking like every other horse I've ever met, but to get the chance to watch them under saddle. It truly is amazing.

I got to the barn early and decided to pull Pete out to groom him.

Can we say  Hot Mess??

The poor guy's tail was so full of crap, and he has scratches SO BAD. His owner really is never out. Pete is HUGE. He's at least 17 hh, but probably bigger. I took him to the wash rack, but there was only one cross tie because one of the Giant Warmbloods decided to do some rearranging. I turned the hot water on to scrub the legs with some medicine, and asked Pete to stand there. I was preparing for a battle (because with D, that's what I'm use to) but he just stood there. Perfectly still without moving. I was shocked. Even when I was scrubbing his legs with the medicine, he stood stock still. Without being in the cross ties. His tail is SO GROSS. I scrubbed it the best that I could, but it is still gross.

Does anyone have suggestions for scratches?? They are bad, really bad and although I don't get out there much I want to try and help him when I can. I have MTG, but wonder if that is effective at this stage.

Welcome December

December is one of my favorite months. My birthday, my brother's birthday, Christmas, Belsnickle (at least the memories make me smile), and a 2 week break from work (and hopefully this time I will not be broken so I can enjoy it.)

One thing I haven't mentioned on here is that I have a few horses that I'm going to be riding. When I thought I was going to be losing Denali, I couldn't sleep. I would sit up at night, most of the night, and just think. My back hurt to bad to lay down, and my mind couldn't quite running. My husband and I have invested everything (emotionally and financially) in Denali, so there will be no replacing her. Not anytime soon. However, I wasn't sure I could survive not having a horse to love on.

One late night I ended up on Craigslist (where I usually peruse the poor horses who have BYB as their owners). I came across an ad for a horse for lease. The horse sounded perfect for me, and I figured I'd e-mail. What could it hurt.  The world is a small place. It turns out the ad I replied to was for the horse I ride at the Giant Warmblood Barn. The woman I work for is amazing. I truly want to be like her when I "grow up" (even though she's only a year older than I am.)

She was wonderful. We talked about leasing, and riding this particular horse. Then she mentioned Pete.   Pete is a Thoroughbred. He's HUGE. He might be the biggest TB that I've ever met. I LOVE HIM. One of the first times I worked at the barn I walked out into the pasture to collect expensive ponies when her 5 year old 18 hand (I kid you not) Dutch Warmblood came CHARGING at me. Pete came charging too, ran in front of me just as this other horse was approaching, looked at him and pinned his ears and chased him away. Pete saved me and it was love. Pete's owner is busy and doesn't get out. Pete needs ridden and is recovering from some lameness issues and needs some light work done. Pete's owner asked me to ride him, and I'm excited.

After Ms. Denali's Thanksgiving Miracle, I stopped and talked to the owner of the Giant Warmbloods. I explained that I couldn't afford to lease her sweet ponykins. Money doesn't seem to be the problem, he just needs ridden too, and right now she doesn't have a working student.

So now, I have 2 horses to ride, 1 horse to do ground work with and Denali to figure out what in the hell is going on. I wish I had better skills, and more confidence in myself as a rider. I explained to someone the other day (Pete's owner actually) that not too long ago I use to consider myself and intermediate rider. I would ride almost anything and had very little fear (but I was never stupid.) Buying an 4 year old OTTB will really make you re-evaluate your riding skills. I'm now a VERY cautious rider, and still don't know how to deal with a spooking horse. I freak. I have 0 confidence (hence the blog title.) The two horses I'm going to start riding are lesson horses, bomb proof, and I'm sure it will be good for me. Now it's just a matter of balancing work, Denali, ground work with the other mare, and then finding time to ride the other two horses. I'm not going to start riding until January, so at least I'll have a slow start.

Welcome December (be nice!)

Exhaustion

I'm sick. I called to complain to my mom and she said she was surprised I lasted this long due to stress. I don't do well with stress. I get sick to my stomach, I get headaches, I get quiet...this time I got a cold. Boo. I know I shouldn't bitch about a stupid cold, but I did.

My husband and I woke up and went to church this morning. The church didn't even burn down when I walked in the door, so I saw that as a good sign. I figured I needed to go pay a visit to the big guy to thank him personally. Be it God, or some other divine intervention, there is no reason that Denali should still be here, but she is. She was so week last Sunday it was depressing. Her legs wobbled, her ribs showed (more than normal) and less than a week later she was so much better.

I went to lunch with some friends who wanted to meet my mare. One of them is from Portland and sent me a really nice message about how sorry she was that Denali was put down. Yep, another interesting conversation. We went out to the vet's barn, and Denali was HILARIOUS. She came trotting up to the wall of the arena and then proceeded to nicker, nicker, nicker. She followed me all over. There is a port-o-potty opposite where my friend and I were standing, I walked over and Denali followed me the whole way. Once inside she couldn't figure out where I went, and started running around. No falling. None. She does snap, crackle, and pop much worse than I remember. I wonder if it has to do with the cold, and the fact that she hasn't been out of the stall/small paddock for 8 months. My friend even noticed. That made me nervous.

There is a little cute QH there who has a broken neck :( Denali could see her from the arena and she kept perking her ears at her and nickering this low, low, nicker as if to say, "Hey, you okay?" I feel so bad for this little mare, she looks miserable.

I tucked a thank you note into Denali's medical chart for the Vet. I am still just in awe of how generous she is of her time. We just started seeing her November 6th, and she is already doing so much for us.

On my way home from working at the Giant Warmblood Barn I stopped at Denali's barn (old barn??) to explain the great opportunity that we were given. I feel bad. I picked up the rest of her stuff because I don't expect our trainer to hold a stall for her. I don't know how long we'll be at the vet's barn, and I want to be fair to her. Horses + Change terrifies me. I don't know what I'm going to do once we leave the vet's barn (optimistic here!!) Denali isn't an easy horse to board. She high maintenance, I'm high maintenance. It's bad combination. I'm still going to cross my fingers that she is still able to be ridden. If she's not, boarding will be easier, but I'd rather have a horse I can ride. At least I have a horse, hu?

I know I'm jumping the gun here, and probably thinking too far down the road. At this point I'm going to STILL try still take it day by day, but that is just exhausting me.

Also, keep your eyes peeled for a guest blogger this week: Ophie's Mom. You may remember her from the super awesome 101 Things to Do With Your Stall Bound Horse.

Also!I thought that you'd like this. I suggested Denali's name when I didn't think I'd have her anymore. They picked it! Another Denali, and I hope this one finds an owner to love her as much as I love my Denali.

I Love Denali's Vet

I just got off the phone with Denali's vet. Denali was a good girl today for turn out, was super easy to catch, and stood quietly for grooming. Good girl Nawlers. I feel bad that I didn't make it out there, but I'm still recovering from our roller coaster ride.

Then the vet made my year.

She offered to keep Denali at her barn, and do physical therapy with her for a beyond reasonable price. I started to cry. It is unbelievably generous of her, and I am eternally grateful for her offer. In exchange I am going to work with one of her rescue horses. Gulp. I'm a bit nervous, but I'm up for a challenge, especially if it mean that my husband and I can afford to treat Denali. I explained to her my work I do at the Giant Warmblood Barn, and said I would see about saving up hours to get some professional training put on this mare of hers.

We still do not understand why Denali did the sudden turn around, we may never understand horses are amazing creatures. We are just thankful for snow! There are too many coincidences to think that there isn't a higher power at work here, and this coming from a person who doesn't consider herself religious.

We have cancelled the truck and are going to go with it to see how she does. The vet is going to start to evaluate Denali this week to see how her neurological signs look. If all looks good then she is going to incorporate Denali into her herd so Denali can HOPEFULLY learn how to be a horse too. This is done in baby steps, but hell, I'll take baby steps!! We are taking this in a guarded sense of hope, we know we still might lose her, and it might be something totally out of the blue, but at this point I like hope.