Zebra Christmas

So I just found out some sad/bad news and wanted to run to my blog to weep about it, but instead I am posting a Happy post, the sad can wait :)

Let me start this with a preface before you think I am totally crazy. Last year I wrapped all of my Christmas presents in Zebra wrapping paper and used red and green bows tied around them.

So this year I was SUPER excited to find that they had Zebra Santa's at Hobby Lobby!!! This picture is of bags that I am putting homemade horse cookies (made by my Mom) in for all of my fellow boarders. I also purchased Zebra tissue that had green and red ornaments on it, and bags with the same Zebra Santa. I was so in awe I could have pee'd myself!

Anywho if there are any other fellow Zebra lovers out there...head your booties over to Hobby Lobby :) Merry Christmas Everyone!

It's beginning to look a lot like...tradeshow season :)

Oh geez here I go not blogging for nearly a month! Well it's only going to get worse. Tradeshow season (well the paperwork) is coming upon us and that means I do not have a life for say the next 8 weeks. I most recently went to Nashville for a show and before I left I went to see my babies. This picture is of Cash saying "Don't leave me Mommy" or more likely, "Where is another cookie?!". I am SO glad he gets to stay out nearly 24/7 now. He has a few battle wounds to show, but nothing like it was before. It is especially nice that the geldings get to stay out even in the rainy weather because they can all go hide under the covered arena.

Ginger is on the mend and seems to be doing well without shoes. Still lame to an extent, but we have ridden her a few times and she fared just fine. It takes a little longer to get her ready now with giving her bute and putting on her boots before hand. However it is worth it to get her out and moving on someone else's command not just her own. She was a real handful the first time out after her 3 months off. Steering was a bit of a challenge, but my Mom handled it GREAT! I have said it a million times, but I am so blessed to have my Mom help with Ginger and Cash when I am gone (and when I am there). She is a regular old horse woman now :)

Back in the Pasture again

Well here Cash is back out in the pasture with the evil geldings. As I said in my last post, the vet said in short terms that Cash needed a lifestyle change. Being that I am at a boarding facility my only option for him to be on pasture is for him to go out with the mean old men. I am hoping that this time around they can all learn to adjust and not beat my poor man up too much. I know, I know they all get beat up at first, but last time it was 3 months and he was still coming in bleeding at times. Anywho what do you know...last night I got a call from the barn manager after his first day in the pasture with his new friends...he had a swollen jowl.

Ugh...can this horse catch a break! So I went out to the barn last night to give him some bute, but then turned him back out with the geldings that go on night turn out. Anything(almost)is better than him being stuck in a stall. I knew our vet was coming out for someone else this morning so I gave her a call and left a message of our mishap. She called back with a response of, "Do you need me to bring you some bubble wrap?" lol! I said I think it would be best if we could make him a large plastic ball like they have for hamsters. Well she came out as planned for the other horse and I told her I would see how Cash's jowl was and decide if he really needed to be seen or not. My concern was that he was kicked or maybe had an abscess, versus the barn manager thinking he may have been stung by a bee. Sure enough I went out to get him and he seemed fine. So I walked him up to the barn anyways thinking I would at least clean his hooves out. The vet took a quick peak and said he was fine.

So above is a pic of him out in the pasture, clearly loving the little bit of grass that is left. I also took this picture so I could have a reminder of his(over)weight. As he is switching to all alfalfa we will be cutting back slightly on his grain. Excuse the whiskers in the left side of the shot, that's another horse who thought my phone was a snack.

Poor Cash, Poor Wallet :(

So...Cash coliced on Tuesday night...we had been doing so well. The vet came out and came to the conclusion this MUST be ulcers as he has coliced 3 times in 6 months. She believed the show on Saturday must have put him over the top thus causing this colic. She recommended having him scoped at a local vet clinic to make sure of the ulcer situation and go from there.

Thursday morning we headed out to Weatherford for Cash's scope. He wasn't excited about the trailer and I wasn't excited that I had to pull it without my husband. Surprise, Surprise...no active ulcers!!! Only scarred areas from previous ulcers. Suggestions were a change of lifestyle including getting him a buddy, feeding only alfalfa hay, turnout to pasture as much as possible, and neigh-lox morning and night. Well seeing as I board some of these are hard to accommodate. I spoke with my barn manager last night and we will see what we can accomplish.

Oh wait! I almost forgot :( I went out to the barn last night to find the above (picture). Pitiful is all I could think; he was gassy, moaning, and droopy lipped. I walked in, talked to him, praying he could understand I was trying to help him and we would make it through this. Finally after some stomping on the ground he got up for me. I led him into to the main barn hoping he would snap out of it. My Mom suggested maybe it was from the scope since they did fill him with air/water during the procedure. I called my regular on call vet to see if this was in fact normal. She let me know that "No" this was in no way normal after a scope, he was having a mild colic. Luckily we had some paste banamine in the fridge so we administered and waited. After an hour he was doing better and perked up. I put his blanket on him and led him back out to his paddock. I haven't seen him yet today, it will have to wait until after work, but no news is good news I suppose.

Anyone reading this please say a little prayer for Cash and I as we try to figure out/fix his problem.

Our First Show Together :)

Wow! that is what I have to say about how amazing my little man was. He was an absolute dream at the show. So patient and calm throughout the whole LONG day. I purposely chose the classes I did so we could be done by noon and not over do it our first outing. Well our classes were not done until almost 4pm and we got to the show at 9am.

On to the funny/not so funny oopps of the day. Well I thought I had everything ready; air in the tires, trailer light adapter, hay bags hung, etc, etc. You see we borrowed a friends trailer as I sold mine a while back when Ginger could no longer show. Well my husband has a hitch that he pulls his boat with so I thought we were all good. Not so much...it was not the right sized ball :(. Thank the lord Jaime (our farm hand) had some tools and finally ended up having to saw off my husbands rusted ball so we could attach the right size one. Then Cash decided he wasn't so keen on getting onto the trailer...15 minutes later (8:45am) we were on our way to the show that was set to start at 9am (but did not).

Whew...I still had time to warm up because they were running late at the show. Super late...my first class wasn't until 12:30. Anyways it was a great day and we ended up with Reserve Champion in our 18" division. Go us!!!

Preparing for our schooling show

So our big weekend is almost here! Cash and I are going to our first schooling show on Saturday(thanks to a nice lady at the barn letting us borrow her trailer). I swore I would try to get him to one by this fall and here I am sneaking in the last one of the season. We are signed up for some walk trot classes and w/t 18" hunter classes. It should be a fun experience to get him out and see how his "show mind" will be.

Of course the weather has decided to change today and it will be chilly(for us Texans that's around the 50's) for the big day. But my pretty boy doesn't seem to let the weather changes bother him that much. Tonight will be our last ride before our warm-up on Saturday so I am hoping all goes well. Friday will be full of beauty regimens and praying his sheet will keep him clean before the big day.

Cash has a new home...again

I am definitely better at following other blogs than actually writing at my own. Here I am 2 weeks have gone by and I am not keeping up with my adventures! Well in big news...I gave up my desire for Cash to be in a stall to let him be out in his own paddock 24/7. I believe that he will be happier not being stalled. I had him at least a month before he started showing any signs of windsucking and I know he was first taken off the racetrack they just left him out to pasture. Even when the lady who sold him to me was riding him to sell she had him out in a pasture. So I am hoping this will cure his windsucking even though I am realistic and I don't know that anything ever will. Cribbing collars are not something I ever see myself wanting to pursue especially since he doesn't actually latch on to anything he just does it in the air. My main concern besides the fact that it annoys me to see him winsucking is his health. It honestly makes me feel like I have to be on my toes that he may have another bad colic and be gone forever. Anyways...of course only about a week after turning him out, Texas finally had some good rain! Hallelujah to the rain, but oh heavens look at my new brown horse. That is the huge downfall to the paddock, it is an all dirt/sand paddock, no grass. It honestly made me want to break down and ask for my stall back when I thought of all the time I am going to spend brushing him just so I can ride OR not be able to ride because he is wet. I wish I had another option, but at this time there is none. The horses all had their routine shots on October 1st as well...it was a big day for Cash. My two checked out well. Ginger is pasture sound and has lost the weight she should so now it is just keeping her that way. Cash has filled out amazingly especially over the past month of U-Gard. Now with some more riding hopefully that topline can get filled out. I can't wait to post some pictures of Cash jumping, but I have none on my phone. Once I get over to my Mom's house I will be sure to post some she has taken.

I know I don't have that many people who really read my blog, but I wanted to give my condolences to Andrea over at Eventing-a-Gogo (she must let her beautiful Gogo go today), after all her blog is part of the reason I decided to start my own.

It's been a while...

So I have not blogged in nearly a month. Some crazy/sad/you name it things have happened since then but here I am back to what I love, my horses! Well the picture to your right is now what Cash seems to do instead of windsucking while I tack him up. He may look like a goof, but I am much more pleased with this (30 days of U-Gard has seemed to help). My husband and I just came back from a week in the Bahamas for our 2 year anniversary that I never wanted to end. So I decided to not waste any time getting back on Cash and riding. We did some warm up exercises from my book of 101 Jumping Exercises and then preceded to jump a mini 18" course at the trot. It was not beautiful, but he did it and I was proud of him. He really needs to work on getting his front legs up over the jump. It is a lot easier to get him to do this over higher jumps when I am lunging him. I am sure we will get it figured out over the little ones as well. I am hoping to take him to a local schooling show at the end of October for some w/t classes and maybe even an 18" course :)

Little side note on Ginger: She is now at a little over 3 months of being barefoot and it really is not looking well. She just about got to the point of me thinking maybe we could ride her at a walk here and there. Then she suddenly became lame again and is now slightly better again :(. The vet is coming out for routine shots this weekend so I suppose I will have her take a look to make sure nothing else is wrong.

Who doesn't need a laugh

Mommy and Me Time

Here is Ginger checking out the ponies...she was not a huge fan. This was taken yesterday which became a day of me giving more attention to Ginger than Cash. My Mom couldn't make it out to the barn to help out so I decided to take Ginger on her hand walk and to graze. After hosing her down from our still 100 + temps I decided to trim her mane. I used to trim it all the time, but I don't have much of that left to spread between 2 horses anymore. Needless to say I think I can say we both had a good time together :).

Now on to Cash; he started U-Gard last Friday and I cannot wait to see if it helps him out. I just cannot stand freaking out every time my phone rings from someone at the barn thinking it could be him colicing again. So it is back to a little ground work this week until the U-Gard has some time to kick in.

Do bad things always come in 3's...I hope not?!

I have to have a good laugh here at the beginning of this post because after writing the title I realize I have already had my 3 (I forgot about one...my car) so no worries...lol!!! Well the picture is of me and my wonderful Mom camping out in front of Cash's stall on Saturday night into Sunday morning. The night started out with me heading out for a Bachelorette party (an hour and a half away from where my horses are boarded) for one of my old college friends. I was the DD so we took my car (oh wait, my rental car, my brand new car is in the shop) out for the night. Needless to say I got a call from my mother to let me know Cash was colicing...thank the lord for my Mom and all the great women that keep an eye on each others horses at my barn. Our mobile vet came out and did the usual mineral oil only to say we better have a trailer ready in case he needs to go to an ICU clinic. Long story made slightly shorter I eventually made it home to get my husbands truck for the trailer and out to the barn by 2am. We did some more walking and then resting to finally have him back around 7am...no ICU needed. This being 2 colic's since I have had him for 4 months along with the wind sucking screams ULCERS to me. So I have already ordered some U-Guard and will start it immediately upon arrival. I am hoping this will help him in many ways. Oh and my #3 was taking a shower on Sunday night to end up standing in water thinking my hair must have clogged my drain. Nope...stepped out of the shower and into an inch of standing water in my whole bathroom. Calling a plumber on a Sunday night cost more than my vet bill for Cash! Now that the terrible 3 are out of the way we are on to more positive times :) Happy Monday!

Gentleman in Black and Lady in Red

I rode Cash last night for the first time in a month! It was only say 103 degrees outside so slightly cooler than it has been. And for those of you who think I am exaggerating...I am not..this Texas heat is brutal!!! It was well worth it though. He was a perfect little gentlemen...I think that is really how I can sum up his personality. He has his moments, but mostly he is very pleasant. I had just started working with him on the canter before being on my month hiatus so I was a little worried to try him again. He did fine though, not beautiful...there may have been some unintentional counter cantering, but none the less he was level headed about it. I took him out in the woods to cool off after our very hot ride. There are several logs laying about and I decided to walk him over a few just for fun. Well Cash decided walking over them was not as fun as jumping over them! I am very excited to see his ambition in the jumping world, but when there is a tree staring you in the face upon landing...not so fun :(. It was the oh so famous move of "oh crap, there's a tree" horse jumps to the left, your body is jolted to the right; yet somehow I stayed on...I guess I haven't lost it after all ;)

*The above picture perfectly sums up how Cash and Ginger feel about each other. He doesn't understand what her problem is and she cannot stand him getting the majority of the attention.

Long time no blog...

So traveling for work sucked me in and I have not blogged in forever! Where to start...well Ginger is on week 7 of being barefoot. I almost broke down and had front shoes put on her when she was trimmed a week ago. I just can't bare to see her sore and losing the muscle she once had. However I went for another trim and she seems to slowly and I mean slowly being toughening up. I try to hand walk or work her in the round pen occasionally for some exercise, but it is mainly all walking. I feel it can only get better every day and hope it does as I do not like having her on bute so much.

Cash enjoyed his break from me, but still joined up with me fairly quickly in the round pen. He is a great little horse and I am so glad to see him wake up from the zone he was in when I first purchased him. We still have a long ways to go to develop the trust/bond like Ginger and I have, but I know it will come with time. About bonding...we had a great Christi Rains (4* Parelli Instructor) clinic at our barn about a month ago. It was great to see her perspective on things. She was so calm no matter what happened. She stressed how important your delivery is when asking your horse for something..our body language really speaks louder than any words can.

Ginger goes barefoot

Well today is the day! Ginger is going totally barefoot, actually as I speak/type she is having her front shoes pulled. At the last shoeing we took off her front pads and back shoes trying to wean her down for today. She was sore for a few days with the back off, but it will probably be quite a bit rougher this time around. My Podiatrist says maybe 7-10 days of bute to keep her out of pain. I really hope that this will be the best for her in the long run. I have heard many good stories of navicular horses doing very well with no shoes, actually better than with. Especially after reading so many other blogs of barefoot horses it really gives me hope. She is no longer a show horse and has a pretty easy life with my Mom taking care of her...I actually think she likes her more now...lol! When I come around she thinks..."Oh NO that lady that makes me work!".

In all reality she is usually in pain for a few days after shoeing anyways. The pounding on her hooves to put the nails in has become hard enough on her. I am hoping that after a few trimmings she will actually really appreciate and be comfortable with no shoes...we shall see...

***Update*** Well here she is with her stylish boots/wraps! She was a pitiful mess (swollen and very sore legs) as I suspected when I went to check on her last night. So we put some soul packs on and wrapped her up...hoping she will keep these on for a couple days...hopefully the zebra duct tape does the trick :)

She will stay in her stall for the next few days...really wish a round pen was open for her to hang out in. Bute will be given for the next 7-10 days and we will go from there....I hope our barefoot journey is a good one!

Cash The Punching Bag

So this is Cash's rear end...all beaten up by the old men in the gelding pasture. This photo was taken after only a couple of weeks of turn out. However the old guys just won't cut him a break. Just a few days ago he was bitten again to the point where it was swollen and tender to the touch. He frequently comes in with a nick here or there, but then every so often he will get it worse (such as this pic). Of course I spoke with the barn manager seeing as I now turn him out in the morning and at night after I ride. I have a separate grass pasture to leave him in overnight, however my options for the day are:

1) Leave him out and hope they will eventually work this pecking order out (it has been 2 months though).

2) Put him in an all dirt paddock by himself (no hay unless I want to go broke buying him bales, it's too small to have a round bale).

3) Turn him out with an old mare that I have seen previously run around/beat up another mare that was once with her. However an old gelding she used to be penned with was fine. This poor mare has horrible allergies and is bleeding at the ears and sides of her face. I guess this shouldn't pose any threat to mine, but I sure do feel sorry for her.

On a positive note; Cash is coming around nicely on the ground and under the saddle. He still has his "race horse" moments, but he is such a calm sweet boy overall.

As for now I will be keeping him in the pasture with the geldings during the day until I can decide on the best solution.

Cash the Outside Horse

OK...so yeah all horses are "outside" horses, but Cash really is an outside all the time kind of horse now. Being the sometimes impatient person I am...I gave up easily on the extra hay, and toys in the stall idea of keeping Cash from windsucking, he only seemed to be getting worse. So he goes out in the pasture with the guys as usual during the day and then goes into his stall to eat at night. Once I get there and do what I wish with him he is let back out with the remaining group of old men (I say this as they are all 20+) that stay out as well. Good thing he needs the weight or we may be in trouble!

I also contacted Cash's previous owner to see if they would fess up to any pre-existing conditions such as ulcers, etc. they may be the reason he is doing this now. They claim he never windsucked before in his life and that he never had flapper surgery. This just leaves me even more puzzled :/ I thought maybe he did do this before and it's not my fault some how. To anyone who may read my blog out there, I would like to ask if you have ever heard of a 6 year old horse that just started windsucking and if so why?! Maybe it isn't really windsucking after all, who knows! Well for now I will hope and pray that the extended pasture time will cure his stress/boredom/whatever it is that is making him and me crazy...lol!

***Here Cash is checking out the big scary fan at the end of the barn. I love his sweet little face!***

Clean Tack Spot

Well I finally achieved my goal of cleaning up my tack spot/space. I wish I had taken a before picture but I forgot with all the excitement of getting it cleaned up! To only take up this much space, plus my 2 saddles on the saddle racks, I think this is pretty good for having 2 horses. I am really glad to have everything at an easy reach instead of digging around in the black hole, I mean trunk I had before.

Memorial Weekend Starts Off Right

Yay for Friday and a 3 day weekend!!! To start it off right I received an email from Platinum Performance this morning wanting to feature me and Cash in their upcoming Equine Catalog. I guess his Before & After pictures were really amazing. They wanted some more background information on me and Cash so I sent over a mini novel and of course tried to include Ginger in there somehow. After all she is the reason I started Platinum in the first place, for her navicular/joint issues. Who knows what they will actually put in the catalog, but either way it will be exciting! And if Ginger doesn't make it that's OK because we already had our magazine debut with one of our bridal portraits last year.

Other Memorial weekend plans include; reorganizing my spot in the tack room. I didn't think an extra horse would really take up that much more space, but I have been proven wrong. Home Depot shall be my friend this weekend and I can't wait to get rid of that stupid tack trunk! I mean really who thought this up?! I guess it's a great addition to a tack room for blankets and such, but as an everyday item it's not so great. It is just a big black hole that I can never seem to find anything in. We shall see what I can come up with...

***The picture is me and Ginger in The Knot - Texas Edition magazine***

P.S. I feel like I MUST have a picture with every post or it's just too boring. I am a very visual person and just saying things doesn't always get through to me.

Ginger

OK...so if I'm going to post about my "new" baby, I HAVE to post about my "old" one too....

Ginger is my first real love, horse love, of course! I have ridden and shown many horses in my lifetime, but none can compare to Ginger. Looking back now (especially after going through my second horse purchase...14 years later) I don't know how we ended up with such a GREAT horse!

We (my parents and I) found Ginger in a classified ad in the newspaper, black and white, no picture or anything. I'm sure it read something like this..."4YO, 16.2H Chestnut Mare, must sell to good home." Sounds like a dream, right, LOL, well she was! We went out to see her and she was prettier than I could have ever imagined and she looked a lot like Ginger, from the movie Black Beauty, hence how I came up with her name. Well she had many names in her short life...we were to be her 4th owners and she was only 4!!! I remember not even trying her at the canter as she needed shoes and didn't want to risk it (stupid, I know, we were newbies). She was doped up just to get on the trailer upon picking her up...now that's bad news bears. Well she was ours so let's make the best of it!

Some people may have thought my parents were crazy for getting their 13 year old daughter a 4 year old ex racehorse (1 race in her life...lol). However they weren't she was one of the best things for my riding career (I say it like I am a pro)and my life. I learned a lot of patience and developed a bond that can never be broken. But on the same hand I am very thankful for the years of lessons beforehand. Riding different horses is a MUST for anyone who wants to be a serious or just well balanced rider. Anyone can ride a push-button horse that cost $25K +, but to win on a horse that was not even a fraction of that is the best feeling in the world.

Many shows and many years down the road leads us to now. Ginger has developed navicular over the years along with a cyst in the navicular region. She is now 18 and managing her pain plagued me for a while. After many attempts failed and semi succesfull I knew I could never really do what I loved with her anymore...no matter how much money I threw at her problem. So now she gets to be my Mom's teacher and after 14 years she is just about settled down enough for that...I can't wait to see all she can teach my Mom :)

New Addition - Cash

Blogging...not really something I ever saw myself doing. With that said here goes my first blog entry.

Cash is my new baby, horse that is, he is an off the track thoroughbred that is 6 years old. When we first went out to try him he was skinny, threw his head, and needed some TLC. However I just knew he was "the one", after trying several other horses. So next up was his pre-purchase exam! It was set for April 6th (I say this date in particular because I hate the number 6!). Cash was great throughout the whole ordeal, xrays and all. He came out with a clean enough bill of health for me and he was mine.

Fast forward to now...well 5/23 to be exact...received a call from the barn manager to let me know Cash was colicing. Needless to say he recovered well and easily from the colic, but I found out some not so good news...he has had flapper surgery and he is a wind sucker. Wind Sucker...ugh!...I had already turned down another mare I had a PPE on that cribbed!! This was not news I wanted to hear, however I had noticed in the previous weeks before he was arching his neck rather weird every now and then. He did not do this at all when I tried him or during the several hour long vet check. How did he just start doing this now and how was I going to cure it?!

Well, if you Google it there seems to be no hope, however I refuse to just let him do it and not TRY to stop/control it. So I set off to try hay in a small net hay bag (maybe this can help with possible digestive problems, along with the alfalfa he already gets) at night in his stall along with a jolly ball. I also plan to try a Himalayan salt lick on a string...basically anything to keep him entertained and not feeling the need to get "high" on wind sucking!

I have also attached a before and after picture of him when I first purchased him and a month after using Platinum Performance. Doesn't even look like the same horse does it?! More updates to come...