In A Nutshell

There has been a lot going on around here, as usual. So here is a rundown of all that is going on. A couple weeks ago, I had my OH come up to the arena and take some pictures of me riding Chance. I haven't had any updated ones from in the arena since my first ride on her, except for the trail riding pictures. My OH took a couple videos, but once I was done riding and went through the camera, well, let's just say my OH really needs to work on his videoing "skills". He got maybe 2 seconds of me riding, then the rest of the video was of the ground and weeds.

I just love pictures where my eyes are closed!

Chance has been doing really well under saddle, but this day she was being really fussy. 

She wasn't as soft as she usually is and so I had to work through some minor issues.

But by the end of the ride she did really well.

Good girl!

We also got Chance out on her 3rd trail ride. She got to experience some new things on the trail, like horses coming up behind her. That was the first time that has happened and she did not like that. We actually ran into more horses then we have ever run into in one ride. That is definitely something we need to work on. She ran through the water again and I was going to school her, but there were so many people there and a couple were waiting to come down the hill to go through the water. So next time when it is quieter on the trails I will school her at the water crossing. But other then that, she did really well and we rode for about 2 1/2 hours.

Sadie in lockup. Wet from the hose and dog slobber.

For those of you who have followed my blog for a long time know that I have had issues with my Aussie, Sadie. She is extremely dominant and has had dog to dog aggression with my other Aussie, Bailey. I have worked so hard with Sadie to learn to live with Bailey and things have been going so well for a couple of years! We had one incident where Sadie attacked Bailey back in June but my OH was here and able to break it up quickly. Well a couple weeks ago I came home from an errand and opened the garage door like I usually do. As the garage door was going up I already could tell the dogs were in a full on dog attack. I stopped my car, jumped out and grabbed the hose. At this point the dogs had moved out by my horse trailer and I sprayed them with the hose which did not do any good. The dogs were still fighting and had moved over to the grass. They both just grab onto to each others ears and neck and will not let go. There isn't much I can do when I am by myself and I know you aren't supposed to break up a dog fight anyways. But it just kills me when this happens. Well I injured my knee in the process. I hopped back to the house and just left the fighting dogs. I swear the fight went on for a good 5 minutes. Once it was over I put Sadie on a leash and put her in the kennel. I was not happy, not just about the dogs, but about my knee as well. It was the same knee I had ACL/Meniscus surgery on about 6 years ago. I felt like I had torn my ACL again. So for the last couple weeks I have been taking it a little easy and have not been riding (except once). It is way better now, no pain but I still have a lot of stiffness if I do too much. So I don't think I tore my ACL, I think I just sprained my knee. I did not want to go through another surgery/6 month rehab again!!

My OH on the boat!

We were invited to my old boss's (the head trainer for the Arab farm I work/worked for) lake house a couple weekends ago for a barbeque. It was a gorgeous day in the upper 80's and they took us on a boat ride. We had so much fun! We don't have a lot of time for playing so it was a good break from all the work we have been doing!

Stocking up on hay.

The hay we like was being baled so we went and picked up a couple tons. It should last us until December.

Morgan, not again!!

Our outdoor cat Morgan has been keeping herself busy bringing me home presents. I don't mind when she brings home mice, moles, shrews etc because she kills those. But she doesn't kill the snakes and brings them right to the door or into the garage. These snakes are not poisonous, we do not have poisonous snakes around here (thank goodness!) and I know these snakes actually are good for our environment by eating bugs and whatnot. But I don't care. If you thought my fear of heights was bad, my fear of snakes is just as bad!

Rio's getting there, slowly but surely.

Mustang gentling is going a little slow, but Rio still makes progress every day. I am still doing round pen work and I touched her with my stick yesterday. She hesitated for a second, but then freaked out and took off running. But she did turn around and come back to me. If she was that terrified of being touched she wouldn't have come back. So I will keep incorporating that into the process. Last week while cleaning the poop out of her corral, I noticed worms in her poop. Big, white worms. Ascarids. I about puked. After all of my years owning horses I have never seen an actual worm in horse poop. It was disgusting!!! They were anywhere from a couple inches to 5" and thick. I immediately went to the feed store to get the pelleted dewormer. I knew it would be a challenge getting Rio to eat something new in her grain. She just started to really chow down on the Rice Bran and I was slowly introducing her Super Supplement again and she had just started to eat chunks of carrots! I was going to start mixing molasses in her grain but hadn't done it yet and if I added molasses with the dewormer I probably would not have gotten it into her at all. But I mixed the dewormer in with her RB and she knew right away there was something new. By the next morning she had eaten half of the RB and that night I added a little more RB to what was still in her feed bin. And the next day it was almost all gone! So I had gotten the dewormer in her after all. Every day I cleaned her corral, I checked every poop pile for worms. Each day there were more and more worms. And bigger. I swear the biggest one had to be about 6-7" and super fat! (Ascarids can get up to 15" long!) I made my OH look at them so he knew what they looked like. On Friday her poop was so full of worms! And then on Saturday, I only found ONE worm (and it was huge!) out of approximately 12 poop piles. Sunday, NO WORMS that I could see!! Yeah!! I am sure she feels so much better, although she never seemed like she didn't feel well and has put on weight since we brought her home. I will keep monitoring her poop and will deworm her again in about 5-6 weeks. My vet is out this Wednesday to look at Fritzy's hoof (abscess that will not seem to go away, or maybe something else going on?) and I will talk to her about Rio's worms. I can't exactly get a paste dewormer in her because I can't touch her, but the pelleted dewormer seems to work quite well!

Such a good girl!

I went on one trail ride since hurting my knee. I had to meet a friend at the trail head to be a trail boss. I have never taken Brandy to the trails alone. And she does not do well alone. So that was going to be a real test for her. There were only 2 trailers at the trail head and they were already out on the trail, so Brandy was the only horse there while I was waiting for my friend to show up. She actually was really good!! She just stood there calmly and looked around, probably wondering why the heck she was there all by herself. But she didn't get all anxious! She got a little nervous when my friend pulled in and she heard the other horses. We went on a 2 hour ride and she was a rock star!! I just love my little Arab! She is such a fun horse to ride, spooks and all!!

Gotta love gravel!

We had a couple dump trucks of gravel delivered so we will be busy this weekend getting ready for the muddy season. We have been doing a lot of pasture work around here. We added a new pasture, split another pasture up and doing what we can to make it better on the horses. I just hope we get a drier winter this year!! I don't know if I can take another 8 months of rain! But August and September's weather has been amazing!! Beautiful sunny days!! I just wish I could have done more riding! Darn knee!