Nice Day and Nowhere to Ride

I finally get around to getting out to the barn after what seems like ages. It was super sunny, warm, and just a really nice day. Unfortunately everything was an ice skating rink. The road was icy, the yard to get to the road was icy, the pasture was icy, the side pasture was icy frozen snow as well as the round pen. Cody was walking very tender again but I'm pretty sure it's just the ice and not laminitis. He's always been very wobbly on the ice. Axel seemed to be walking fine but I guess he's been on bute again for the past few days. I foresee a lot of trips to the barn when I move them closer, when I have to do the bute myself.

Since I couldn't ride I just groomed. I tried to give some Christmas treats but all Cody and Axel wanted out of my mixture was the apples. They weren't fond of the peppermints, just spit them out. And the trail mix I added they just didn't eat at all. I did start ground driving Cody again. I've only tried once with him and didn't get very far. The plan is to start working on ground driving to build his confidence when he can't see me. He was a bit confused by what I was doing but seemed to get the hang of it after a while. I spent a lot of time a little off to his side instead of directly behind him. But since he was confused he needed me in that spot to push him forward. We'll work up to me being directly behind him. I'm not sure if I should work in verbal "gee" and "haw" type commands or just stick with the reins on that.

Axel just got a good grooming and some apples when he came inside. I thought maybe he'd have a nice roll in the dirt but he just wanted to explore and see if he could find more hay. Free choice hay is going to leave me with some fat fat horses I think. At least I will have a chance to ride more with an indoor arena. Though it's a shame to ride inside on such a nice day, I couldn't ride at all where they live now.

Southwind Stables

Saturday I went out to check out a barn called Southwind Stables. It's about 10 miles from our house towards Cannon Falls in a town called Hampton. Here's the jist of the visit:

Indoor Arena
Smallish Tack Room
Numerous Pastures
45 Head
Indoor Bathroom
Free Choice Hay
Grain 2x Day
Outdoor Arena
Round Pen
Choose your own vet
Choose your own farrier
Mostly adult trail riders, western, hunt seat

I want to check out a few more barns but for the price/amenities/locale Southwind might be the forerunner.

Boarding Woes

So there's a boarding barn maybe 6 miles from my house. I'm very interested in boarding there. I haven't visited the facility yet so I'm not totally decided but 6 miles away is hard to pass up. The pasture board is $100 more a month (total) than I'm paying right now. But I'd save gas. But it doesn't look like they feed grain to the pasture horses which makes it difficult for Axel to get his supplement.

I emailed them to find out about boarding my horses there but their pasture board isn't ready yet and won't be until spring. They can put me on a waiting list or set up a paddock for me. The paddock board is $200/month more than I pay now (total) but includes grain twice a day.

Oh but they have a multiple horse discount (which I'm finding most places do) but it's only $10 (which I'm finding is normal).

So I'm really going to have to figure this out and start touring some barns. Do I pay $200 extra per month for the super convenience and nice amenities? Or do I keep driving a ways to see the horses, not have quite as good amenities and pay what I'm paying now?

Figuring this out is going to suck and I only have about a month since I have to find a place and arrange for them to be moved on Feb. 1. Eep!

Updates from the Barn

I haven't been out to the barn in a week, it's been too snowy or cold or whatever to drive out there (can't wait until the horses are closer). Of course Saturday when it's gorgeous and nearly 40F I'm out in South Dakota. I did get an update from Patti:

"Must be a really nice afternoon - there have been pairs of horses playing with the ball or the tire, rearing, biting - and just now, Axel moving his way around and around the fenceline, in a beautiful, slow right lead canter."

Of course shortly after that email I got a phone call that said Axel was lame again and she had to give him some Bute. I guess he over did it on the playing. Way to go Axel.

In sadder news Koko has passed on. He had disappeared in the middle of November mysteriously. Tiggr found a new home this past weekend and shortly after he left Patti got a call from the neighbors saying they found Koko. He had fallen in their egress window and couldn't get out. So they brought him home but he seemed a bit under the weather and spent all day sleeping in the tack room. The plan was to bring him to the vet on Monday to get him checked out. Unfortunately he passed on that very night.

"Well, our happiness that Koko was found has turned to sadness, as he didn't live through the night. At least he didn't die out there, somewhere, alone and cold, but rather, back home where he was supposed to be, feeling warm and loved."

I am raising saddle broncs

Sorry another post without photos. It's really hard to take pictures this time of year when it's dark almost immediately. Also I'm spamming my own blog in my attempts to catch up on missed posts. Oh well.

Last night I met Steph at the barn as usual. Patti and Scott had just finished up feeding so when I went to get Axel he was more concerned with the hay feeders and did not want to be caught. Cody was standing still so unfortunately for him I brought him into the barn. I haven't ridden Cody in a while and Axel was kind of a jerk on Sunday so I thought maybe I was going to get off easy with Cody. Steph had given Kalani some bute at breakfast and was trying my AP saddle on him to see if that made any difference in his sudden girthiness. The trip down to the bridge was uneventful. Kalani does no better in an AP saddle when it comes to keeping the saddle on while mounting, he's just too darn round. Cody stood well and actually lead the ride down to the bridge. We made it up the hill and around the meadow and into the woods easily. Then it all went wrong. Kalani got a little fast going down the little dip in the woods, Cody spazzed, jumped straight in the air and bucked the whole way down and up the hill. Tiny little jackhammer speed bucks. He's never bucked for me before. Apparently I'm on a roll with horses and bucking these days. On the way back through that section I let Cody lead thinking at least he wouldn't have motivation to run to catch up. He walked down really well and then sped up and cantered up the hill followed by bucking around the next two turns. At least he didn't run me into a tree. When he gets going like that, he is not going to stop no matter what is on his face or in his mouth. So I don't think having the rope hack made him more misbehaved but we might still go back to a bit anyway. He pranced his way out of the woods back into the meadow. There, as usual, we did some circles and he was an angel again.

Not wanting to tempt fate and get a nice bronc ride down the big hill on the way home, we walked into the woods again (much to Cody's dismay). When he halted calmly I dismounted and led him the rest of the way home. As soon as I was leading and not riding he was calm and didn't care if Kalani got too far ahead of him. It was a good workout for me to walk up the last hill on the way home. And good practice for Cody to walk up that hill slowly. But I think we're going to be working on ground driving this winter so he can get used to not seeing me (ie on his back or behind him). I'm hoping that will transfer better to the saddle than plain ground work did.

Horses don't like electric water

Here's the story as it was relayed to me: over the weekend Patti and Scott were in the house and all of a sudden they'd hear all sorts of noise and banging. They'd go out and check on the horses and they had been kicking the wood around the water trough. Someone had even ripped a piece of wood off. They figured maybe someone had relieved themselves in the water and the other horses were mad. So they cleaned out the trough and put it back and fixed up the wood surrounding it. The next day, more banging and noise. Gunner was drinking the water but making horrible faces and acting really weird. They come to find out, the tank heater had been electrocuting all of the horses when they went to drink! Though it hadn't been enough to trip the GFI. They replaced the heater only to find out the new one sparked like mad as well. So now they are thinking maybe it's the cord or something. In the meantime they unplugged the heater. Some of the horses would then drink the water and drank the tank down to nothing in the first half day. Kiko will only drink from the exact spot that Gunner drinks and Cody is just pissed off about the whole deal.

Sunday I had noticed his one leg was a bit swollen, turns out it was probably from him kicking the water tank in anger. Now Cody is not one to trust anyone or anything without a lot of convincing. On top of that he is super afraid of the electric fence and won't go anywhere near it. Put those two things together with electric water and he's had enough. Patti got a few of the horses to drink from buckets and then moved the bucket to the water tank. But Cody will have none of it. He'll drink from the bucket but only if it's not any where near the tank. So now she's left to giving the horses buckets of water until they figure out the tank isn't electrified any more. I'm not sure how long that will take Cody. Poor ponies.

That goes along with the email I got a week or so ago. Apparently Axel shows his disgust with no food by going to each hay feeder, checking if there's hay and when there's none, he kicks the hay feeder and moves on to the next one. My horses are so picky!

Riding a Fresian

Monday I had a vacation day to recoop after Thanksgiving and get ready for a Pampered Chef party at my house. I also ran out to We Can Ride to ride Noah, the Fresian. He's going to retire this year and find a new home and I wanted to get a chance to ride him before he left. It's not often you are given a chance to ride a horse like that. He has some ringbone (like Axel) in his front leg and has been less than sound since he came to WCR. He works well at the walk and that's all he was usually asked to do for Therapy classes. But in this economy it's hard to justify keeping a horse that isn't quite sound for a therapy program that needs good strong sound horses. With the ringbone Noah will be sound one day and he's actually been getting quite good lately. When I first rode him the winter he arrived he was okay at the trot but mostly lazy. During his therapy career I had ridden him and he was sooooo sooo lazy and sore on top of that. Now that the ringbone is starting to fuse, he's been on good joint supplements, and is now barefoot he's been feeling better and been trotting and even cantering. Because he spent most of his life before WCR as a cart horse he's not quite the big scopey Fresian you expect. But when he engaged his hind end in the canter you could tell there was something there. Unfortunately we were inside where there isn't much space or I would have really felt the power behind that canter.

He's going to make a fabulous horse for someone, he's still fairly young, he super friendly and curious. He really likes to check out what's going on around him. How impressive would it be to show up to a trail ride with a big black Fresian! And he paints! I think he has a potential job offer as a companion for a blind horse. His interview for that is later this week. If I wasn't boarding horses right now Jeff would have taken him home in an instant. He would be a great husband horse that's for sure.