Let it snow!

Went out at lunch for a visit. Brought Booker in the arena and free lunged him a bit and he rolled a bit.  Nothing too crazy, no bucking or anything just a little head tossing.  Usual soundness. Did a little ground work at liberty nothing too serious just walk, whoa, trot.

So I was doing really awesome and I was proud of myself.  I got in the barn before it really started raining/snowing and while we were playing in the arena it really started up.  First rain then turned to big fat snow flakes.

So I groomed and Booker was nice and dry and I put the blanket on and there's no straps.  I wander around in circles trying to figure out what to do. Texted Nancy and then sent a FB message to the gal that sold us the blanket. Debate looking in her trailer and "borrowing" whatever I find but decided against it.  Wasted some time measuring Booker for blanket size.  The blanket doesn't have a size written on it and it is a tad big so I thought I'd measure him just in case, especially since we had no straps for the existing blanket.  74" BTW.

So I give in and bring Booker back outside.  By the time I get back in the barn I get a reply from the gal that sold the blanket that the straps are on the floor of her trailer.  Go figure.  So I go back out to get Booker who is now wet wet wet.  In fact he has a pool of water in the crease in his chubby back ;)

So I scrub him as dry as possible with one of the fleece blankets I brought, run him around the arena again in hopes he'll roll, and groom him again. No rolling of course.  Gave him some treats.  Brushed him again and fluffed him up and then just gave up and put the blanket on.  So all my awesome timing was for naught.  Anyways he's not soaking wet, just damp by the time I put on his blanket so he should be fine and will probably dry quickly under it.

All the horses with the exception of those in Booker's pasture have blankets on.  It's not cold now but Booker doesn't have a super thick winter coat and if it keeps snowing like this, big wet flakes and rain, they'll be wet and then it's supposed to get super cold so I think the blanket is the right move.  Just a little peace of mind.

I promised Booker I wouldn't be back to get him again today at least ;)

Working with Booker

I'm not doing much better keeping up with Booker's updates either.  We borrowed my dad's .38 and took Booker out to the pasture to try and shoot that a bit.  We shot half loads and full loads and there didn't seem to be much difference between the two.

Booker did alright with them outside but we just shot from the ground.  We've also shot the .22 a few more times in the arena from the ground and mounted.  We figured we'd just keep up shooting a little each time so he doesn't forget.  Not sure when we'll start working on the .38 in the arena or from his back.  Every time we go out there we come up with new things we should work on with him if we actually remember or get our butts out there more than once a week.  Ideally I'd make it out a couple times myself and Nancy would make it out a couple times a week but we'll see.  So far that hasn't happened.

I did make it out on the Friday night when Jeff was in Canby and I rode for a while myself but I didn't want to get him too sweaty since I had forgotten the cooler.  But it was nice to get back in the barn with no time constraints.

So our plans for the future are to have a trainer out to give us some lessons.  We thought maybe we'd do lessons for a month or two and then maybe in the spring send Booker for a 30 day tune up with said trainer.  She'd be able to ride him up to 4 times a week and we just haven't been able to put in that kind of time.  Not sure our whole list of goals but we'd love to have him remain calm while being ridden, he's still gets a little anxious with a rider, guessing that's part of his gaming past.  He needs to use his rear end more and bend bend bend.  We think those things will help with his heel pain, just learning to carry himself better in general.  As far as our goals as riders, well we have to learn to ride one handed a bit better (or at all in my case) and we just need someone to ride him and know him and then be better able to help us help him move better.  We did try the old trick where we don't pick up the reins when he speeds up or gets nervous since sometimes the gaming horses think tight reins mean "go faster."  We did discover that while having no rein contact Booker speeds up a bit, say when the gun is fired, but he doesn't do much more than that.  It's just hard to get ourselves to not choke up on the reins when we get nervous.  Practice practice practice!

Moving Again

I've been really horrible about keeping up with this blog lately.  I think part of it is the distance between my horses and myself.  But anyways better late than never, right?

Last time the horses had just gotten their feet trimmed and I'm happy to report that a month later they still look like they were trimmed last week and no one was sore from it that I noticed.  The family hadn't plowed the wheat field and a lot of volunteer wheat was growing so we figured we'd turn the horses out there for a change of scenery and something to munch on.

Low and behold, a couple weeks out there and I'm pretty sure Haji gained weight.  And they weren't eating much grain at that point because no one wanted to come up to the barn to eat.  All the while they were still on their first bale of hay.  Of course out of that whole 11 acres or so, the horses chose to stand in the one little patch of brush which meant tons of burrs.

And by "horses" I mean Haji. Though the other boys had their fair share of burrs as well.

When they needed to plow the wheat field they moved the horses back to the front pasture where they nearly finished off the first round bale.  So that bale lasted them since the end of September!  Guess they weren't done with the grass yet after all.

I wasn't able to make it out to Canby after that so Jeff took on the chore of pulling all the t-posts and trailering the horses over to his brother's place.  There's a leak in the well so we can't leave the water on all the time which means we can't use an insulated/heated automatic waterer.  And since the hose will freeze we can't really get water at all at our place so we decided to move them for the winter.  The cattle pens are all full of cattle at the inlaws so Jeff's brother's place is the only place left but there's no fence.  So Jeff pulled the t-posts in the dark and hand pounded them into frozen ground til his hands hurt for a week. Don't worry, I got to hear all about it ;)  Not being there just compounded my worry about the horses and not being able to manage their care being so far away.  It was a rough night to say the least.

So when they moved they threw out some hay from the loft and then put out a new round bale without the net which they all but finish in a week.  When I finally got out to see them after Thanksgiving they were FAT, super fat.  Which for Haji is a good thing, scratch that, great thing.  And that's without a lot of care in feeding him several times a day.  So I'm hoping he'll keep that weight on this winter. At some point someone took off Haji's blanket when it was a little warmer so I threw that back on him though he's got a nice winter coat and would probably be fine, I like the thought that he doesn't have to use his energy to keep himself warm and it'll help keep that sticky hip of his nice and warm.

So we had ourselves some more chores this past weekend and luckily the weather cooperated wonderfully.  I wrapped up the wire fencing from our place (that is a super lame job BTW) while Jeff started cleaning out his brother's barn.  Sunday I was able to get some time while Daniel stayed with Grandma and I went out to help.  The barn was full of who knows how many years worth of manure.  But between Jeff hand shoveling (I helped a tiny bit) and Joe running the bobcat they got the barn looking pretty nice.

We tied off the sides of the barn so the horses will just have access to the middle portion. That way they don't mess up the sides where the bobcat can't get and make it easier to clean in the future.  Also leaves the sides for storing various random things we found in the barn.

I put the buckets on the fence inside the barn which should mean a person can enter the barn from the small door and fill buckets without having to cross any fencelines or even go in where the horses are. The buckets will be out of the snow and rain so they can stay hung up and they won't go wandering away when a horse decides to play.  I thought maybe a neighbor kid could even feed but Jeff thinks that's too dangerous.  Anyway it's a pretty nice set up at this point.  The buckets are a little closer than I had hoped so hopefully the boys can figure out how to eat in peace and not run Haji off.  When I feed them from their buckets on the ground Sunday morning they all stood nicely and ate and Haji was able to finish before Axel came looking for seconds.  So that was nice.  Oh!  I saw Haji pin his ears and move Cody off at one point over the weekend.  Yay Haji!

I think there might be a bit of mud in our future but we'll see.  There was a low spot where the paddock is set up but this fall they filled it with gravel so maybe it'll be okay.  They do have a cement apron on the barn as well as the barn aisle to stand in if the mud gets bad.  We'll just have to scrap the aisle of manure on occasion.  Maybe throw out some stray or something.  I don't think it'll be as mud free as I thought our place would be but I think it'll be okay.  They don't have a large paddock right now but when the ground freezes they don't do too much moving around anyways.

So we cleaned up the barn, cleaned up their paddock area and put out a new round bale with net and everyone looked pretty happy.  I'm a little concerned that Haji hasn't figured out the net yet, so I'm hoping he figures that out soon if that's the case.

Sadly my hopes to see if Axel would not get swollen this winter are foiled.  They had a full round bale not in a net and he's swollen up again so I guess that experiment is off.  Oh well, I'd rather have fat happy horses in the end.  I'm also hoping this small area will make the three horses become better buddies in the end.  Maybe Haji will stick up for himself a bit more or something.

So after all my personal turmoil over the horses and their home and gaining or losing weight, I'm feeling good after this last weekend visit.  I'm thinking maybe the initial weight loss Haji had was a combination of not great hay, not getting grain quite enough, and the other horses running him around too much.  The hay is decent and the boys don't seem to run him around and he's getting regular grain so I think he'll do good this winter.  I think I can relax now.  Thanks so much to Jeff's brother for letting them live there this winter (I'm sure he doesn't mind the added bonus of us cleaning his barn either).