Goodbye "Tater"

 

" Nate"

Friday morning when my daughter went out to the barn to feed and turn out for the day she found her horse Nate dead in his stall.  Nate had been suffering for a while with stringhalt, which was exacerbated by his condition of shivers.  Though he had improved a lot with the medication, he was still having some difficulty walking.  While she was doing everything she could for him to make him comfortable and help him recover, he continued to lose weight and wasn’t looking or feeling good in general.  Even though his death was heartbreaking, he left our world on his own terms in the best possible way.  His heart stopped beating and he left peacefully in his sleep with his herd around him in the barn.  On his last day Nate grazed with his friends all day and came in at night to a hearty meal, his favorite carrots and treats, and lots of hugs.  That morning all his friends stopped by his stall to sniff him and say their goodbyes.

What can we say about Nate’s life?  Nate came to my daughter from Holland as a four year old Dutch Warmblood and immediately touched all of our hearts. He grew to 17.3 hh and was one of the sweetest, kindest, and gentlest of souls.  Everyone who knew him, whether human or animal, loved Nate.  He was always happy and willing to be your friend.  Nate was the most curious of our horses and would follow anyone around checking on what they were doing, pulling pliers out of pockets or looking over your shoulder at a job being done.  Nate was the mischievous prankster around the barn and if you were bending over to pick up or clean something, he'd give a little nudge with his nose and tip you over. More than once while scrubbing out a water trough, Nate has knocked one of us in head-first. And if you weren't careful, he might even give you a wedgie!

He and my daughter traveled all over Europe through Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, across the English Channel, into Wales, England, and finally to Scotland.  In Scotland they studied with the British Horse Society for a while and had many great adventures. One day, my daughter was leading a trail ride for the first time through the Scottish countryside on Nate. While on a sunken road between two fields, Nate spied a herd of Highland Cattle on one side.  He'd never seen cows before, and eyed them suspiciously, but continued along confidently. Then all at once they pushed up to the fence and said "mooooooo," and, well, that was just too much. He ran backwards until he hit the bank on the other side and fell over backwards on top of my daughter. He rolled around on top of the bank until he was on his feet, with her still in the saddle, and bolted, with the rest of the riders watching in horror. She got to the end of the field where there were no cows attacking him and they could jump down the bank back onto the road. He was covered in mud and had tufts of grass sticking out his bridle, but he regained his composure and was a perfect gentleman for the rest of the ride. That was Nate. He tried his best. Sometimes the world just didn't cooperate with him...

At home he could be silly and always made us laugh or smile.  Nate decided more than once he wasn’t comfortable working in the indoor arena and thought it was a good idea to jump out.  Which he did twice through the big doors on the end and once through the small man door on the side.  He was very athletic! He proved this by being able to dance around on his hind legs whether someone was in the saddle or not.  Nate wasn’t rebellious or naughty on purpose, but when he got frightened he didn't run, he got airborne.  His spontaneous airs above ground were a sight to behold! My favorite antic of his was one day when it snowed, and he somehow slipped down the hill from the run-in and made his body into a horsey toboggan and slid right under the fence. Not easy to do for a huge horse, but he managed it. My daughter found him hanging out on her front lawn when she came home from work, and found the skid marks under the unbroken fence. He was probably just as confused, wondering how he had just teleported through the fence and how he could get back to his friends. So, Nate had many adventures in his twenty years that we saw. I’ve always wondered what he got up to that we didn’t see. Then again, knowing Nate, maybe it's best we never saw most of that stuff...

Nate was also sometimes known affectionately around the barn as "Tater," because he was a big sweet potato. His show name was "Ex Animo," which is Latin, and translates roughly as "from the heart."

  

As you will notice in the video below, he and my Dusty were practically inseparable.  Nate was her guy and they were hardly ever apart. I hope there is a place for horses to be together again.  We’d like to think of Nate and Dusty grazing lush pastures, drinking out of crystal streams, and being young and healthy again. 

Goodbye sweet boy, you are missed more than you know. Your leaving has left a big hole in our hearts.

The Stable Song

remember when our songs where just like prayers.

like gospel hymns that you called in the air.

come down come down sweet reverence,

unto my simple house and ring…

and ring.

ring like silver, ring like gold

ring out those ghosts on the Ohio

ring like clear day wedding bells

were we the belly of the beast or the sword that fell…we’ll never tell.

come to me clear and cold on some sea

watch the world spinning waves..like some machine

now I've been crazy couldn’t you tell

i threw stones at the stars, but the whole sky fell

now I’m covered up in straw, belly up on the table

well and sang and drank, and passed in the stable.

that tall grass grows high and brown,

well i dragged you straight in the muddy ground

and you sent me back to where i roam

well i cursed and i cried, but now i know…now i know

and i ran back to that hollow again

the moon was just a sliver back then

and i ached for my heart like some tin man

when it came oh it beat and it boiled and it rang..its ringing

ring like crazy, ring like hell

turn me back into that wild haired gale

ring like silver, ring like gold

turn these diamonds straight back into coal

Until next time

Quotes for Today

There is something about the sight of a fallen horse that strikes one's heart in such a way, even for those who are not particularly a horse lover...the significance of something so sacred, powerful, beautiful, intoxicating as the horse...when a fallen horse is seen overcome by life's obstacles, fallen tears and a jolt to the heart and soul can never be prevented...
    - Stephanie M Thorn

Somewhere in time's own space
There must be some sweet pastured place
Where creeks sing on and tall trees grow
Some paradise where horses go,
For by the love that guides my pen
I know great horses live again.
~Stanley Harrison

August Update

Blue- " I've had just about enough of this summer!"

There seems to be too many things going on at once around here and so there hasn’t been much time to post anything.

I’ll start with an update on the horses:

Nate (my daughter’s horse) has been suffering with a bad case of Stringhalt.  He’s been dealing with this for over a month.  At one point, it got so bad that he was completely paralyzed in his hind end and was stall bound for a while. His hind legs swelled mildly and he broke out with oozing sores around his coronary bands, front and back. Nate also has a condition called Shivers, which we think exacerbated or probably even predisposed him to the Stringhalt. Between my daughter and the vet they seem to have come up with a successful treatment plan.  The good news is that, after scaring the crap out of us, he seems to be doing much better and can now be turned out with the herd. He’s still walking very slowly, but he seems happy and at least he’s able to be with his buddies.

Shortly after Nate, Grady came down with a milder case of Stringhalt. He also has shivers. He's recovering much faster than Nate and seems to be doing much better now.

Mellon's legs--especially his hind legs--have been swelling, oozing serum, and breaking out in sores. He was also mildly lame behind, though it didn't look anything like the stringhalt in the other two. Mellon doesn't have shivers, though he did have EPM a few years ago, and he's got Cushings. Our vet thought it was cellulitis. My daughter said it reminded her of a milder version of the lymphangitis Nate had when he ate some toxic weeds he shouldn't have in Scotland. The vet prescribed a course of heavy duty antibiotics and topical ointment (which Mel finished and didn't seem to help), so she's been washing with mild antiseptic soap and wrapping with Animalintex which seems to help a lot.

Trying to find the common source for all of these problems might be a waste of time. But the stringhalt, at least, we assume had a common cause once two horses started to show the same symptoms. There is a variety of the disease called "Australian Stringhalt" that has been traced to a particular weed that grows in pastures called flatweed, catsear, or false dandelion. It looks almost identical with ordinary dandelions except the leaves are slightly hairy, the stems are coarser, and they can be branched (there are other small differences if you're into botanical stuff, but for the casual observer, that's enough to identify one in your field.) It's not always dangerous to horses. But under certain soil and weather conditions (i.e. drought) when the plant is stressed, apparently it becomes toxic. We believe that our horses already suffering from neurological conditions were highly susceptible to the effects of this toxin, and so exhibited the worst symptoms. All of the literature we've ever read about it, and all of the vets we've ever spoken to said it doesn't grow in our area. But after speaking to the local Cornell Cooperative Extention expert, my daughter went out looking for it, and it was everywhere. (My daughter is going to post more on what she's found out about the plant and the condition as the horses progress with their treatment.)

We've got probably 25 acres total of pasture, so there was no way we were going to dig it all up by hand. So in the meantime, to be on the safe side, we removed the horses from the pasture for a few weeks while they received their treatment. Then, though we don't like having to do it, we had all the pastures sprayed with a broadleaf herbicide to get rid of the weed suspected of causing Nate, Grady (and possibly Mellon) their various ailments.  We can't be sure if it was the flatweed or any other weed that caused their illnesses. But why take that chance?  They seem to be improving already... We will reseed in the fall.

Blue looks a lot better to me and I plan on starting back riding him this weekend.  He got a thorough grooming and bath over the past weekend.

Sami and Donnie are just fine. So there are a few bright spots here, too.

The Dogs:
Ginger the pup is doing fine. She was spayed two weeks ago and is as feisty as ever.

Gunnar has started having seizures.  He’s had three this month and so my daughter took him to his vet who referred him to a dog neurologist.  I didn’t know there was such a specialty, but apparently there is.  All of his tests came back normal. and they have no answers.  Every vet we use is on vacation so it’s been like pulling teeth to get him some anti-seizure medication.  Normally, they would use phenobarbital but since he has a liver shunt he can’t take that because it compromises the liver.  There is another medication that they are prescribing so hopefully we’ll be able to get that soon and help him.

We have what looks like green slime on the top of the pond so we called in a pond expert.  He says it’s called watermeal. And there is a spray that will kill it, but he can’t spray because the oxygen level in the pond is below normal (because of the watermeal) and it will kill the fish.  So we need to replace the broken aerator with a new one, which requires getting an electrician to run a line from the garage to the pond.  I’m hoping this can be done soon.  We may not be able to treat the pond this year, but at least we can get the oxygen levels back up to normal to help the fish out until the weather cools off and the watermeal dies off.

So, it's been a rough summer, and we're looking forward to fall! That’s about it for now.

Until next time
 
Quote for Today
 “ It just goes to show you, it’s always something.”
    -Gilda Radner-

Well, That Was Different…

" Nate"

On the longe line (Outside)

 

My daughter’s horse Nate has always had a problem with working in the indoor arena.  There seems to be something that he just doesn’t feel comfortable with and he will let you know by rearing, spooking, or discovering some escapade to get you off and get himself out of there.  Longeing him is also tricky, as he likes to become airborne and can become an out of control freight train.  So she decided not to ride him in there anymore until he was calmer about the arena.

The doors and windows are still all open because the weather has been unseasonably warm.  The double doors at the end have had gates installed instead of the longe line we had strung across them.  No one has ever tried to get out of the indoor through the longe line except Nate.   One time while turned out inside he thought it would be a good idea to gallop the length of the arena and jump out over the line.  Beautiful form, too, I might add as I was standing outside the door watching him bear down on me. I dove to the right just in time or I’m sure he would have jumped over me, too.  The gates were added basically for Nate and to keep Gunnar the dog from coming in and trying to play with the horses’ tails while we were riding. 

Recently, my daughter took Nate down there and started working with him on the longe. After walking him around and letting him investigate anything that caught his fancy, she decided to let him loose to walk around quietly on his own to get used to the indoor on his own. Everything was secured shut. I’m sure you’ve guessed already that Nate jumped out again.  No, not over the gates at the ends. We have what we call a "man-door"--about the size of a standard stall door--that we use to come in and out of the arena and there is a wooden half-door about 4' high that goes across the bottom of it.  He jumped out over THAT.  Because he's an equine genius (just saying.) He galloped straight for the big open end doors, which are also 4', made a sharp left turn in front of those, and he just barely squeezed himself through the tiny opening at the top of the man-door like a circus horse through a hoop.  No easy feat for a 17.3 hand Dutch Warmblood who is very well built, wide and muscular. And did I mention smart? His withers just about scraped the top of the doorframe.  But his form was damn near perfect.  There’s a small hill right outside the door, which he landed gracefully on, cantered up, and began to graze.

The moral of today’s story is:  Always expect the unexpected when dealing with horses (especially Nate)!  Nate is our very "special" horse in the barn.  I’m sure you all know a Nate.  If there’s trouble to be had, he’s the first one to find it.

Quote for Today

A horse is poetry in motion. 

An Amusing Incident

Poor Nate

Or not, depending on your perspective.  The horses were fed this morning and left in their stalls while my daughter went to fill the hay nets outside for the day.  When she got back to the barn Nate was crashing his feed tub rather violently with his nose and dumping grain onto the floor then eating it.  Now that’s not a usual behavior for Nate so she thought it best to investigate. 

Seems there were poop balls in his feed tub and he was trying to get his grain out and onto the floor because it was too gross to try and eat around it.  Nate has never once pooped in his bucket or water so it was a safe bet this wasn’t his doing.  Upon further inspection of the area it was discovered that there was in fact some squished manure in the metal bars separating the stalls.  Seems O’Grady decided to gift Nate with a morning surprise.

We’re fairly sure this was not a random accident because Grady really had to angle himself just so to get aligned with the ‘sweet’ spot in the corner above Nate’s bucket.  Grady is usually the sweetest horse in the world and would never challenge Nate in the pasture but who knows what goes on once the lights are turned out.

O'Grady  (The culprit)

Our best guess is that Nate was up all night coughing with his respiratory condition and interrupted Grady’s beauty sleep. This morning in front of Nate’s stall there was a wad of green snot, so he may have a cold.

Memo to Mr. O’Grady: cranky and tired is still no reason to poop in a friend’s breakfast. 

"I'm sorry Nate, I won't do it again"

Poor Nate, I heard he looked so sad and down this morning as if to say “ I’m having a really bad day and it’s only morning!”

Until next time

Quote for Today 

The grass is always greener on the other side…until a horse comes and poops on it!

Oh Nate!

Here’s a short story you might like about one of our horses and his antics yesterday.  My daughter got home from work and noticed all the horses were lined up and staring over the fence at the hay field behind the house.  Wondering what had them so captivated she walked to the back in the snow in sneakers and spotted a figure running around like a wild man.  On further investigation she recognized Nate. 

He spotted her at the same time and came running at her like a frightened 1600 lb freight train.  She held out her hand, but he didn't stop. Instead, he cruised past her and decided it would be a better idea to do a few laps around her house.  There's no fencing around the house and the neighbor's hay field isn’t fenced either.  So, Plan B, she went and opened the gates leading into the barn area, grabbed a lead rope and some Stud Muffins and headed back out.

By now Nate had found a small patch of grass under the snow on the lawn and decided to graze.  She was able to get the lead rope around his neck, give him a treat and drag his goofy butt into the barn. He couldn’t understand why no one else was in and started calling for his friends.  So now it was a mad dash to set up the barn for feed time and get the rest of the herd in with frozen, soaking wet sneakers and work clothes on. She was not amused. Well, actually, she kinda was. It was pretty funny once everything calmed down.

You see, this is what happened: Nate hasn’t really jumped out of anywhere but the indoor since last Spring.  Nate doesn’t like the indoor and on that day she let him wander around in there hoping to get him used to it.  He was doing fine and then suddenly spooked at nothing and came charging towards the doors, which had a rope across the opening at about four feet.  Beautiful jumping form, by the way, and stuck the landing.  But I digress.  We have a run-in shed in the corner of the catch pen and it has a dirt ramp going up into it.  Well, it seems that somehow Nate must have lost his footing on this ramp which was snowy and icy, and wiped out. With his legs out from under him, he must have landed just right and somehow slid right between the two fence posts and knocked out one of the bottom fence boards (they're PVC) went under the fence and popped right out on the other side of the fence into the hay field. How he did this is beyond us.  Nate is 17.3 hands and pretty long head to tail.  I’m guessing he’s about 9-10 feet in entirety; the fence section is eight feet. There was a big horsey snow-angel body print on the outside of the fence.  Only Nate could have managed this.  As I’ve said before, whenever we do any thing on the farm the first question asked is, “how can Nate get into trouble here?” We never imagined this scenario. Now we know...

Luckily, he only had a few tiny scrapes on his head and rump.  Even luckier he didn’t run out into the road.  I think once you realize they’re unharmed and safely in the barn you can laugh about stuff like this, but at the time you’re dealing with it things can get a little tense.

Until next time

Quote for Today

How do you catch a loose horse?
Make a noise like a carrot.
    - British Cavalry joke

Nothing’s Ever Easy

"Can someone please rescue me, I'm tired of babysitting this big lug..."(sigh)

It’s been nothing short of hectic around here for the past week.  My daughter who is the main medical caretaker of our herd has been on vacation and will be back next week.  So, of course, the first day after she leaves, her horse Nate, comes in from turnout and can barely walk.  He wasn’t just lame he was crippled and could barely hobble to the barn. Great.  If anything happens to this horse I’m responsible. 

I did what I could for him but he wasn’t any better in the morning so a call to the vet was in order. The vet diagnosed an abscess in his left front.  She pulled his shoe and we set up a regimen of soaking his hoof in Betadine, Epsom Salt and some warm water, followed by Animalintex in a Davis boot. Nate is impossible to work with: each time I put his hoof in the bucket to soak he’d pull it out and stomp the bucket so it spilled all over the aisle. Okay, so being the genius I am I figured out quickly this wasn’t going to work.  For my next trick I made up the medicinal concoction plus cotton and put it in a heavy plastic bag and secured it to his leg with elastic tape. That worked well until I put him in his stall and he realized the herd had left for greener pastures. He started banging the walls and rearing and broke it open. Yes, he is quite the charmer.  I might add that getting that pie plate of a hoof in the bag was an intricate piece of work also. The same goes for getting him into his Davis boot. He has a tendency to keep stomping his foot down each time I tried to pick it up to put it in the boot.  Eventually, we both got with the routine or I got lucky and he started to cooperate a bit more.

In fairness to Nate, I’ve never really worked with this horse except to bring him in or out of turnout and feed him, he’s my daughter’s baby.  Nate is a 17-3 hand Dutch Warmblood who has been plagued with breathing issues and other medical mishaps his whole life. It’s fair to say he’s been somewhat spoiled.  Although I shouldn’t say this, I’ll say it anyway; Nate isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer so to speak.  To give you an idea of his mental awareness: everything we do regarding construction or improvements around the farm starts with the question “how could Nate hurt himself with this?”

I turned him out with Dusty the next day thinking all would be fine. It wasn’t. Nate is also a colossal weenie so when the rest of the herd left for the back pastures he had a major meltdown and thought that rearing, bucking and galloping around the small paddock was a brilliant idea.  Dusty followed along in his tirade up and down the hill at a full gallop. I wasn’t thrilled to see her racing around after her recent injury either.  Oh, and that was the end of the boot for that day.

We’ve been treating this abscess since last Friday and today is Thursday.  It’s been a fun week to say the least. The abscess finally drained or I thought it did and the farrier reattached his shoe yesterday.  He and Dusty got to join the herd much to their delight and the herd refused to come in last night.  Which I’m sure was Dusty’s idea. Today as I rode past I saw him pointing his toe and not putting weight on the hoof so when I got back from the store I hiked out to the pasture.  I checked him out and took him for a walk. He was absolutely fine and trotted off beautifully. I swear they are going to kill me with stress.

The only good thing that happened this week is that I managed to ride Blue and worked on some things with him.  I can’t wait until my daughter gets back next week. Hopefully, no one else will require a vet call.

Until next time

Quote for Today

If a horse stands on you it’s because you’re in the way.

A Little Excitement

The Hay Field  (last month)

Early this morning I got a wake – up call from my daughter yelling to me to get dressed quick (I believe the direct quote was "Hey, put some pants on!  We have a horse emergency!")  Seems a few of the horses were, for some mysterious reason, loose in the hay field behind our house.  She was just getting up to see if they had come up for breakfast and looked out the window to see three majestic horses galloping across the hay field behind the house, tails up and heading for the road.  Not a minute later our neighbor down the road called to tell us her daughter had spotted them running towards their farm. 

My daughter threw on a coat, her boots and a baseball cap and ran out the door, grabbed a bucket of grain and some lead ropes and headed out across the field towards them.  I got in the car and backed to the end of the driveway.  If they spooked I would try to block the road and keep them from continuing on to the much busier road that intersects ours.  Luckily, the horses only crossed the quiet back road to our neighbor's where they were greeted with a tub of feed from her at the end of her driveway.  She stood with them until my daughter arrived, which was very kind, especially considering she was already dressed for church and the three big, crazy dingbats were all swarming around her fighting over the grain.  Our neighbors are the best! 

My daughter, only having two hands for leading, had only grabbed two lead ropes, so she threw them over Nate and Blue and Donnie followed behind.  Donnie is a Nervous Nellie and a follower.  It was still a little on the dark side so cars coming up the road had their lights on which spooked Nate a tad but he was controllable.  What I like about our neighborhood is that all the cars slowed down and some stopped to ask if she needed help with the horses.  If the drivers weren’t savvy as they were passing the horses it could have gotten ugly.  So a disaster was averted because of good neighbors and sensible drivers as my daughter led Moe, Larry and Curly home from their morning adventure.

Another neighbor who helps us out around the farm took his truck around the fence line without being asked and found their escape route.  He knows the horses well and told us that it was definitely Blue who led the pack.  Seems “he who knows how to open gates” (that’s his Native American name) fiddled with the gate up on the hill by the dressage arena until he opened the latch and pushed it open. Then led Nate and Donnie through the twisting trails onto the hay/corn field behind us. While our neighbor was up there he tied the gate shut.  He and his son were out hunting deer this morning so it was not hard to follow the trail through the frost to the gate. 

Of course, this set the rest of the herd galloping up to the barn to tattle on the Three Stooges.  We promptly locked them all in the catch pen.  Mellon got his medicine and I was able to catch Dusty for a ride.  They have been staying out all week because the inside of the barn was being varnished.  I was hoping they would come up this morning so I wouldn’t have to trek out to the back field to catch her.  So I guess one good thing came out of the morning romp.  Then again, I could do without the drama and could use the exercise walking around trying to cajole Dusty to come with me.  Never a dull moment around here.  

Until next time

Quote for Today

How do you catch a loose horse? Make a noise like a carrot.     - British Cavalry joke

An Interesting Weekend

Nate Longeing (April)

The weather has been just gorgeous with cooler temperatures.  I even think there are less annoying insects as a bonus.  My daughter and I had an interesting weekend riding and working with our horses:

Nate:  First candidate for a ride on Saturday was Nate.  He’s my daughter’s 17.3hh Dutch Warmblood and I consider him a little in the special category.  Once he was tacked and entered the indoor, any common sense he has pretty much flew out the window, along with his brain.  With his head up in the air, he immediately began rearing and jumping around, looking out the windows and doors.  Needless to say, he was very nervous about being in there.

He shouldn’t be.  Nate has been to numerous shows in his career and a lot of indoors.  He’s also from Holland and has ridden in airplanes on several occasions.  This horse has traveled all over Europe on trailers, planes, been ferried across the English Channel and been in more countries than I have.  Nate also spent a lot of time hacking around the Scottish countryside with my daughter.  He even used to be safe to ride out alone on trails and roads in traffic.  Yet now he’s terrified of the indoor.

She wisely decided not to ride him right away, but to let him loose to explore the indoor at his own discretion.  After some running, bucking and rearing, he decided it was okay to trot around for a while.  I was standing outside the double doors to the arena and each time he would trot towards the opening I would hold up my arms and he’d turn.  We have a longe line strung across the opening; it’s about 3’6” high.  During one of his passes, he was heading straight for me and by the look in his eye and his body language I knew he wasn’t going to stop this time.  Exit stage left,  I dove out of the way and Nate took the jump out over the longe line--magnificently, I might add.  Neck arched, legs snapped up to his chest, back rounded beautifully, his form was perfect, especially considering it's been a while since his last official jump.  He landed in the stones outside about ten feet out.  It could have been an oxer and he definitely would have cleared it.  I only wish I had a camera to record it.  Then he proceeded to canter right up the steep bank on the other side and then up the driveway, coming to stop at Dusty’s paddock to visit with her.

They stood nose-to-nose while he told her how scary it was in there and how brave he was to get out while he could.  She soothed his nerves until my daughter caught him and replaced his bridle with a halter.  Needless to say, he went back into the indoor for some easy longe work.  By the end of the session he had calmed down and was working very nicely.

I should probably mention that since Nate has respiratory issues, allergies and asthma he hasn’t really worked all summer, as the humidity makes it hard for him to breathe.  He's also been dealing from some other health issues, so has been basically retired the last few years, but seems to be doing much better lately, so we were hoping to try to get him back into some light work now that the change of weather is coming.  But it was also a bit chilly and windy Saturday morning to add to the fracas.

On Sunday, discretion was the better part of valor and he was simply longed and was much calmer.  So he’ll be longed instead of ridden for a while until he gets the used to the idea that he’s back in work and the indoor isn’t the horse eating monster he thinks it is.  And truthfully, he didn’t do himself any favors by jumping out of the arena--it just showed us that he’s still got it!

I’ll get to the rest of the horses and this past weekend in the next few post.

Until next time

Quote for Today
Been There... Jumped That!

An Entertaining Day

"Cast of Characters"

( These are pictures taken in previous training sessions in outside arena)

" Donnie"

Our day started out with the usual feed and turnouts, then whichever horses were being worked were readied for their lessons. We have been acclimating some of the more ‘special needs’ horses to the indoor by hand walking and lunging them a few times before they are ridden inside.  Donnie had the number one slot on the dance card today.  He’s still a little nervous about indoors since a German Shepherd attacked him in an indoor a few years ago (which also resulted in his first “girthy” bucking incident.)  As a result, he doesn’t care much for dogs or indoors, so making him feel secure in the indoor is a priority before eventually mounting up.

It was raining, but the noise was less than I thought it would be on the metal roof and we were pleasantly surprised that Donnie was doing so well. My daughter was lunging him and I was sitting on the mounting block.  Out of nowhere I noticed Grady and Blue, two of our nosier horses who had the day off because they were ridden yesterday; their two heads were perfectly framed side by side in the window as they watched Donnie work.  Grady called out to Donnie: “Whatcha doin’ Donnie, wanna come out and play?”  Donnie nickered to them, “I’m almost done here fellas, just let me finish this circle - be out in a minute.”  Of all the times not to have a camera... not that I could have taken a great picture anyway, I was laughing pretty hard.

"Sami"

Next up was Sami; he did very well even if he was a little nervous.  The resident pigeons flew in out the windows a few times distracting him, but he’s surprisingly sensible and all in all he had a good lesson.

"Nate"

Dusty is still on the disabled list.  I took her for a walk in the indoor yesterday and did a quick assessing lunge.  She’s still a tad off on the outside of the circle.  In the past Dusty has been ridden in an indoor only a handful of times, so she’s skeptical and very alert to say the least. I’ve been trying to familiarize her by hand walking and feeding treats so she thinks indoors are fun – kind of like going into a giant walk-in treat dispenser.  Her main squeeze, Nate, was along for his orientation and to keep her company. They have been missing each other so we thought some quality time together would be nice for both of them.

We have 4ft. doors that complete the wall on the lower half of the arena that can be placed over the large opening on the end, but since this is where we come in with vehicles, etc. we’ve been leaving it open.  I also thought it might be nice psychologically for nervous horses to leave it open so they wouldn’t feel too claustrophobic while getting used to being inside; this way they’d always feel like they had an escape route.  But we thought it might be nice for Dusty and Nate to explore on their own, so we decided to block the openings and turn them loose.  After putting a board across the smaller man-door entrance and stringing a thick, white lunge line across the huge doorway at the end, we let them loose to play with each other.  Some trotting side by side and head tossing ensued and they were having fun cavorting and snorting.  At this point Nate decided a nice canter was in order and made a beeline from one end of the arena towards the front entrance where we were watching their antics.  We were standing in front of the lunge line to reinforce the boundary a bit when Nate came bounding toward us.  Sure he would spin out at the last minute, my daughter and I simultaneously raised our arms to turn him and moved to either side of the entrance to avoid the big last minute turn and possible buck we were expecting from him.

But this is Nate we’re dealing with here.  He never does what you’d expect a normal horse to do.  Instead, he kept right on going and we became the human standards for what has now been dubbed “the lunge jump.”  That’s right, all 17’2 hands of goofy Dutch Warmblood jumped over the lunge line, knees snapped up by his ears, in an amazingly effortless jump and proceeded to take a galloping tour around the outside of the arena.  The top of the wall where the lunge was attached is 4ft, and the jump took him onto a bluestone road for a stride then up a steep bank to the top of the hill.  He never missed a beat.


Color us surprised!  Nate has been semi-retired and hasn’t jumped for about 5 years now - and fully retired for the last 6 months - because he has so many mysterious health issues my daughter didn’t want to add stress by working him.  She’s now rethinking this decision after his dazzling jumping display.  This isn’t the first time we’ve caught him in the act of jumping random things for his own entertainment, even in his retirement.  So who knows, maybe he’s bored and a little work might do him some good.  If he can happily canter the length of the indoor, casually step over a 4’ longe line and canter up a near vertical bank in one stride, maybe he can manage a little walking around the field under tack...?

"Dusty"

Dusty, the more sensible of the two, followed him up to a point, and then she stopped, ears forward looking out the doors and windows.  Finally, I think she actually shrugged her shoulders: “Stupid boys; they sure know how to ruin a good time.”

Until next time

Quote for Today
A stubborn horse walks behind you, an impatient horse walks in front of you, but a noble companion walks beside you.