Updates on Everyone

Thanks to everyone for your support.  Honestly, I can't tell you how helpful it was to have so many people, online and at the stable, be so nice and supportive.  There are a few people in my life who, since I fell, have been anything but supportive, it was amazing to see how many people are actually nice.

My computer broke a while ago so you won't be hearing from me very often, not that I posted regularly before this.  I figured while I had some time on a computer today, I'd give everyone an update.

Me:

I've been better.  I've ridden a few more times, mostly just walking.  I can't ride for long, my arm does stop to hurt but I'm just glad to be back on a horse.  Socks has been a superstar.  She doesn't try to go faster than I can, she listen's perfectly and when I falter, which happens more than I'd like to admit, she stops and waits for me to collect myself again.

I've gotten more splints for my arm to help with mobility.  Other than that, I'm not doing much.  My sister got me into The Walking Dead so I've been catching up on that.  It's not near as scary as I always thought it would be but it's still pretty gross at parts.  I've been writing a lot more too, I don't really have anything else to do so I might as well try to get as much writing done as I can.

Socks:

As I said, Socks is a superstar.  I love her, what else is there to say?  Her and Lily are getting alone really well, Socks stays out of Lily's way, but Lily isn't all over her like Felene, her last paddock mate, was.  She got a cut on her back right leg again.  My sister washed it out and it looks like it's just a scrap but I'm going to keep my eye on it.

Jimmy:


Jimmy's been good, for the most part.  He's still going great in the bitless bridle.  It's amazing to me how much of a difference that made.  He's been good with his feet,  moreso, with people besides my mom and I lifting his feet.  My sister's friend from work wants to learn how to ride a horse so this past Sunday she came out and had a little ride on Jimmy.  He took care of her, although he did try to do his own thing when she wasn't firm.  Next time she comes she'll ride Socks.

The new problem with Jimmy is he's become very mouthy.  He's always been a nudger, you stand beside him and he just wants to nudge you.  That's nothing new, but now he's actually putting his mouth on people.

We do hand-feed our horses treats.  The rule is though, they only get hand-fed as long as they can be respectful.  I don't carry treats in my pocket except for certain occasions because I hate when a horse nudges my pocket looking for treats.

For example, when I walk up to Socks in the pen, walk by her in the barn, she's not looking for treats.  When I open the feed container in the barn, she will make her motorcycle (feed me) noise and her ears will perk forward, looking for treats.  If I walk over to her she will duck her head down, looking for them and if I don't have any, she quits.  Jimmy was the same.  However, lately, that's not the case.  He actually grabbed the front of my sweater, where my pockets are (that could be coincidence).  We could barely put on his bridle because he was too busy checking all of our hands for treats.  This literally came up in a week.

So on our part, we are going to completely stop feeding him by hand.  If he's not respectful, he doesn't get it.        So we're going to monitor him very closely, see if we can stop the problem but if that doesn't make it better than we need to face another possibility.  There are a lot of different people who go into Jimmy's pen.  His pen mate is a lesson horse (sweetest pony in the entire world, if I had the money I'd buy him in a second) so we are starting to wonder if maybe some of the people going to catch the pony are sharing his treats with Jimmy.  I really hope we're wrong, but the fact that his mouthiness has come up so sudden and he doesn't get that many treats from us, it has crossed our minds.

If he doesn't improve with what we're going to do, then we will talk to the pony's owner.  Not accusing, because I honestly have no idea, and no way to find out, if her students are feeding Jimmy, but I'd like her to be aware of the problem with Jimmy because not only would I like it to stop if he is getting treats, but there's a lot of little girls who go into his pen and I don't want him to be all over them.  It'd just make me feel better to know that her students know not to feed him and to just watch him.  I don't think he'd intentionally hurt anyone, but he could scare someone who isn't sure of what he's doing.

Artemis:

There's not much to report on her except I think she's going through another growth spurt.  I feel like I just measured her but she looks like she's gotten even taller again.  I can't tell her apart from the other horses in the pasture at a distance anymore.  She no longer looks like a baby and instead looks like a real horse.

She still hasn't hit her gangly stage yet either, which is surprising.  There are two other yearlings I read about, one a month older and one two months younger, and both of them have started into that awkward growing stage.  I assume it'll happen soon, maybe her next growth spurt.  Fonda hit it at 11 months and Socks was closer to 2 when she hit hers.

Winter has hit, with the snow and the cold.  (-6, it depresses me that in another month that'll be insanely warm for us)  On the negative side, I see Artemis less because it's usually dark when we get out there and if she's covered in snow, we don't bring her in just so it can melt, get her wet and then throw her back out in the cold.

On a positive note, the cold apparently makes her behave better.  We don't need to bother putting the halter on her to bring her to the gate, she comes with us.  We'll be by Socks pen and she'll be way out in the pasture and see us.  I know it's her because I see her head shoot straight up and she'll watch us the whole time and then come running once we're close.

And I believe that's everything.  Not much going on, it's cold, I'm focusing on healing.  I hope we can solve Jimmy's treat problem pretty easily and by ourselves, I don't want to accuse anyone nor have anyone think I'm accusing them.  I'll try to take pictures one of the next times I'm out, I just lose my willing to do so when it's cold.

And as a final note, it's almost been almost three years since Sisco passed away.  She was my sister's foal and she lived a mere 37 days before she caught pneumonia and died.  I was there the day she was born and the day she died and trying to keep her alive that day was the hardest thing I've ever done.  She was so adorable and although we didn't know her for very long, we often think of and remember her.