It's official. The world ended. Why has it ended? We got through needles and deworming without a single rear, in under an hour, without anyone fearing for their life and without a horse's eyes rolling into the back of their head. And yes, I'm talking about just one horse (and exagerating a little bit, he's not quite that bad).
As I said, it was needle and deworming day yesterday, April 1. We took them in one at a time. Socks was first. My mom gave her the needle (the first time my mom's ever given a needle) and though Socks gave me a "What the heck are you doing to me" look, she didn't move. She's good for needles. She was not so good for the dewormer.
I can't blame her, it was apple flavoured, reeked of apples and if there is one thing my horse hates more than anything in the world, it's apples. She lifted her head up and wouldn't bring it down for the world. It was time to bribe her. I fed her a handful of treats and while she was busy chewing, stuch the tube in and squeezed. She was not pleased. I know they say it's bad to do that, since there's a chance it'll make her stop eating the treats but that's not a problem with Socks. She's kind of a pig. Half an hour later when I fed her another handful she smelled my hand suspiciously and then devoured the treats in half a second.
Jimmy came next. He was great for the needle. Not so great for the dewormer. Despite the fact that we play with his mouth all the time, stick our fingers in the corner, it's completely different with the dewormer. We decided to give him time to cool off before he became too worked up so we tied him in a stall and went to get Artemis.
It was her first needle and she was great for it. There was a lot of noise in the barn that was freaking her out but she still stood quietly for the needle. Deworming her isn't an issue, she loves it. It's like a treat to her.
After we finished with her we went back to Jimmy. We took him out of the stall and I held him while my mom held the dewormer out to him. He kept smelling it and pushing it with his noise, and then, to our surprise, bit down on it. Unfortunantly neither of us were ready so he let go before my mom was ready to squeeze it in. Luckily, five minutes later he bit down on it again and she was ready. He didn't jerk back as she squeezed it in, he just stood there and waited until we were done. Apparently he will do these things, if we let him do it on his agenda.
After that we brushed them. Artemis lost an entire other horse in fur. I wish I had gotten a picture. I can't properly describe how much hair was coming off of her. I've never seen a horse lose that much, and the best part, she's still insanely fluffy. You can't really tell how much hair she's lost.
I'm just very happy with how the deworming went, I couldn't have asked for it to be better, especially Jimmy. Hopefully it continues on like this.
Here's the little princess in her new halter. I still find myself calling it Cas' halter and not Artemis' but I suppose that will change with time. I like how it looks on her and it's just generally a much better halter than her old blue one. L, the barn owner's daughter, informed me that she likes the blue better and doesn't think I should have changed it and I should go back to the blue one. I hate to disappoint her but blue was never meant to be Artemis' colour. I still haven't decided one for her (I'm weird and like my horses all to have their own colour) but I like the red and black much better than blue.
We dewormed them last week. Socks was good. She hates it but she always lets me do it. She's just angry afterwards and unfortunately for her, this one was apple-flavoured. She HATES apples. She will not eat them and gets annoyed if you try to give them to her, as C, one of the other boarders discovered. He couldn't believe that she wouldn't eat them. My horse is picky, what can I say? And apple flavoured dewormer is probably her least favourite thing.
Artemis was great. Really, I was surprised. She was pretty good the first time she was dewormed but this time around she was really amazing. I was expecting some head tossing, some half-hearted fight, but she did nothing. She stood there, let me squirt it in, and then just chewed a bit and swallowed. There was a bit left and she let me give her the rest of it, no problems. I was really impressed with her.
Jimmy on the other hand...was a nightmare. We've been working for months with him to prepare for this. He had no issue with us putting things in his mouth...then we put the dewormer in and he figured out what was going on before I could get it in....and we were done. I love this horse...but I really wanted to kill him. He never used to have a problem with it but the last few times he's been horrible. We had to get E, the stable owner, to help us out. So we're back to square one with him and deworming. It did get done at least.
We're watching my dog for a while (she's usually up at my dad's) so we brought her to the stable with us today. While we rode Socks and Jimmy, we let Artemis and Si (dog) wander around the arena. They were playing together. I wish I'd gotten video. They were taking turns chasing each other around the arena. Artemis also decided she wanted to eat the mounting block. She thinks it's the greatest toy ever invented.
We've been working a lot on her and being alone in the barn. She used to throw the biggest temper tantrums but she's actually gotten much better. She stays calm and relaxed as long as she can see us, but if we have to go into the bathroom or to our back locker where she can't see, then she starts throwing a little fit. But I think just the fact that she can now stand in there without any other horses without even stamping her foot is a big improvement.
She's also growing again. Her hind end is huge. I hope she evens out a bit, it's bad right now. Here's a picture I took to show what she looks like compared to my mom. My mom is fairly short about 5'2" or 5'3" but still.
I haven't measured her in a little while but last time I did she was 13.2 and a half. I did measure her hind end too just for fun and that came to 14.1. The other boarders like to tease her about it, it does look pretty bad, as you can see in the picture.
I don't have any recent good pictures and I probably won't until spring. Pictures taken inside just never turn out nicely and it's too cold to take pictures outside. I just want to get them in as quickly as I can.
And just for fun, here's a video from the day she was born. She couldn't quite figure out those legs yet.
Artemis has been out in the pasture for a week tomorrow and so far I think she's loving it. Her and Ebony are tight. Socks, Ebony, Tona and Artemis all hang togther in their own little herd while the rest of the horses are another herd. We went out twice during the week to see them, once when it was basically dark and once a little earlier in the day. The first time we brought out treats. Big mistake. We were mauled. Luckily just Socks' herd was on our side of the creek and so Ebony and Artemis did the mauling. The second time we did not bring out treats.
Bays at their prettiest, in the falling light.
We were harassed by Charlie, the little Arabian foal, right away. He's a biter, he tries to rip your arm off and he follows you around. He was also trying to mount all the mares, with the exception of Socks because she goes at him if he goes near her or her baby. Artemis enjoyed a good scratching, she kept making extremely funny faces while she was being scratched. She was following my mom around everywhere until she'd get distracted by the dog and chase after Si. When we finally left them Charlie came racing over to us and promptly started trying to bite us. He is not my favourite horse, to say the least. He's going to be weaned at the end of the month and I'm not disappointed. However, his owner is planning on keeping him as a stud and I am a little worried about that.
My silly pony being silly
On Saturday we went out to Deworm them and give them their Strangles vaccination. Socks and Jimmy were getting the Strangles, but Artemis is still too young. We dragged my brother out since I still have a concussion and wouldn't be handling the horses. We went to Jimmy first and he was, well a disaster. Last time I dewormed him he was a monster but I got it done. I got some of it on me as well but most of it in him. I can't really say the same for my brother. It took twice as long. Alex is too slow about it so it took forever. I filmed a bit of it and then sat with the dog in the shelter to get away from the wind. Once deworming was finally done, we needed to give him the Strangles, which isn't a needle but needs to be sprayed up his nose. That did not go over well. E was feeding the horses and offered to help. We brought Jimmy in the barn and he put him in a stall. He showed us how if you wrap the lead rope around the stall bars and keep the stall door open, you can safely give him the Strangles and get out of the way if he freaks. I have to say though, E was surprised at how strong Jimmy is. He may be small but he's fierce! After Jimmy was done we put him out in the grass pen and went to grab Socks. She was in a mood. My brother went to get on her bareback, like we've done a thousand times and she bucked him off. She never does that. After I got her out of the gate she proceeded to hit my head with hers. I wanted to kill her. We left Artemis in the field to see how she would deal with it. Ebony was more upset than she was.
Before Jimmy realized that the dewormer was indeed not a treat
Socks on the other hand, was horrible. She's always great to be dewormed. She was not. I think Alex got more of it on me then he did in her. She kept throwing her head up. Then we had to do strangles. I handed her off to my mom because my head hurt and they ended up putting her in the stall like we had with Jimmy. At least she wasn't too difficult to give the strangles too. I was really annoyed with her though, she's never given us a problem with deworming before, she's usually pretty great with it. We also put her out in the grass pens. Then we went to grab Artemis.
Artemis with her dewormer beard
Artemis was being chased around by Charlie. Ebony would then chase Charlie. Artemis, who usually won't walk over to my brother, went right over to him and practically put her halter on herself. She was dying to get away from him. Ebony wasn't too pleased that we took her friend away. Artemis, who had never been dewormed before, stood perfectly fine to be dewormed. She did however, end up with hug gobs in her little beard which she then wiped on my hand. So I wiped it on her face, which is what all that yellow stuff on her is. She needed to have a special dewormer because most dewormers are too strong for horses under the age of one year. They can severely damage their intestines so she got a special, caramel flavoured one. I don't think she actually enjoyed the taste too much. After that we measured her and weighed her again. She's about 400 pounds, if we did it right which chances are we were a little off and just over 12.3 hands. She's catching up to Cas who, at the age of 2, is 13.2 hands. My mom began talking to T at this point, so Alex and I brought Artemis back to the pasture. We were accompanied by her children, L and M, who at 9 and 6, were very, very hyper. There was a lot of yelling going on. We let Artemis go in the field and she immediatly ran to the herd. Ebony and Charlie came racing to meet her. I took a video of it so I'll show, not tell.
I absolutly love Ebony for defending Artemis like she does. We were all hoping Ebony and Artemis would be pals and they are. This is also why I kind of hate Charlie. He doesn't try to play with her, he just harrasses her. I hope Artemis learns to stick up for herself a little bit better. She is also under the impression that she is an Arabian as she holds up her tail like one, and a Mule deer, since she hops like one. You can hear the kids yelling in the background since, like I said, they were pretty hyper that night.
Silly pony being silly again
We went back and put Jimmy in his pen. He ran straight to his food. When we'd first gotten there he'd come running up to us. After giving him the dewormer and strangles, I have a feeling it will be a while before he does that again. We then grabbed Socks and put her back in the pasture. Artemis came running to meet her. So did Charlie and Toy. Charlie almost ran into Alex until Alex spooked him off. Then Socks took off, chasing Toy and Charlie. It was kind of funny, watching one mare and foal chasing the other one. Toy and Charlie than stayed with their herd and Socks and Artemis went to theirs. I was frustrated with Socks and Jimmy that day but proud of Artemis, she did pretty good since it was her first deworming. We've decided not to wean her until Charlie is out of the field, so that she doesn't have to be harrassed by him constantly.
Also I saw Lion King 3D tonight with a friend. Since that is one of the best movies ever, it was of course, amazing. However I have to say one of my favourite parts was when Mufasa died and the little girl behind us started freaking out and asking her mother if he was gone forever, and then asking if her daddy was gone forever too, even though he was just a few seats away from her. It was really cute, although I felt bad that she was so upset.
I am so exhausted lately. The horses are taking everything out of me. I don't know what's been up with them lately, but Artemis and Jimmy have been horrible to be around. It's really discouraging, just when it finally felt we were getting somewhere with them, it now seems like we're back to square one. To make everything worse, my mom has been injured by both of them. Jimmy managed to rip the skin off one of her fingers with his lead rope (which is exactly why it's important to wear gloves around horses) and Artemis, not on purpose, managed to kick her in the thumb. Artemis decided she wanted to nurse while we were walking back to her pen, and when my mom didn't let her she start kicking up her heels. By total fluke she managed to get my mom's thumb, on the hand furthest away from her. And today Artemis bit me. I just happened to be moving my arm when she did, so her she didn't manage to actually get a good grip on me so it didn't really hurt but honestly it made me angry. I'm sure she had a reason for it but I can't see what it was. I was leading her out of the pen when she did it. It was the first time she's bitten anyone and hopeful when I disciplined her, she got the message not to do it again.
She hasn't been that great with leading latey either. She walks as slowly as she can, and then if you tug enough, she leaps forward and tries to run past you. If you don't let her then she starts prancing beside you until she walks slow again. As she gets worse about that, she's gotten better about standing while tied and to have her hooves picked out. And as much as she's been a headache lately, she's been nothing compared to Jimmy. He lost his mind today when I dewormed him. I've done it many times before with any problems, but today he freaked. I managed to get most of it into his mouth but it wasn't easy and I ended up with some on my face, which was kind of gross.
