Attack of the Burr Monster

Lately Artemis has been trying to make a new fashion statement.  Each time we've gone out for the past few weeks, we've been greeted with this sight.

My mom likes to joke that it's her crown.  I don't know where she's finding them, she didn't have this problem last year but this year she's covered in them, and not just in her forelock.  She's somehow managed to get her mane and tail tangled with them too. 

The first time we brought her into the barn to get them out, the father of one of the lesson students just burst out laughing.  He didn't think we'd be able to get it out and offered to cut it off for us.  I preferred to at least try first.  Call me vain but I'd rather spend as much time as it takes to get them out then cut her forelock and have her look stupid.  She's at least an angel when getting them out.  I stand on the stool and it takes me extra long with my bad arm but she'll stand there for as long as it takes. 

We brought her into the barn last week.  It was...interesting.  We didn't go out to catch her, but she followed us up to the gate so we figured we might as well.  I hung with her while my mom went to grab her halter.  At first leading, she was fine.  Then E started the feed truck up and she was done.  Everything was suddenly terrifying.  The wire fence was going to eat her, a pigeon flying overhead was a blood-thirsty monster.  It seems like  a certain little princess needs to go into boot-camp.

She's grown too, she looks massive.  I can no longer look out in the pasture and tell which is her just by her size.  We measured her last week and she came out to 14.1 hh.  Another inch and a half and she'll be the same size as Jimmy. 

Socks and Jimmy are doing well.  Socks is the same as ever.  My mom's been focusing a little more on riding Jimmy.  He's still going great in the bitless bridle, his stops are amazing.  He'll start to get stupid, trying to go his own way instead of wear my mom wants him to, but the second she says whoa and pulls back a bit, he'll stop dead.  He's so much better than he ever was in the bit.

In non-horse news, I've been given night-time splints for my arm.  They're working really well, although they're extremely uncomfortable to sleep with.  I've gained five more degrees in my arm after a week and a  half of using it and just today we added even more to the stretch.  I have a problem though, I've been taking it off in my sleep.  I've never had a problem with sleep-walking before but the past few mornings I'll wake up and everything on my night table will be rearranged and my splint will be on the floor.  I have no idea why I've started this now, or how to stop it. 

We'll be working with Artemis this weekend, provided it doesn't freeze us out.  We went from baking hot to freezing overnight. 

Appreciating The Big Guys

The one good thing about Artemis being a jerk (does it make me a bad horse owner to call my horse names?) is that I've been spending more quality time with Socks.  As the most laid-back and experienced horse we own (a.k.a the horse who needs the least work) she doesn't tend to get as much personalized attention from me since I'm always trying to sort out either Jimmy or Artemis.  Not to say I ignore her because I certainly don't.  I've said it before and I'll say it many times, she is my heart horse.  I spend a lot of time with her, but I tend to focus on the other two a little bit more.

Since I still can't ride, I've been taking her for walks.  My mom has been riding Jimmy outside in a field more often, so while she does I take Socks on the halter and walk around the field with her.  It's nice and relaxing.  She walks at my speed and lets me ramble on about whatever I want.  It's one of the only things I can do with her.  I do groom her but since I'm trying to use my broken arm to do that, I can only do it for so long before my arm hurts too much.  Speaking of though, I cleaned her front hoof, completely and properly, all by myself the other day.  It completely killed my arm but I was very happy with myself.  And then kind of upset that I was pleased with that, but I take what victories I can.

Jimmy has been great lately.  The bitless bridle has made all the difference in him.  He's so much more willing to do everything.  Not to say he isn't still stubborn, because he's just a stubborn horse, but now we can at least say that's part of his personality and isn't being caused by discomfort. 

We had the vet out on Friday to do Strangles for the three of them.  Strangles is a nightmare to do every year, Socks hates it, Jimmy usually tries to rear and this was the first time Artemis was going to have her strangles done.  We usually try to do it on our own but the vet was already coming out so we figured we'd get them to do it.  I'm very glad we did.  Socks was perfect.  She didn't put her head up or react at all.  Jimmy got very nervous when I gave the lead rope to the handler and the vet student walked over to him, his back arched, he went stiff everywhere and his eyes were rolling into the back of his head, but he was perfect too.

Artemis on the other hand, was her usual self.  My mom went to catch her when we first got out there and by the time the vet was finished with the big guys, they had only gotten halfway across the field.  The vet student, the handler and I walked out to them to save time, since they had another appointment to go to. 

For the actual Strangles, Artemis was great.  There was no reaction from her.  She's just still being awful to bring in.  Just out in the pasture, once you reach the gate then she's fine.  It's extremely frustrating.

Socks also has a new paddock mate, a bay mare named Lily.  Lily was here the winter Socks and Jimmy arrived but she was kept in a stall.  I was actually worried when I saw Lily was in with Socks because they hated each other.  I couldn't tie Socks up to her stall because they'd be pinning their ears back, squealing and snapping at each other. 

The first day they were together Lily kept chasing Socks away from the food.  T and I were a little concerned because Socks is a horse who can't afford to miss a meal.  Socks is smart though.  She just hung back and slowly inched her way in, slowly letting Lily get used to her presence.  T promised to keep watching them and I knew Lily would be moved if she kept keeping Socks from the food.  However, we don't need to worry about that.  They seem to have sorted it out and are fine now.  They hang out a lot more than Socks or Felene did.  I'm very happy they're getting along.

Socks also got a much needed bath today.  She was great for it, considering she doesn't get bathed very much and having a bath inside is still a new experience.  She did get spooked badly when someone dropped something just as L walked in the door beside her.  My poor horse almost had a heart attack but we got over it. 

Rough Spot

So things have really just been kind of dark and depressing here in my corner.  The weather has been dark and cold, but not raining and weather like that always makes me depressed.  I don't really know why but when it's dark and cold I have no motivation to do anything.  I'm better if it rains. 

My arm is a great source of frustration.  It's going on four months since I broke it and I'm not any closer to being normal.  My doctor won't even discuss the possibility of me riding anytime soon, and while I understand, it's insanely frustrating at the same time.  I can't even clean my horse's feet yet so I know riding anytime soon is unthinkable.  It would just be nice to have some timeline in place instead of feeling like I'll never be able to again.

Jimmy is doing good.  He's going great in the bitless bridle.  He's mostly had time off due to other issues I'll get.  He's always happy to see us, he keeps coming to the gate for some attention. 

Socks is great.  She keeps reminding me over and over why she is the greatest horse in the world.  She's so dependable, when I go out and I'm stressed, she's more than happy to just take a walk with me and let me calm down.  It's such a relief to have her to turn to, knowing that she'll be calm and quiet.  She's adapted really well to the few things I have to do with her.  When I pick out her left hooves (I can sort of do them, but her right side is too much for me still, since I have to lift them with my right arm, which is the broken one) she doesn't put any weight on me.  She's leading great from my left side and has learned to walk nice and slow.  Seriously, I love my horse, I don't say it enough here but she definitly is my heart horse.

Artemis.  Well, Artemis is...kind of being a major brat right now, to put it lightly.  We've been having a horrible time with her.  It started off with her not wanting to come in from the field.  She fought every step, to the point where she reared up and smacked my mom in the face with her leg, though thankfully her hoof missed my mom's face.  I can't tell you how thankful I am that it wasn't worse.  She was leading and then she suddenly jumped up, whirled to the side and reared. 

After we brought her in that day, we spent a good deal of time in the round pen.  What she did was completely unacceptable and she learned it.  My mom is fine by the way, thankfully.

The next time she was perfect.  But then, in part because of some people doing something they really, really should not have (I'm trying to keep as much drama out of this blog as I can) she was so freaked it, it was just becoming a very bad situation.  To avoid further harm to my mother or Artemis, we let her off the lead rope and she went to the gate by herself.

That was two very bad experiences though and today she was awful to try and lead.  It look over an hour to bring her in from the pasture.  However, we didn't give up and by the end she was leading better.  Then when we were setting her free, we made her walk a good ways into the pasture, reinforcing control by getting her to stop and turn and basically just pay attention.  We took her off the halter and she stayed put, which she usually does.  When we turned to leave, she followed us.

I hope we made some progress.  We have a plan in place so we'll see if it works.  I really hope it does.  I do think I get more frustrated than I need to, it's something I'm trying to work on.  I really wish I knew other people working with yearlings, or who had more experience working with yearlings, so I could see what is normal and what isn't. 

Hopfully the weather gets better and with it my mood.  My sister and I did go to the mountains a few weeks back, that was a nice change of scenery from my house and the hospital.  She even found me some bears like I asked.

A Bighorn Sheep licking the salt off the road.

A grizzly bear cub.

The mother of the above cub.

Bitless Sucess

For almost two years now, since Jimmy came down, we've been searching for the perfect headgear for him.  He came down in a sidepull which didn't work for him in the slightest.  He ignored you in it.  So we tried him in a snaffle.  He hated it, the head tossing was non-stop and he was doing everything he could to evade it.  We tried a french-link snaffle but the same thing happened.  So we put him in a curb.  That worked, for a while.  Then it was a curb with a roller.  After a while it became apparent he didn't like that.  So we went back to a snaffle and that was a disaster.  I wasn't really comfortable with trying out bits other than snaffles or curbs because I don't know enough about them and I'm not about to put something I don't understand how it works in my horse's mouth.  So we haven't been riding him much as we've been working on the mounting block issue and we didn't have anything to ride him in.

Then we were at our tack shop, looking at bits when we noticed they had a bitless bridle.  I knew they carried them but they'd always been sold out when we were there.  After a lot of mulling it over, my mom decided to buy it.  It came with a free dvd to show results with other horses, how to put it on and how it functions. 

Honestly, we didn't get our hopes up.  We much think a lot of him, but we were paranoid we owned the one horse the bitless bridle wouldn't work on.  Really, I love Jimmy but nothing would surprise me at this point. 

We went out last night, late so we could hopefully try out the bridle without a lot of people there.  It took a while to fit it to his head, and he wasn't too happy with us fiddling around his head but finally it was ready.  My mom took him in the arena, took him up to the mounting block and instantly all that work we've done with the mounting block was forgotten.  He wouldn't stand still.  Another girl, J, was riding and offered to show us something her trainer had taught her.  We agreed and wow, it worked so well.  When he moved away, she got on his case, majorly and made him move away.  She had to do it once and she stood for mounting and dismounting for the rest of the night.

Anyway, once my mom was on him, the change was immediate.  He fought it but it was more half-hearted than anything, as if out of habit.  His ears were forward the whole ride, he looked so much happier.  His turns would make any barrel racer start drooling.  He stopped on a dime (something which took a lot of pulling and saying whoa with the bit).  He backed up.  I didn't even realize he knew how to back up.  It wasn't exactly straight, but he backed up. 

To see the difference, I made my mom put the bit back in him.  I was ashamed with myself for not seeing how unhappy he was in it until now.  I knew he didn't like it, but you can see just how much he hates the bit.  I filmed both reactions so I'll be sure to put them up here once I have them on my computer. 

I'm so happy to have found something he seems to like.  We're also going to try Socks in it, and one day Artemis.  I honestly have nothing against bits but if you have an alternative that works, why not try it out?

This is like the one we have, except ours is brown nylon.  They didn't have any leather ones, and we wanted to make sure it worked before buying a more expensive leather one.

And now on to the ninja horses.  In one of my last posts I mentioned how Artemis and Jimmy both managed to get out of the grass pens.  We went over every single post and board, pushing on them but none werre loose.  So they were banished from it.  Well we went to put Socks in and as we were closing the gate, it spooked her and she ducked her head, dropped her hind end down and managed to get under the boards.  I was convinced that the horses were too tall to go under it, but they proved me wrong.  They will no longer be going in the grass pens. 

We're going out this weekend to try Jimmy in the bitless bridle again.  I just hope he still likes it.

Feet Day

 

It's been very good horse-wise for the past little bit.  We've only been out twice since I blogged last but a lot has happened.

 

Feet Day:

 

Last Saturday was feet day.  My brother came down to do their feet.  My mom and I went to the stable before him and his girlfriend just to get the horses ready.  They were supposed to give us an hour (it's a 45 minute drive to the stable) and then leave to come join us...We were waiting for over two hours with them.  That's the problem with having your brother as your farrier, he'd never be late like that for an outside client, but because I'm family it doesn't bother him, although it certainly bothers me.

 

We caught Jimmy and Artemis, and while Jimmy was getting his feet done, Artemis was out in a grass pen eating grass.  It wasn't the usual grass pen, you can see it from the barn door and it's really just a normal turn-out pen, so the electric fence is hooked up.  I went to hang out with her for a while. 

 

While I was, one of the new boarders brought his horse over, an absolutly gorgeous Polish Arabian/Egyptian Arabian (cool cross huh?) gelding over to meet Artemis.  My insanely friendly horse, who on the way to the barn, had stopped to try and meet this exact horse, was suddenly all shy and trying to hide behind me.  However, when I went over to meet the horse and his owner, she came with me.

 

He came over pretty much just to tell me how beautiful Artemis is.   I always feels like I'm bragging when I say things like that but that's what our conversation was.  He loved her and she of course played the part of the sweet, attention-loving little girl.  It was a different story when she was getting her feet done though.

 

Jimmy was great with his feet.  Artemis was horrible.  However, we at least figured out why.  She doesn't like my brother handling her feet.  If my mom or I do, she stands.  If Alex does it, she throws a fit.  So we tricked her into thinking my mom was holding her feet when it was really Alex.  Now we're going to try to get other people at the barn to start handling her feet more, since obviously other people need to be able to do them.  We already have one volunteer.

 

Socks was good until her last foot.  She has a cut on that foot and it was obviously bothering her.  She let him trim her foot and clean out her sole, and then she was done.  We didn't push it since she was telling us as clearly as she could she just couldn't have her foot up anymore.

 

And to end feet day, Jimmy attacked Artemis.  A full-blown attack.  While Socks was having her feet done, Jimmy and Artemis were in the grass turn-out pen together.  As a side note, I do want to say that they have been in together many, many times since she was born.  We put all three of the horses in together all the time, or sometimes just Socks and Artemis, or just Jimmy and Artemis.

 

I am not sure what went wrong.  My mom looked out the door at them and Jimmy was chasing Artemis around the pen.  That was, strange, but not really upsetting.  We kept watching.  He started biting her and at this point I was getting ready to intervene.  Then he chased her into the corner at the gate, turned around and started kicking her with both hind legs.  Not just once, he probably got her a good eight or ten times in the time it took me to come racing from the barn to pen, yelling at him to quit.  By the time I reached the gate he had chased her to the other end of the pen.  I grabbed Artemis' rope just in case he didn't stop when I entered the pen. 

 

Luckily Jimmy stopped as soon as I opened the gate.  He came trotting over to me and I chased him off.  He then went to my mom and she chased him off.  He stood in the corner looking like an ashamed little boy, although I'm sure he wasn't.  Artemis came right over to me and I caught her and brought her into the barn to check her over.

 

Her hair was messed up where he kicked her but she wasn't actually hurt and it hadn't broken the skin.  I walked her out but she was fine, mostly just a little scared.  We put her in the pasture and went back to Jimmy.  We checked him over to see if he had any marks but he didn't.  He was still acting like an ashamed little boy.  We put him back in his pen.

 

I still can't figure out what made him so angry.  I mean, I realize horses will be horses and get angry with each other, but driving her into the corner and kicking her like that is too much.  That's where a horse gets severely injured.  I would have been just as upset if Socks had done that to him.

 

I'm not really sure where to go from here.  I think we'll slowly introduce them to being together again, with supervision.  They definitly won't be left alone anytime soon.

 

I was going to write about both days but this is already pretty long so I'll split it into two posts.  Next time, we tried out a bitless bridle with Jimmy and we solved the mystery of the ninja horses, thanks to Socks.



My Horse is a Ninja

I think Artemis has a double life as a ninja.  She's doing everything in her power to convince us of it.  More on that later though.  First, I got photoshop and it's amazing thing in the world.  I'm having way too much fun playing with its effects. 

Sommer came down last weekend.  It's the first time I've seen her since Christmas.  I honestly cannot believe how tall she's gotten.  I miss the days when twelve-year-olds were short.  We had a very busy weekend but we managed to get out to the ponies twice.  It was the first time she'd met Artemis and I'm 99.9% sure she loved her.  She wanted to do a lot with her, which was ha65rd because two days before she came up, Sev bucked Sommer off and she cracked her shoulder.  So she was in a sling.  We matched, two blond girls in matching slings.  If I hear one more joke about it I'm going to go insane.

She was very excited to see Socks and Jimmy, she hasn't seen them since they came down almost two years ago.  (I cannot believe it's already been that long!).  I think she was most excited to see Jimmy, which was strange and refreshing.  Family members (okay she's not technically family but she's close enough!) usually only spend their time criticising and making fun of him.  It was nice for someone to be happy to see him.  And he was the perfect gentlemen.  He stood for all the hugs she wanted to give him.

Training wise everything is going as well as I could hope.  Socks has finally accepted the fact that she cannot run everywhere like she'd love to with my mom riding her.  Artemis has had the saddle and bridle on twice, working on leading, standing at the mounting block and neck reining from the ground.  She's getting a vacation from the saddle for  awhile now.  

Jimmy is being amazing with his training.  We're mostly focusing on him standing next to the mounting block quietly and calmly.  He's been spending a lot of time in the round pen.  First we started by just doing the motion of getting on him, lifting your leg.  Well yesterday we brought in the stool to the round pen to work with that.  We didn't even have to round pen him.  He stood beside it for as long as we wanted him to.  So we took him to the outdoor arena and the mounting block in there.  He stood perfectly.  To really test him we brought him in the indoor arena.  He moved away from it there but seriously after two minutes, he was standing beside it perfectly.  Now the question is, will he do it again?  I guess we'll find out.

In the round pen.

In the outdoor arena.

In the indoor arena.

Okay now about Artemis being a ninja.  As I said in my last post, Artemis escaped while they were moving the pasture horses.  They're not entirely sure how, since she can't fit under the fence but we're 90% sure she didn't jump it.  Well, she got out again yesterday.  And apparently taught Jimmy how to as well.  Her and Socks were in the grass pens while we worked with Jimmy.  My mom went out to get the stool from the round pen and finds little Miss Artemis outside the pen.  She let my mom grab her halter but there was a lesson going on in the outdoor and the trainer had her dog, a giant Great Dane.  Well as soon as Artemis saw the door she was terrified.  Luckily my mom caught her and brought her in the barn.  We put Jimmy in the pen with Socks while we put Artemis away.  When we got back, there was Jimmy, outside the pen, eating. 

We have no idea how they did it.  We checked the pens, there's no broken boards, no holes.  We even tried to get Jimmy to walk under it but he pulled the "No way, I am not doing that!"  He's taller than the boards anyway though, I can't see him being able to walk underneath it.  My only guess is they're somehow managing to crawl, in some weird horse way.  I might never know, but they lost the privilege to be out there if we can't sit with them.

To end this post, Artemis is finally over 14 hands.  She's just below 14.1 hands and is exactly one had shorter than her mother.  Two more inches and she's the same size as Jimmy.  I was ridiculously excited.

100th Post

I am actually surprised at how long it's taken me to reach 100 posts.  All I ever do is talk about my horses, apparently I don't feel the need to write about them as much.  Anyway, here it is, my 100th post!

Yesterday was Artemis day.  We did a lot with her, especially considering all I had planned to do with her was lead her around a bit.  I've healed enough to be able to lead her around a bit, so while my mom rides that's usually what I do.  The first time I had to remind her she does have to listen to me, apparently she forgot.

We decided to put the bit in her and get her used to having that in.  She chewed it, a lot but that was expected.  After a while L really wanted to see her with the english saddle on so we decided to put it on.  She was great.  One of the things we're working on with her is standing at the mounting block quietly while I stand on it.  It's going very well.  She doesn't move.  Yesterday I put my leg on the saddle and nothing.  I put some weight in the stirrup and she stood perfectly.  Hopefully by the time both of us are ready for her to be ridden, she won't have a problem with any of it.  Fonda was like that and I hope to get her the same way.

While watching my mom ride I decided to try something out I'd read in one of my dad's old Western Horseman magazines from the 70's/80's.  It was about teaching a yearling to neck rein from the ground.  It's very similar to teaching them when on them, only modified a little bit.  Artemis did great.  I pulled the reins against her neck, and them put slightly more pressure on the inside rein, if I wanted her to turn to the inside.  At first she thought I wanted her to back up but after a few tries she understood.  She'd take a step and I'd let her stop and pet her.  I was also able to get her to back up very easily from rein pressure and telling her to back up.
After my mom finished riding we took Artemis and Jimmy for a walk.  We're trying to reinforce proper leading with them so we take them on walks around the stable.  She was good until we put Jimmy in the pen to eat grass and led her away.  She didn't like that but she calmed down pretty quickly.

To finish the day we unsaddled her and then led her into the wash rack.  We didn't wash her off, I'm just happy right now if she'll stand in it quietly.  And she did.  She snorted a lot and smelled the rubber mats but she was fine.  I didn't want to fry her mind though so we ended the day there.  She was a superstar.  Beware of bragging, but I can't believe how easy-going and good-minded she is.  She's okay with anything I do to her, she might not like it, but she's willing to try it out.

Apparently she had a little escapde on Sunday.  We weren't there but T and E told us all about it.  They're haying at the stable and they needed to get all the tractors through the pasture where Artemis and the other pasture horses are.  So they wouldn't escape they wanted to put them in the field beside the outdoor arena.

They led most of the horses and figured the young ones, Artemis and Ebony would follow, since they usually are happy enough to follow behind their herd.  I'm actually a little foggy on the details and need to ask T again to explain it all to me, but Artemis decided not to follow.  She had a little run around the farm before going in the field.  Then, a while later, S, one of the boarders, came running up to T's house to tell them that a horse had gotten out. 

Yeah, somehow Artemis managed to get out, breaking a railing while she was at it.  She had another run around the stable, and in the parking lot before S caught her.  Then Miss Artemis spent the night in the round pen alone feeling shame. 

S caught Artemis I guess because T and E were a little nervous to.  I find it amusing, they've known Artemis since she was born but really, I can't blame them.  They know we lead her but they've never actually seen how she is to lead.  They can't afford to get hurt and I'd be horrified if Artemis or the other two hurt them.  Next time I see S though, I'm going to have to thank her and ask how Artemis was for her.  No one besides my family has ever led her so I hope she was good.