Colic

It's the word that all of us dread.  I've been so fortunate in my life that none of my horses have ever been colicky before.  I guess we were just lucky but it was a threat we knew was out there but had never had to deal with before.

That abruptly changed on Wednesday.  I was just getting off work (I worked a morning shift so I got off pretty early, thankfully) when I got a message from my mom to call her.  I knew immediately something was wrong with one of the horses.  Why else wouldn't my mom say what it was about in the message?  I immediately called her and she said the worst words she could, "There's something wrong with Socks."

So after I somehow managed to not burst into tears in front of everyone I worked with (minus a girl from another store who was in the back room when I called my mom) I went over to my sister's store and promptly burst into tears in front of all her employees and customers.  Go me.  I didn't even care. 

My mom met me there and we drove straight out to the stable.  We didn't have a lot of information.  Our stable owners are on a short vacation so the instructor at the barn was doing chores.  She already does chores some days of the week so she's a good choice because she's familiar with all the horses.  Anyway, when she fed Socks, Socks didn't even come out of her shelter.  That's a huge red flag.  Socks will tear the barn apart to get to her food.

The instructor brought Socks inside the barn to keep an eye on her.  She said Socks lied down a few times but she never rolled or thrashed.  She never kicked at her stomach but she would turn her head and look at her flanks. 

When we got there I was greeted with a big, loud nicker from Socks.  She was up and made her motorcycle noise for a good two minutes as the instructor poured the stall horse's nightly grain into their buckets.

While my mom and the instructor spoke, I took Socks out and brought her into the arena to walk.  She was more than willing to go.  She did want to lie down.  She'd walk a step away from me and lower her head to the ground.  That's her sign for let me roll.  I'd give a little tug on the lead rope and she'd stop.  She never once tried to go down. 

Long story short, she did actually begin to improve almost immediately with walking.  We were there for six hours in totally (six, long hours in a freezing barn, I still haven't warmed up). 

By the end of it she was 100% normal again.  All she wanted to do was eat, which she did not get to do much to her disappointment.  She was fine the next day and has been good ever since then.

We've all come to the conclusion that it was just a mild colic, but it was scary nonetheless.  I'd rather not have to deal with that again.  At least the instructor has dealt with colic before, and we had a vet on standby. 

I went ten years without dealing with colic, hopefully I can go at least another ten without dealing with it again.

Milestone

I am alive!  I've been a horrible blogger, but I am alive.  My computer broke a while ago so my time online is restricted to mostly my Ipod, and I hate typing on that thing.

Okay, so last time I posted was in...August.  A lot has happened since then.  My riding skills have improved exponentially (I think) I spent most of the summer and September focused on Jimmy.  I learned a lot of new things to do and he's a completely different horse now.  We're both still learning, but it's crazy how much we've both improved these past few months.  We're still working on his lope, and slowing it down and making to more consistent.  I managed to get him out in the fields a few times over the summer and he handled it like a champ.  There isn't anything I've found that can make him lose his mind.

Not much has changed with Socks.  I've applied what I've learned with Jimmy with her, so she's also gotten better.  I bought her a pretty leather halter.

I've gotten the chance to ride with a professional barrel racer a few times.  That has been beyond amazing.  I've learned so much from her!  She's helped Jimmy and I a lot.  Hopefully next summer I'll finally be ready to compete.

The most exciting news though is Artemis.  First of all, she finally hit fifteen hands!  I don't care how big she gets now, I just wanted her to hit fifteen hands.  She's getting to be massive.  I'm sure she'll get bigger, we're all thinking she'll be close to sixteen hands, if not sixteen hands.

Second, I've started riding her.  October 26th was our first ride.  Well our first official ride.  I have previously been on her once and led her around, but I count this as our first real ride because this was the first time I directed her at all.  It lasted for just over five minutes but it was long enough.  I lunged her in the round pen first to make sure she didn't have any silliness in her.  We just had a halter on her, no bridle, and I took the lead rope and tied it around to make reins.  I kept the lunge line on her and my mom came in to hold it.  Then I got on.  She could have cared less.  She mostly followed my mom around, and we worked on stopping her.  She was responding to my mom stopping, but that's okay.  She'll start to realize when I pull back and say whoa, that means stop.  The biggest thing about that ride is I actually got her moving forward off of my own command and no help from my mom.  That was big so we ended the ride there.

The second ride was after it snowed so we had it in the arena.  What was really awesome about this was when we went out into the pasture to catch her, she came galloping from across the creek over to us.  There was another horse being ridden, by a friend of mine, in the arena so there was a little more distraction.  It didn't make a difference.  Again, my mom held the lunge line but we focused more on Artemis listening to me.  This ride was a little longer, about ten minutes, and she stopped and started a few times on my command.

The third ride was again in the arena.  She was awesome.  We got her to walk away from my mom and not rely on her for support.  Again we worked on stopping and going.  She's picking it up so quickly.  She knows what my leg pressure means.

The fourth ride was last night.  Again, she was amazing.  We got her to walk around my mom in a big circle on the lunge line and worked on stopping and going.  This time, I also asked her to change directions.  She had no idea what I was asking her at first, but after a few second, she got it.  Then we stopped and started a few more times before I got off.

I cannot describe how proud of her I am.  I couldn't ask her to be any better.  She has her ears pricked forward the whole time each ride.  She's never scared.  She never reacts when I get on her (she's usually not even paying attention) and even though I'm pushing her each ride, it's not scary or frustrating to her.  When she does get confused she just stops and you can almost see the wheels turning in her mind as she tries to figure out what I'm asking her.  Everything about the rides have been calm.

She doesn't feel like a typical young horse.  A lot of young horses I've ridden feel tense, and like they're about to explode at any moment.  She feels just like Jimmy, relaxed but a little unsure.  She hasn't tried to buck, run or rear once.

Our biggest goal is to maintain keeping every ride calm.  I'm okay if she doesn't learn everything in a night.  As long as she tries and is happy, that's good enough for me.  These short rides (ten minutes long at the most) are working well so far.  They're short enough as to not overload her with new information.  They're long enough accomplish what I want, but not too long to be hard on her.  And she sure loves getting a nice long grooming after them.

Ride five will hopefully be tonight.  We'll be switching from the halter to the bitless bridle so it'll really be about seeing how she reacts to it and getting her used to the pressure.  Then she'll get a few days off.

The last exciting news is that my sister's horse, Sadie, is moving to a stable near us today!  It's not actually at the stable Socks and the others are at, my sister wanted one a little closer to home, but I'm still happy to have Sadie around.

Muddy Season

I'm sure you're all asking yourselves (or not) is that Artemis in a stall?  Now why would she be in a stall?  Well, here's the answer to that.

Yup, it's an abscess.  This is what we've been dealing with for almost the past month.  July 18th, she went lame.  I spent the next few days running like a chicken with it's head cut off.  Luckily for me, while I apparently am not good in a crisis (I usually am, but leg issues, because of Cas, and I lose it), my stable owners are.  We began poulticing for an abscess and sure enough, that's exactly what it was. 

The abscess has actually been the least of our worries when it comes to Artemis.  So imagine this, you're a two-year-old, insanely energetic, horse who has spent most of her life living free out in the pasture.  You come up to the barn, do some grown up horse stuff, and then go back out into pasture until the next time.  Then, one day, it ends for you.  Your foot hurts and your thrown into a stall and don't get to go outside.  (Constant rains = insane amounts of mud = no outside time for Artemis)  You start getting bored and your boredom makes you angry.

I've always known we have some holes in her training, I'm the first to admit that I have no idea what to do with her, but those holes have become very apparent when our happy go lucky turned into an angry, hurt, bored demon of evil.

In a way, I'm thankful this happened because otherwise, who knows when I would have become aware of these issues?  And more importantly, at least right now, I had the help I needed to deal with them. 

We knew she was pushy, we've been working on fixing that, but can I just say wow?  She's been doing really awesome lately but that went out the window when she was hurt, bored and angry about being hurt and bored.  I was bringing her in the stall one night and she was good, but then in a second she decided she wanted out.  I was in her way and she didn't care at all.  She probably would have run right over me if E  hadn't been standing right behind me and jumped in to help.  I'm still sore from it, she ran right into my right side.  I still have the bruise and it was almost a month ago.

It was scary and upsetting, I've never had one of my own horses try to run through me before.  But it was a good eye-opening experience.  E helped me a lot with her, and taught me different ways of handling her and honestly, the Artemis I knew before the abscess, is nothing like this Artemis.  This one is so much more respectful of my space.

A big thing I learned is to do everything on a loose lead rope.  I'm sure we've all been there, when your horse is acting up your first reaction is to tighten your grip on the lead rope.  It never worked for me, it never gave me more control.  I learned how to keep her on a totally loose rope, and have ten times more control over her.  It wasn't without battles (mostly between her and E) and she proved what I've always known, she's one of the most stubborn horses any of us have ever met. 

There are absolutely no problems with her going in our out of stalls now, she's like all the proper indoor horses and all you have to do is lead her up to the stall, and she goes in and turns around for you to take the halter off, by herself.  She can now soak her foot she leads like a dream, though you sometimes do have to give her a little reminder. 

As her foot has improved so that she can actually walk on it without intense pain, E started turning her out in the arena by herself in the morning.  I was really happy to hear that not once did she act like an idiot when turned out.  You know how usually when a horse is cooped up for a while, and then you turn them out they run around acting like a fool?  She's not like that.  She walks laps the whole time.  The craziest thing she does is stops and rolls every now and then.  There's no running, no bucking, just calm walking.

On dry days, which are far and few between, she gets turned out during the day and again, she doesn't act like an idiot.  Unfortunately it's usually too muddy and we're afraid the mud will pull of her silver boot of duct tape so she doesn't get to go out unless it's dry.

To say the least, it's been a tough month.  It was really difficult at times, I love my horse but it was hard to have her acting so badly, because I expect better of her, and I honestly thought I had done better with her.  It was still good for both of us though, I think in the long run we'll both be better off.

Here's the demon from a few days ago.  It's not a great picture, she's not actually that butt-high.  One nice thing about her being in the barn is that the second she hears our voices, all we can hear is a loud neigh coming from the barn.  She says hello every time we come in, either by neighing or making her motorcycle noise.  She calls for us, and every now and then for T.  And as an ending note, enjoy this picture of her. 

The horse in the stall next to Artemis was having his teeth done, and she thought it was the coolest thing she'd ever seen.  We walked in the barn and this is how we found her, absolutely glued to the scene.  She left briefly to say hello to us and then immediately returned to continue watching.  I hope she liked, her turn might be coming up in the near future. 

Mental Health Break

I was having a bad day today.  While not a bad week, I've had a busy, stressful week and it got to me today.  Then, problems with a certain person just made everything worse.  I was in such a foul mood, my cat kept alternating between head butting me and hiding.  I haven't been out to the barn all week because I've been so busy, and man, did I ever need to go out today.

K and I went out together.  We caught Socks and Tango and K suggest we have a lazy day and go bareback.  I hesitated at first because it's been two and a half years since I rode bareback, but then I remembered this was Socks and she'll be fine.  She was.

We went for a ride off the farm, just exploring nearby roads and (unintentionally) scaring cows.  It was fun.  All we did was walk but my mood improved immediately.  Socks was perfect, she was having a great time so I had a great time. 

When we got back to the stable we went in the outdoor to do some trotting.  This made me realize two things.  First, my confidence is just non-existent.  I've been slowly realizing that lately but how hesitant I was to get back on bareback and then how hesitant I was to trot bareback, was kind of a slap in the face.  When Socks was at my dads, during the winters I only rode bareback.  We'd go galloping through the snow, having a blast. 

It's to be expected I guess, I did have a pretty bad fall.  And that's why I'm hesitant, it's not that I'm afraid of riding, I'm afraid of getting hurt again.  Maybe it would be better if my arm still wasn't in near-constant pain.  I don't actually feel like I'm healed because it still hurts all the time and when I do anything, riding, walking through crowd, working, my first thought is always if it's going to hurt me more.

The second thing I realized, I can ride.  Okay, I know that sounds conceited but I'm not saying I'm an Olympic-level rider, or even a good rider.  I just realized that I'm not completely horrible, I can stay on a horse (for the most part) and I should relax a little.  I started trotting around Socks, weaving in between the jumps, having a blast, and it made me realize that my lack of confidence is a little unwarranted.  I stopped worrying about falling off and I think I actually rode better. 

K cantered Tango a bit and though I wanted to, even with my new revelation, I couldn't.  Not yet.  But I think that's a good goal for me.  I have no problems loping or galloping with a saddle, and I never used to have a problem loping bareback, but I was way too nervous to today.  I think it would probably be good for me to do it again.  Socks is fine, it's not her, it's me.

Anyway, moving on from my insecurities.  Before we left, we went down with L to visit Artemis.  Man she was glad to see us.  She came right over to us, Ebony at her side, and enjoyed the attention for a while.  Then L wanted us to see if Artemis would follow us.  She ran over to the gate and Artemis followed her.  L wanted us to try and see if Artemis would run after us if we ran away.  K ran first, away from the gate towards the creek.  Artemis followed her a few steps and then stopped.  L ran next and Artemis just watched.

When it was my turn I ran and in about half a second, I heard hoof beats behind me.   I looked behind me (which is hard to do when you're running through mud) and there she was, loping after me.  She followed me, staying a few feet behind me, all the way to the creek.  When I stopped, she stopped a little bit behind me.  I have to say, that felt good.  Any bit of negativity left in me vanished.  She followed me away from the gate and was respectful about my space. 

She hung out, following behind us as we visited with the other horses, and then followed us back up to the gate.  She was dying to come with us, she's like her mom, the two of them are happiest when they get worked.  I know many people would disagree with that and say horses don't like to work, but honestly, I find they both get sour when their left to their own devices.  I don't mean they get a little wild, I mean it's like they're in a bad mood.  They get cranky and unhappy when they're not worked with.

This day was exactly what I needed and my horses couldn't have been anymore perfect.  Even Jimmy was awesome the short minutes I was with him.  He nickered when he saw me.  Okay, who am I kidding, he nickered for the handful of grass I had.  But still, he was good.

So as an ending note, hopefully starting next week, Socks and Artemis are going to switch places for a while.  Socks will go out into the pasture and Artemis, providing she and Tango get along, will come up into the pens.

Liebster Award

A few weeks back now, Wolfie over at What Was I Thinking...? nominated me for the Liebster Award.  Go read her blog, seriously, it's awesome, it's one of my favourites out there.  And her horse Gem is not only gorgeous but he's also a Canadian horse like Artemis.

I know I'm really late to the party but oh well.  I'm actually not going to nominate any blogs because I'm doing this so late, all the active blogs I read have already been nominated for the award and filled this out already.  It feels redundant to nominate them now.

HOW TO ACCEPT THE AWARD: The Liebster Blog Award is a way to recognize blogs who have less than 200 followers.  Liebster is a German word that means beloved and valued.  Here are the rules for accepting the award:

• Thank the person who nominated you and include a link back to their blog.
• List 11 random facts about yourself.
• Answer the 11 questions given to you.
• Create 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate.
• Choose 11 bloggers with 200 or fewer followers to nominate and include links to their blogs.
• Go to each blogger's page and let them know you have nominated them

11 Random Facts about me:

1. I am a big fan of British Television, more specifically, British dramas.  Doctor Who and Sherlock are my two favourite shows.  I think they tend to be more witty and the camera work, especially in Sherlock, is just amazing.
2. I'm a pretty big zombie buff but most zombie movies, especially older ones, terrify me, and I maintain a zombie apocalypse would suck.  A lot.
3. I have small writing and I apparently write my fours strangely.  Both of these are constantly pointed out to me by customers when I have to write in front of them.
4. I have a tendency to name my animals after people, living or fictional.
5. I'm a night owl all the way.  I'm most productive between the hours of 1-5 am.
6. I use my left hand for everything now except for writing.  It feels unnatural to use my right hand. 
7. I'm horrible at responding to phone calls, texts and emails. 
8. Despite currently owning a cat, I'm not a cat person.  Luckily for me, my cat thinks he's a dog.
9. I hate Socks' name.  I wish my twenty-two-year old self could go back in time and slap my twelve-year-old self for agreeing to that name.
10. It has to be almost 30 degrees before I'll stop wearing a sweater everywhere.
11. I don't read instruction booklets.  It took me four years to figure out my camera took multiple pictures at once because I refused to read the instruction booklet.

11 Questions from Wolfie

1.  Who do you prefer - Ryan Gosling or Ryan Reynolds?
Ryan Reynolds

 2.  What is your favourite gait when riding?
Loping, I think it's the most comfortable

 3.  Have you ever had a light bulb moment when riding?
Yup, quite frequently.  I actually had one last time I rode.

 4.  Do you care what you wear to the barn?
Not even a little bit.  Except for my work uniform and maybe one or two fancy shirts, I consider everything I own barn clothes.

 5.  Do you wear a helmet when you ride? 
Not all the time, I'm bad I'll admit.  I don't on Socks, I do half the time on Jimmy and I'll always have on Artemis.  If I'm doing any "above" work (standing on the mounting block, things like that) with her I always have my helmet on.

6.  What is/was your favourite book?
I have a lot.  I love The Sight, Harry Potter Series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians the most probably.

7.  What is your favourite part of the riding experience (grooming, competition, lesson, trail)?
I like trail riding the best but honestly the moment I live for is going out to Socks' pen and hearing her nicker for me.  That's the one moment that makes horse ownership just so worth it.

 8.  What is your favourite season for riding?
Autumn, it's cool and no bugs.  Especially wasps.

 9.  Do you have other interests in addition to horses?
I love writing and drawing, that's what I spend most of my non-horse and work time doing.  I also love film and media.  In the summer I add hiking and mountain drives to my lists of hobbies.

 10. If you could only have one food if you were stranded on a desert island, what would it be? 
Chips.  Any kind except for Sour Cream and Onion.  I don't think I could survive without my chip fix.

11. Would you prefer a social person next to you on a long flight or someone who keeps to themselves?

I'm not overly social myself but I think I'd prefer a social person.  As long as they were nice, I'd be able to talk and that'd help time go by faster.

I'm not going to nominate any blogs but I will mention a few of my favourites.

What Was I Thinking....?
The Adventures of Lucy
Simply Horse CrazyJust a Girl and Her Horse

 
 

Our First Ride

So we went out yesterday to just check on the ponies and somehow, from that, this ended up happening.  I'm still not entirely sure how.

The bottom of Artemis' pasture is pretty flooded out, but it's not really that much worse than usual.  It's not fast-moving or dangerously deep, and she still has over half the field of high ground to get away from it.  The worst issue is the bugs.  They're absolutely insane out there and made for a very eager Artemis to come inside. 

Since she was up at the barn, I saddled her up and lunged her.  We had an audience today, (K and our barn owners) so instead of my mom helping me out, K helped me out.  She held Artemis while I leaned over her back and then lead her around.  Like usual, Artemis was fine with it.  So we decided to see how she'd be with K leaning over her back.  Artemis didn't care.

Since she was being so good, we decided to push a little further.  We wanted to see how she'd be with me actually sitting on her.  I think the video speaks for itself.

When I first put my leg over her, she tensed up for a second and then relaxed almost immediately.  The two moments where she does start to get tense are when she begins sidestepping.  But as you can see, she at no point had any inclination to freak.  In fact, she was a lot more calm than I was.  I was freaking out inside the whole time.  She didn't share my trepidation.  At the beginning of the video, when she turns her head away from the camera, she's actually trying to nibble on my foot.

I know I'm only on her for like thirty seconds but it felt like forever to me.  We ended the day once I got off of her.  She did so awesome, it would have been stupid to expect more out of her.

There's still a lot of work to do, but I've put a plan of sorts into place.  I think I'm going to switch Socks and Artemis out for a while, so Artemis comes up into the pens and Socks gets some down time in the pasture.  This way I'll be able to work with Artemis more regularly for a while.  This won't happen until the round pen is dried up because I intend have my first real ride (where no one leads her and I'm controlling her) in the safely enclosed round pen.

I'm so proud of her, I couldn't stop smiling all of last night because I couldn't stop thinking of how awesome she was.

As an ending note, the flooding, for the moment, seems stable.  As far as I've heard it hasn't gotten worse and waters have even begun to recede a bit.  Hopefully that keeps up.

Horses Are Safe

I was able to get a hold of my stable owners and the ponies are currently safe, wet, but safe.  Cell phone service is not good right now so we weren't able to talk long, but it was pouring out there in the afternoon.  The creek is getting pretty high but luckily Artemis does have some pretty high ground in her pasture so she can get away from it, and the my barn owner's are pretty confidant the creek won't reach the paddocks or their house.  Like I said before, the creek isn't glacier fed, it isn't connected to any of the flooding rivers so it won't have the water in it that all the rivers do.

We're going to try to drive out tomorrow and check on them.  I'll feel better once I see with my own eyes that they're okay.  I'm once again so thankful that not only do I happen to live in a safe area, but my horses are in a safe area.  Everything's gone to hell around us, but we're safe so far.

Unfortunately not many are as lucky.  People who cannot trailer their animals out, which has been many, have been instructed to open their gates and cut their fences so their animals can escape.  It's terrifying to think of all these animals out on their own, but they have a much better chance of survival if they're not locked in fields, and especially not in barns.  And do not leave halters or ropes of any kind on your animals.  They may make your animals easier to catch once the flooding is over, but the risk of them catching on branches or other objects is too great and your animals are safer without them on.  I've heard of people painting their phone number on the sides of their animals and then setting them free. 

The latest update I've heard on the flooding is that river levels are constant for the moment, but there is still a chance that the Bow River could rise some more.  It's crested in Banff and so should be rising in Canmore and Calgary sometime during the night.