Category Archives: horse

Introducing Huey!

Saturday night I flew back from WA.  Sunday, Vicki and I hooked up the horse trailer and hopped in the truck.  8 hours later we arrived at our hotel just outside Baltimore.  First thing Monday morning, we went to Hedgehog Hollow Farm, which specializes in breeding Dartmoor ponies.  Anna had been emailing with the farm and Vicki was along to specifically test ride Huey (she even got to miss a day of school).  Everything seemed fine, so we loaded up and headed back home.

Huey is a 12 year old Dartmoor gelding.  He is just over 11 hands and makes a great addition to our herd.  He is barefoot and has never had shoes.  He also lived outside in pasture in a herd setup.  The kids are very excited to have another pony.  Today, Huey got to know Precious and Devil.  Devil wasn’t too happy about sharing Precious’ attention with another boy.  Since Huey has never been contained in electric fence, we spent the day monitoring things and fixing fences.  Now if the rain will stop, the kids will get to ride him.

First conversation across electric fence
First conversation across electric fence
For perspective, Anna is 5'6"
For perspective, Anna is 5’6″

What is Rob reading?

Right now, I am sitting in the Seattle airport waiting to fly home. Open in front of me is Complementary Therapies for Horse & Rider.  It is a part of my current ESA course, Complementary Therapies.  I finished the Nutrition course, and was a little disappointed that it didn’t include any secret recipes for optimal horse health and hoof growth.  I guess we will have to keep working on every horse as an individual instead of relying on a one solution fits all recipe (like you might find in a large boarding barn).

So why am I in Seattle?  I just finished 3 days of hoof trimming with ESA field instructor Christina Cline.  Over the course of 3 days, we saw around 40 horses with laminitic, foundered, insulin resistant, cushings (IR and cushings are not always together), pasture, performance, young, teenage, old, and some healthy hooves.  It was particularly interesting to me how much different the hooves tend to grow due to the difference in environment.  While most of us in CT feed hay year round, many of the horses in WA get lush pasture (developed for dairy cows) once the spring comes around.  The result is a higher number of laminitis cases and more frequent founder for owners who do not carefully manage the weight of their horses. The pasture is just too rich.

So, it’s back to reading for me.  I am planning long term to try and learn more about things like using herbs in the diets of horses.  Maybe Anna will have to grow all the herbs we need in the garden…

Things change

As we were moving, it struck me as to how much interests change over time, and how hard it is to let go of the dream/vision that led you down that path in the first place.  For example, about 6 months ago, I finally decided to sell some of my woodworking tools because they had been sitting idle for over 2 years.  And I did sell some….  But I still have a pretty significant workshop.

And sometimes we get into crafting (like Creative Memories) or duck hunting or triathlons.  And while we are not ready to say we will never do any of those again, they don’t seem to fit in to life right now.  And it is very hard to get rid of the “things” because it seems to mean giving up on that dream.

Our horses are like that too.  We owned Cinder for 11 years, even though we knew long before he wasn’t quite the right fit.  For the past 11 months, I have been working with Calli and talking about my plans for eventing.  But the reality is, I don’t have time to train her and I don’t have time to compete.  Instead, our focus is horse activities the kids can be involved in too.  So instead of eventing, we are going to try to focus more on hunter paces later this year.  We are in a great location to get trail time and Alex really doesn’t like arena showing anyways.  And maybe Calli isn’t the right horse for those goals, so maybe we will find her a new home and find me a quieter mount to focus on the kids’ needs instead of my dreams.  I guess that is part of being a parent and growing up.

But I’m keeping the waders so I can train Mack, the golden retriever, to fetch that duck when we go hunting (some day).

A busy, happy Easter

This morning the very excited kids searched the yard for all the eggs left by the Easter Bunny. The it was time for quick chores and off to church.
After lunch, the whole family headed outside to work on Spring horse paddock cleaning. Amanda was pretty worn out and wanted to come in and watch some Baby Einstein. She is at the age of refusing to nap but still needs it. Today, she was tired enough to fall asleep sitting up during the show.
Alex has been learning to lunge his pony before riding and Vicki is working on balance riding bareback.
Anna and I are even going to have time to ride and hopefully clean the tack room before evening chores and dinner.
We should all sleep well tonight
Happy Easter!

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Training Calli #3

8 weeks after my accident, I finally got back in the saddle yesterday afternoon.  While I am still having some issues (specifically migraines) from the concussion, Calli and I needed to get back to work.

I started with groom her in the aisle way of the barn.  One problem we have, is Calli doesn’t respond well to pressure.  When she is cross tied (or tied in a stall or to a trailer…), if she raises her head the halter puts pressure on her poll and she freaks out.  Her immediate response is to pop her head back with enough force to break something.  Sometimes the sacrificial pieces of twine holding the ties break.  Sometimes the leather strap on her halter breaks (3 so far).  Regardless, it is not the type of response I desire in a horse, especially around kids.  As soon as she is free, she is fine, and rarely tries to run out of the barn.  So, for this grooming and tacking up, I let her stand free in the barn.  I held on to the lead rope (careful not to let it tangle my legs or wrap around my hand in case she bolted).  She seemed much less stressed.

Then it was off to the arena.  The farm has been muddy and Calli hasn’t been worked in 8 weeks.  Anna did about 10 minutes with her on the lunge line.  I was concerned that the circling might be more than I could handle and didn’t want to overdo things.  It was good to lunge her first because I was able to watch her move and see what I need to work on.  And she had some energy to work off as well.

Then, it was time to get in the saddle. I was a bit apprehensive.  While I have been thrown, and I have been injured before, I have never suffered an injury from the horses that has been as lasting as the concussion.  Once I got on, we just worked on some walking, turning, and stopping.  I tried to back her, but she still doesn’t understand.  I need to study teaching a horse to back.  I did a few minutes of trot work and that was enough for the first day.  I spent 15 minutes in the saddle, and I really needed that to reconnect with my horse.

Observations and plans:

1.  Calli is very stiff, in particular to the left.  I need to spend a lot of time on suppling exercises and I think we are going to have a chiropractor come do an evaluation.

2.  I need to learn how to teach her backing.  This is a real concern because when out on trails, sometimes she needs to back instead of turning.

3.  I have to focus on encouraging impulsion from behind and collection.  Right now, she doesn’t try to use her rear end to propel us forward.  This is critical to proceed with jumping training this year.  One thing that will be helpful is working on hills.  We ride trails that have some decent hills and that forces her to use her hind end going up the hills.

I was very encouraged by the ride.  We seem to have a connection (that Anna does not share with Calli) and work well together.  I will need to be patient and consistent in the training process.