Bay Flannel Horse

After losing Cisco last month, I was planning on waiting for a while before looking for my next partner. I was hoping that Phantom would be able to step up and do some light rides on a regular basis with me, but it quickly became apparent that it wasn't going to happen. 

I started casually looking at ads online. I've heard many times that horse prices are high these days, and yeah, they are. Lots of "Untouched 9 year old - if you can catch him, you can have him for $9,000." Yikes!

I was hoping to find another Andalusian (full or cross) or a Welsh Section D. Ideally between 2 and 6 years old, unstarted was fine. There weren't too many options. Nothing Welsh that I could find at all. But there were a couple of Azteca's that I liked (Andalusian/QH cross), and in my price range.

One was a 5 year old mare who had been lightly started. She'd be ready to get going right away. But she was a day's drive away, and the owner didn't get back to me with any video. (Looks like she has since sold, so maybe that's why.)

The other horse was a 2 year old gelding (3 this summer) located a little over an hour from me. I didn't dislike what I saw on video, especially considering the video was from February and it was frozen and a bit slippery underneath. I had a couple of concerns about his feet from the posted pictures, but I talked to my farrier and she was happy to review pics before I made a final decision.

So off we went to have a look at him. 

The owner, who was his breeder, showed me some of what she's worked on with him, and he gave me the impression that he had a solid temperament.  He didn't do things perfectly for her, but he quietly tried to figure it out and didn't overreact. I liked his floaty trot,and especially considering how bum high he was, his canter was balanced and uphill enough for my liking.

I sent some better pics of his feet to my farrier and she didn't see anything she'd be concerned about, so I said I guess I'm buying a horse!

We picked him up the following weekend. I enlisted a friend to haul him for me as I haven't really driven my trailer for the last couple of years and just wasn't confident about it. The new guy hopped right on and traveled great - far better than I did! I got hit with some car sickness - not normal for me at all, but it hit me hard. Like, puked multiple times hard. It was a horrible drive home.

So, meet the new kid - Stitch!

His registered name is WZ Stich. The show name I'm giving him (not that we'll ever use it) is Snitches Get Stitches.

He has lots of growing up to do so we'll be taking our time. He's a about 14.3 in front and probably close to 2" taller behind. He's got some pretty good bone in his legs so I think he'll fill out quite a bit over the next couple of years. I hope he does - there's no junk in his trunk at the moment.

Stitch calmly hopped off the trailer when we arrived home, calmly walked out to his new field, and calmly met his new roommates. He was immediately adopted by one of the TB geldings and they've been side-by-side ever since.

And thus, the journey begins again.

And Then There Was One

 On Tuesday night I arrived at the barn just before 7pm and went out to catch Cisco for a ride. He was lying down, which immediately put me on alert as I've never seen him lie down at that time of day. He got up and walked to me as he normally would, but stood with his nose on the ground for a moment before walking away from me to go and lie down again.

I ran to the barn for the banamine.

It seemed to do it's job and about 40 minutes later Cisco was his normal, obnoxious, wanting to put his nose on everything self.

Within the next hour, he started pawing. That is one of his tells that he isn't feeling very well.

I took him back to the arena in the hopes that he would poop, and he did oblige with a very small poop of normal consistency. He kept pawing though.

We went back to the barn and I tied him up to scrape some hair from him.

He didn't grab the rope after I tied him as he always does.

He got progressively more restless, pawing and moving around. I put him in a stall so that I could call the vet at about 9:50pm.

And I messaged a friend that I was worried.

The vet was finishing another colic call about 20 minutes away. Cisco was very restless in the stall so we walked the aisle, with him choosing a marching speed.

About 2 minutes before the vet arrived at 10:25, Cisco pooped. Yay! It was an OK size and consistency. I got my hopes up that he would just need to be tubed and all would be good.

After checking vitals and listening to gut sounds (that were present) the vet did a rectal. And quite quickly said that he was worried for my critter.

Ultrasound showed a 6 cm thickening of one part of intestine, with a 7 cm distortion (distention? My brain is fried) of another part in front of it. He said I'm going to ask you a question that you'll have to think seriously about, I said surgery is not an option. He said intestinal surgery, if everything went well, could easily run 15 thousand.

He said we could hospitalize him and treat medically, but suspected that we would still be making a decision by morning. I asked how realistic Cisco's chance would be with this option and he said he's only seen 2 or 3 pull through.

By 11:30, it was done.

Cisco, C-Man, C-Dawg, Turdle, Buddy.

We were just getting to the good stuff.

Steal of a Deal - New Boots!

 About a month ago, I was scrolling through social media and came across an ad for a sample boot sale of Celeris boots from a store in Germany - reiten-leder.com. I'll often check these kind of sales out, but never expect to find something short enough and wide enough for my legs. Or cheap enough for my very low budget. I already have a pair of Celeris boots, I really don't need another.

Well, to my shock and amazement, there were plenty of short sizes on this site. That meant going through all of them, trying to figure out if there were any that had the right measurements for my rather odd size. I have a short height- about 15", my calf is about 14.5", and for my height of 5' nothing a largish shoe size of 7.5-8 - usually a 38 in European sizing, but I have some 39's.

I found one pair that I could make work. The right calf size. One cm shorter than my custom Bia's. But a bigger foot size at size 40. 

I decided to take a chance on them and order them despite the too big foot. I figured I could add an insole, wear a short, thick sock over my regular socks, or even put a wodge of tissue in the toe to take up the difference, because the price was a steal of a deal.

They cost $322 CDN. Including shipping and customs.

They arrived yesterday after a month literally on a slow boat. And they fit!

First time, wearing my previous days steal of a deal 100% merino wool base layer legging that I got for $34.

The left is a little snugger to zip up than the right, but both zipped shut on my first wearing. I wore them for a couple of hours at the barn last night - no blisters! The front of the ankle got a little uncomfortable during my ride, but not unbearably so. Not that I did much during my ride - I spent most of it listening to someone's terrible experience as a paying working student that she just returned from.

On my way out to the barn I picked up some insoles, which did snug up the foot size quite a bit. My wide toes appreciate the extra space they have in the toe box, though I might still put something into the toe end. I didn't feel like I was swimming in them by any means.

Cisco was very happy about the lack of effort that this ride required.

Only a few models were going for this low of a price - these were €150, down from the original price of €590. The majority of the boots in the sale were still in the €500 range. These are called the Ana, which appears to be an older model, so that is probably why the lower price.

I wasn't sure what to expect from sample boots, but the soles are brand new and have never been outside. 

I'm super happy with them, and can't believe how lucky I was to get them for that price. 

Of course, like buying a saddle, there's always extra costs - I need another boot bag, boot trees, black boot polish and brushes to go with them!

The sale is still on - check it out and maybe you'll find a great deal too!  

https://reiten-leder.com/pk/reitstiefel/stiefel-lagerware/