Tailored Attire

I know there was a reason that I felt the need to inimediately ensure that I had at least a basic wardrobe to fit Stitch when I brought him home.

We had a full day of slushy rain last week and about 30 hours straight of rain this week. The good news is that this should significantly lessen the wildfire risk in the area for atleast a little while. I saw some scorched earth along the highway to the barn this weekend so concerns have been mounting.

Soaked at the 24 hour mark.

Stitch is still in the gangly young horse stage of having more leg than body. He's narrow with no boobs or ass - Kim Kardashian, he is not.

I don't want to spend a bunch of money on blankets that will only fit for a year (actually, I want to spend the money, but for once in my life have decided to be financially responsible). I suspect that in a couple of years he will fill out and will fit into my very extensive collection of 75" attire that I've acquired for three consecutive horses. I just need the basics until then.

The smallest thing I own is a 76" Century rainsheet. Cisco only wore it a couple of times - it was a bit snug on him so it became a backup that I never needed.

On Stitch, it was fine lengthwise when snugged up in front. But his lack of cleavage meant that the buckles sat a bit low. Also, the stomach straps were miles too long. They were knotted to shorten them from Cisco wearing it, not a chance that it would fit Stitch.

So, I did some repairs. Not sure if I mentioned this on the blog previously, but last fall I convinced my mom that we should get a heavy-duty industrial sewing machine. This thing powers through 6 layers of webbing like it's butter. I've been doing repairs for myself and some barn-mates all winter. I love it. 

The beast weighs something like 70 lbs by itself - it's staying at my mom's house.

Originally,  I planned to do the strap/d-ring thing like Schneider's blankets have along the neck to be able to make it smaller. A Google search suggested a different idea of just pinching the webbing at the neckline and stitching there. This creates a dart, doesn't stitch through any fabric other than the webbing, and would be easy to remove once the horse fills out.

Just a little dart did the trick.

The stomach straps - well, they were really long. It took me three attempts to get them the right length. Should have used a measuring tape in the beginning, I guess. First, I cut 6" off them. They were still way too long. Next I folded up about 10" and stitched that above the slider. Still long. The final version involved folding the previously folded part up against the blanket, and stitching through the 5 layers of webbing. That was finally the right length, and when he chunks up I will be able to pull the stitches out and expand the straps. 

That's 5 layers of webbing on two straps, and 6 layers on the back strap where the leg-strap d-ring is attached. Your home sewing machine won't manage that!

Since the plan is to hop on Stitch a few times in the fall and then let him grow until spring, he's not going to be working over the winter, which means he won't need to be clipped, and won't need to be blanketed except in extreme weather, which, realistically, will be more for me than for him. Thus, his basic wardrobe will consist of his rainsheet for the crappy summer days, his new Champion 100g blanket for the cool and wet days, and I'll add a layer to that with a vintage 1990's BMB stable blanket that fits him well enough when we get the -40's that we get every year. 

This was originally Farly's, who wore it for many winters but was super easy on his blankets so it's still in great shape.

He's set, right? Lots of horses live perfectly happy all year round without blankets. I can have a naked horse in the winter for the first time in 30 years and that won't make me a terrible horse mom, right? Right?

The First Week

I had the last week off from work  which worked out great to be able to spend time getting to know Stitch.

And, I've got to say, he is a pleasure to work with.

His previous owner did a fantastic job of making him into a young man who is light and respectful to be around. He leads beautifully - I've barely had to give any tugs on the lead rope all week. He ties, stands to be groomed, is fine in the arena by himself, and has been adored by the other horses in his field.

He lives in a group of mostly bay geldings. It can be tricky figuring out at a glance which one is my bay gelding! (It's the dead looking one on the left.)

He's not perfect - there are a few things that need to be worked on. 

He's not great about having his ears touched, especially his left one. We've started clicker training to be able to get this sorted out. I am too short to deal with giraffes.

He's a bit sticky about picking his feet up. I think that this is mostly a difference in how I ask for it (squeezing the tendon) and how I suspect he was taught (pulling up on his fetlock hair).  The first few days he stiff-legged it and I had to kind of make him bend at the knee, but there has already been significant improvement.

He can be a bit tricky to catch.

I was warned that he sometimes didn't like to be caught, so went at it cautiously. The biggest problem hasn't been Stitch running away from me, but the other horses getting too close as I'm trying to put his halter on. They don't mean any harm, they're all just overly social, but their presence worries Stitch and then he leaves. It's been getting better as he gets more comfortable with me and I don't think it will be a problem for long.

And really, those have been the only problems to pop up so far.

Not that we did much this week. I had dug a hole I had to crawl out of on the first day when I zapped him not once, but twice on the end of the nose with a static shock. He was horrified, and I had to put a lot deposits into his trust bank to get back to a positive balance. Thankfully, he loves food and can be easily bribed for forgiveness. That meant that we spent most of week just trying to be friends.

He got to wear his new blanket because it was cold and wet for a couple of days. The blanket survived intact - here's hoping he's not a blanket destroyer!

I have a feeling that I could easily flood this horse by throwing a bunch of things at him and he would take it, but he would shrink away from me and it would erode any trust that has been created. So we're adding little bits slowly.

Today was the tarp on the ground. He walked up to it pretty confidently, but then scared himself by kicking dirt onto the tarp. His reaction was to take a step back, snort, and give the tarp the hairy eyeball. I asked him to walk forward, he took a couple of tiny steps with a release in pressure with each one, and within a minute he walked quietly across.

That seems to be how he deals with things so far. Stop, have a good look, take a few slow steps, then walk past giving it a cautious look, and all is forgiven. Little drama.

So far, I'm liking my new little man!

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/