The End Of An Era

It's the end of an era for me. I no longer have any grey horses.

I've known for a while that it would be happening this summer. Despite her daily dose of Previcox, for the last few months Phantom just hasn't seemed very comfortable, and I know that she is a horse who has always disliked anything that made her uncomfortable.

I hope that Cisco was waiting for her and they are forever sharing their piles of hay.

Hand Me Downs

With a new horse usually comes the need to purchase a bunch of new things.

However, with a baby horse, new things might not fit for very long and require another purchase of new things within a short time period.

I am trying really hard to not buy new things for Stitch just for the sake of buying new things for the new horse. The kid still has a lot of growing to do.

It looks like the WOW saddle I had for Cisco is going to work for Stitch. I suspect that they will be of a similar shape - round and wide. I might need a 24" girth for him when I start him this fall, but I'll probably try to borrow one for a month or check out the local consignment options. Next year my multitude of 26" gitths should fit with no issues.

Bridles won't be a concern. Phantom's PS of Sweden bridle looks like it will fit him just fine. Again, I have many more in storage to choose from if need be. No idea what bit he'll choose, but a quick glance in his mouth makes me think that he doesn't have the fat tongue issue that my last two had. Fingers crossed that he's a bit more straightforward about what goes into his mouth.

Then there's blankets. Sigh.

As much as I want to spend all the money and buy Stitch a complete wardrobe, this is the one place that I've made a conscious decision to be frugal. I did buy him a new 69" 100g turnout for a really good price in the spring which he wore a couple of times in cold, wet weather. I also bought the same blanket in a 72" for a really good price for next year. I find the 100g blankets to be the most versatile and use them as a shell over a liner all the time.

But I have not been able to bring myself to spend any more money on blankets for him, including flysheets that will only be worn for two months this year. If I know what size he'll be next summer maybe I'd bite, but I already have a bunch of 75's ready for him when they fit. 

But the bugs have been bad. So I got crafty.

Phantom's Rambo Protector didn't really make it through last summer, which was probably it's 7th or 8th. The mesh on top of the tail flap and the butt above it had basically disintegrated. However, the rest of the blanket was still in pretty good condition, especially considering it's age.

I don't know what the mesh is made of, but it feels like tail hairs were woven together.

That blanket is a 75. Stitch fits about a 69. So I figured I could cut a few inches off the tail end of it, rebind it, add a tail flap, and Stitch could wear it for this summer.

So I did. And you know what? I'm pretty happy with the result.

I ended up moving the leg strap attachments up higher before he wore it.

I admit his butt sticks out just a wee bit. But I didn't really have much of an  option on how much to cut off to get rid of the damaged material. To compensate, the tail flap that I added is a bit wider at the bottom. It's only stitched across the top so that he is able to lift his tail up to poop. I'm hoping it doesn't get tugged off by a pasturemate.

The best part of giving this blanket a new life was the cost. I salvaged the binding from the piece that I cut off and the textilene that the tail flap is made of came from my fabric stash of to-be-completed projects I'll probably never start.. I paid a whole $5 for the binding on the tail flap and that was the only thing that I didn't have on hand.

It's not super pretty, but it's more than functional. It just needs to last for two shortmonths and then I can give it the funeral it deserves. 

Positivity

Stitch has been learning to do big boy things. And he's done them all with little to no drama.

We are still a couple of months away from me actually sitting on his back - he doesn't officially turn 3 until the last week of July - but we've been working on things that will hopefully make that day easy.

A couple of weeks ago we started ground driving. This meant wearing a surcingle and a tight belt for the first time. The wearing of the surcingle was no biggie - no bucks at all. The tightening of said surcingle wasn't his favorite.  Not that he was really bad about it, he just walked circles around me. I gave him a couple of days of this then used clicker training to encourage him to stand still. He figured it out right away.

He's worn a saddle - it was just so I could figure out if I will need to get a shorter girth for him. I think that my multitude of 26" options will work this fall.

This kid is smart. And food motivated. He loves positive reinforcement. Especially the kind that ends with a cookie in his mouth.

We've also been working on lining up to the mounting block. He got the idea pretty quickly, but not quite right. He was always one step too far back and his butt was swung away - all the better to make the mouth cookie-accessible. But he knew that the mounting block was the place to be, often stumbling over the steps in his eagerness to get there.

To get him to swing his butt towards me, we went away from the block and used the method where I tap his butt with a dressage whip, and reward him when he steps towards me. Some horses find this difficult to figure out as they only want to move away from the whip, but the idea is that you keep tapping until they take the slightest step towards you and then take the whip pressure off. Clicker training works really well with this method - they figure it out really quickly.

Sure enough, Stitch figured it out fast. On the second day, I tapped him once with the whip, then just held it up and he continued to swing his butt towards me.  Smartypants.

He was so proud of his new trick, that for the next few days, every time I stood next to him he swung his butt towards me in the hopes that it would earn him a reward. Or towards the person we were trying to show our new mounting block trick who was holding a poo-picking fork. Or the person in the barn I was chatting with - although that was probably more asking for butt scratches.

Now, I'm not talking swinging his butt to put you in kicking zone by any means. It's a definite attempt to line himself up with the person keeping them at his wither area, where he is supposed to line up at the mounting block. 

Much to Stitch's dismay, he doesn't get rewarded for these attempts. He only gets rewarded when he is asked for the behavior, and it's generally ignored otherwise. 

He is now starting to make adjustments at the block to get himself correctly lined up. I've also started to give him his treat on his right side by reaching over his back, which eliminates his desire to turn his butt away from me/head towards me, though does create the problem of me getting knocked off the block when his belly (which is getting rounder every day) shifts left when he bends right.

 

And when he's standing there, it would be so easy to slide a leg over and just sit on him....

Soon!

Weeks 2 & 3

Weeks 2 and 3 with Stitch have been a continuation of finding out what he knows, what he likes, and what he has to learn to put up with.

My challenge has been to keep our schooling sessions, such as they are at the moment, varied and not drilled. Stitch has been a very good boy and has been trying hard to figure things out and we don't need perfection in the groundwork exercises that we do.

We're been primarily working on two systems of groundwork. The TRT Method groundwork has been interesting in showing how he wants to use his body. When doing the exercise on his right side where I bend his head towards me and ask him to stay bent right and move around me he has a hard time not falling onto his right shoulder. His front right wants to step out towards me instead of under himself and away from me. Under saddle this will mean a horse who will overload the right shoulder and be hollow left. It's slowly getting better - last night he gave me three good steps before he lost it and the front right came towards me again.

I couldn't deal with the long mane so shortened it up somewhat. He is now also sporting a bridle path, though it was done with scissors instead of clippers.

The other thing I am slowly working on with him is a series of in-hand exercises from a Facebook group called NoBackNoHorse. The exercises are based on straightness training and focus on encouraging a horse to carry themselves in a manner that strengthens their core and back. We're still very much in the beginning stages, which is mostly getting him to walk with his head lowered into a horizontal balance, but we'll continue through the summer with the hopes that it sets him up nicely when we start under saddle.

Despite the rain we had last week, we are still at a high risk of wildfires in this area.  We woke up on Saturday to hazardous air quality due to smoke from the next province over - this sadly seems to be our new normal for the spring and summer months.

He wore the nebulizer and made the obligatory Darth Vader sounds. Not regretting this purchase with our smoky summers.

I needed to make sure that Stitch wasn't going to have any issues getting onto his German car, which is a straight load with a ramp. Getting on was no problem - getting off was! The poor guy's legs were shaking as he slowly took teeny backwards steps down the ramp, but he kept trying and wasn't dramatic about it. He was much better the second time so I left it there for the day.

Stitch has continued to get better about his ears being handled- he doesn't get his cookie when I put him out until he's dropped his head while I grab at his ears. Next, I need to switch to a halter that I pull over his ears instead of flipping the strap behind his ears to prepare him for being bridled.

Phantom met her new little brother. She told him to stay away from her and they'd get along just fine. He took her advice.

He's also gotten much better about being caught. Sometimes I stop a few feet away from him and let him make the decision to come to me and he's been responding nicely. I don't know if he'd let anyone else easily catch him yet, I'll have to find opportunities to enlist barnmates to help me work on it.

So far, the only thing that he's been oh hell no about has been when I asked him to leap across the water filled canyon. By which, I mean the puddle that formed across the outside of the overhead door leaving the barn. Stitch is not going to be a water hippo. It took some convincing, and he tried really hard to find a way that was not going to get his toes wet, but in the end he bravely stepped into the inch of water and safely made it to the other side (a whole 18" across). 

I guess there's some drama llama in there after all.

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/