Wasted Weekend

This weekend was pretty miserable, the weather sucked, I had no energy, and it was cold too.

Saturday Todd and I did finish painting the tackroom :)  Pictures later this week.

Other than that, all I did was take care of horses and sulk with my Kindle.  I think I might have to come up with some guidelines for Kindle use once the weather improves.  Between the Kindle and the internet I could easily become a recliner potato!

Today was Monday and I jumped out of bed at 5am when the alarm went off.  It was COLD!  The troughs had ice on top (I mistakenly thought we were done with freezing weather and unplugged the heaters last week, hah!)

I did chores as quickly as possible, and after thawing out my car for 10 minutes headed in to work.  Today was the only day with forecast of sunny weather for the next ten days.  I simply HAD to ride after work.

It was still beautiful, blue and cold when I got home about 4pm.  I decided to do an arena session since I wasn't really sure how much daylight I would have by the time I got chores done and hauled out to ride.

As luck would have it I didn't even have to turn the arena lights on!  I stopped briefly talk with a couple of people at the barn that wanted info on my saddle.  Then had a great ride on Cartman and hauled back home.

It was finally getting really dark about 6:40pm as I lead Cartman and Dazzby out for their turn in the big back field.  I could see stars!!! It was beautiful.

By the time I got back from riding I knew why I had been so absolutely lazy this last few days.  My throat hurts.  Oh well, at least I now have an "excuse".

I cannot wait for summer.

Hoof Saga Continues

Pink has been wearing her glue-on Sigafoos shoe for 5 weeks.  I started noticing a little crack heading towards the coronet band that was flexing as she picked up her foot.

Yesterday I hauled her down to Dr. Hansen so that the shoe could be re-set and he could check her progress.

When the shoe was pulled off the crack was still completely solid from the patch to bottom of her foot.  The shoe itself was still very solid and still attatched to her foot.  Likewise the patch appears to be solid.

So, the question is "Why is it splitting up above the patch?"  The patch can't physically be placed any higher than it is.  We decided to trim her up, as she had grown quite a bit of toe in the five weeks, and reset another glue-on.

The Dr. is going to contact some other vets that specialize in treating hoof problems, as well as the vet that came up with these special shoes to see if there is anything else we can do to help this start healing better.  Unfortunately the way the horses foot is designed it is almost impossible to keep it from flexing as they move around. 

It may simply be a waiting game.  I am continuing to keep the coronet soft with Neosporin or Corona and she is still on turn-out. 

Here are some pictures of our latest hoof trials.

Hot! Hot! Hot!

No it's not the weather!

It was my darling horse.

Here are a few pictures from our ride on Sunday.  We just got shoes on last week so are starting out slow on the gravel pathways on the jogging trail.  Next week we'll probably do a ride out on the logging roads.  He hasn't been on ground that is this hard since last fall so I want to ease into it.  Don't want to get into the wrong side of one of those bone remodeling episodes describe over on the Boots and Saddles blog.

My normally laid back horse was totally wired Sunday.  For a few minutes I thought I might actually have to get off.  But after about a million circles, he finally agreed to walk calmly down the trail.  I hope  that he was just needing some hard "play time" with his brother.  They've been seperated since the shoes went on because Taj likes to rough house and has actually pulled off Cartman's back shoes before.

starting out

Speaking of grey

riding along the Cowlitz River

Alert! Garbage can ahead.

New little pool with waterfall

Here's where the trouble started, barking dogs across the river = snorting horse.   Oh, yeah there's actually a river between us and those houses.

Bald Eagle

Back into the sand at the other end of the park

This will get him to relax!

Back to the trailer, (white spot)

Why Do I Find this so Funny?

I just saw this guy in a movie last weekend, "The Driver", I liked it.  Then this website pops up.  What is this?   Do you think the actor knows about it? 

 http://equestrianryangosling.tumblr.com/

My fav ?  "Hey girl, Tell me what cute thing your horse did today." 

I am easily amused I guess.

Misc. Stuff

I don't have any pressing ideas for a blog post today.  I did ride.  It went well.  Although trying to apply some of the ideas from the article I linked in the last post wasn't quite as easy as I had hoped.

At one point I think C was completely blowing thru the left side of "the box", actually I think we were cantering sideways at that point.  In all fairness, we were out in the deep sand today at the dredge spoils- since they have calf sorting in the arena on Sundays.

So, I'm going to cut him (and me) a little slack for that one.  He is starting to get under himself better and I can feel a difference in the way he moves off the hind quarters.  A couple of times I've actually been almost bounced forward in the saddle when he really gets going and using that back end.  It is a very powerful feeling.  Cool.

I finally broke down and purchased a Kindle..  I've been eyeing them for a while and actually got my Dad one last Father's Day, he loves it.

Out here in Castle Rock is, I think, the first place in my life that I have not had access to a library.  Yup, it's true, no county library.  Although I do believe Cowlitz County is number one in the rates of adult smoking and STDs.  There is no library.  I could pay $100+ bucks a year and have access to the Longview Library, but its not real convenient to get to and I'd probably always be late returning books.

Even growing up in the country near Vicksburg Mississippi I had access to a library,  and they had lots of great kids books about horses.  I read them all!  There was no kids living close to us back then, so I spent a lot of time reading and playing with my dog. 

So I was over at Amazon reading about this book that I wanted to actually read, and realized I could be reading that book right now!!! Oh my, the power of instant gratification,  It is mighty.  I've kind of gotten out of the habit of reading, but hopefully the Kindle can change that!

The kindle arrived Thursday and I'm already half way through Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking.   Very interesting stuff.   Next up is WheatBelly.  Hoping that one will get me motivated to give up the refined carbs again!

I'm leaving you with another link, it is from the Aerc Members Forum and has some of the most beautiful photos I've ever seen.  I really want to go there!!!!

http://player.vimeo.com/video/22132017?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0

Tack Room!!!

Ya'll guessed it, a tackroom.  Yeah!!!!

Now I can finally get all of the horse tack, blankets, trunks, etc. out of the house.  I currently have four saddles residing in the living room and dining room, and a LOT of random tack and blankets in the spare bedroom.  It is going to be really nice to have all that clutter gone :)

I am starting to get excited for actually decorating the room.  Some ideas we've thought about are, of course, where to put the saddle racks, bridle racks (these all have to built still).  I plan on putting a small oil radiator type heater in- to keep things from molding.

I would love to have an artist paint my herd on one of the walls, wouldn't that be cool??  Maybe someday.

Today I rode Cartman in the arena.  He was very responsive to the aids but we did have a little trouble getting the right side lead.  He is left handed, like most horses that I've had.  So that right lead isn't quite as easy or balanced as the left one. 

He worked up quite a sweat, he's still really hairy but is starting to blow that winter coat!

No exciting news here, so I'll leave you with a link to an interesting article I found posted over on the Coth bulletin board- on centering your horse.  Anyone dealing with a greenie will probably know how hard that can be!

http://www.eclectic-horseman.com/content/view/44/33/

Someone's Been Busy....

And it's not me.

While I spent the weekend hibernating with a migraine.  Todd was building something.  Unfortunately, I did not catch the framing portion of the project on camera, but here are some photos of the inside work.

 Insulation is horrid to work with.   The first day they wore paper suits but by day two they had torn, so it was back to street clothes.

Our 1000 gallon holding tank.  We have a spring that supplies all our water.

Almost done with the wood working!

The whole room is 12 x 18.  The pump room takes up about 5 x 12 feet.

What could this be????

Funder, this pic is for you.  I don't know why, but I thought of you as I was taking it!




Here's a hint, if you go out one of the doors you are here.  Yes, that dim pile in the back is hay.  The bars to the left are from the foaling stall.



Did you guess what this room is going to be?????