Saturday, April 3, 2010

Good Weather=Good Mood



We have had AMAZING weather the last two days. Yesterday it was high 80's, today, 80's. It feels WONDERFUL; like summer. Daisy's still shedding out her coat so I don't think she fully appreciated the warmth :P but that's ok.
Riding her has been ok...today's ride started out pretty not good :P. We turned left off our driveway (not right towards the minis, the way Daisy likes) and we rode a bit and then, Daisy strategically placed herself between two houses with neighbors in the yard to throw a "temper tantrum". Her form of a tantrum consists of just ignoring me, out of the blue. She isn't jumpy or pushy; she simply refuses to listen. She stops, and won't do anything-back up, walk forward, trot, side-pass, etc-except turn around. So I smacked her once with the end of the rein and used my stern voice, but it got me no where so I got off her back and made her trot up the street next to me until we were a distance from the neighbors who were blatently staring and using us as entertainment. Once I was far enough away, I mounted, and gave her a good smack with the reins and I gave my typical manly "GET!" growl and she went (relucantly). In exchange, I promised a trip to the minis tomorrow :P (turns out I probably won't have the opportunity to ride tomorrow anyway...sorry Dais' :P). After that, our ride was actually pretty darn good. She was dull until we got out on the big open rode and then she was great. One time she had a right-lead canter hissy fit, but she got over it pretty good with me reminding her who was in charge (*ahem*) and that was all. One rode back (as mentioned two posts ago) is about a 1/4 mile and we gallop it and Daisy has the annoying habit of trying to gallop and jigging in place as soon as we turn onto the road. It's not dangerous or really bad, just annoying. Today, I expected her to do that, but she was AMAZING. I got her on the bit and we walked a little bit until I finally gave her a soft signal to canter and she sprang walk-canter into it perfectly and was really good. I was in two-point (which I stink at, so I do it whenever I get the chance) and about half-way along the road I realized she was sort of not controled anymore; going a little too fast (Before I was so astounded with her good behavior I was basking in it and forgot to think about speed :P). I tried half halting, but then just told her "woa" and she brought herself right back down to an acceptable canter. :) YEY!

And going up the BIG hill home she was amazing :)

Afterward, I went to Jean's planning on riding Bubba, but ended up riding Paulie, a new horse, because Bubba refused to be caught...
Paulie was born at Jean's farm out of a rescue mare 2 1/2 years ago. He's since been with a new owner and is incredibly well trained. Jean wants to buy him back and has him on trial. It didn't occur to me until after that I rode a STUD, that was only TWO AND A HALF! He was so great. I always sorta thought only really good or really insane riders rode stallions, but he was so good. He was a little nippy on the ground, but otherwise, SO well behaved. He can walk/trot/canter, turn on the hindquarts/forhand, sidepass, back up, etc, already. That's me on him in the second picture :P
He's being gelded on the 29th, and Jean offered for me to be there along with a small group of kids from the trade school. She said it would be interesting for me to see him gelded, especially since I'm interested in vet school.

So my question is, has anyone ever witnessed a stallion being gelded? :P Is it worth seeing? Is it interesting? Should I see it? What stood out to you most?
If you haven't, would you want to see it?
Just wondered, thought it was interesting.

Also, on a sort of off-topic note, out of Listerine and apple cider vinegar/tea tree oil mix, which do you prefer for daily thrush prevention? I can't decide; Lately I've used Listerine.

Happy Easter, Everyone! May you celebrate your risen Savior! :)
And eat chocolate. It's required. :)



7 comments:

Gudl said...

Nice post! Happy Easter Honey-Bunny (haha ... did I just say that to you??)

Unknown said...

Gelding is relatively uneventful. It's always handy to know what emasculators are to threaten future boyfriends though :P
I don't know if I have mentioned it before but when I got Naigen she had terrible thrush. I tried all of the above (but flouride?), bleach, copper oxide (coppertox), thrush bomb but it was all purpose lysol that worked the best as suggested by another farrier than my own who said to use bleach and water. Since thrush is an anaerobic bacteria and if it keeps coming back you need to think of several things. First of all the ground where the horse is may be contaminated with it. I seen a gelding once they could not get rid of the thrush no matter what. It ended up his stall mats had moisture under them and the bacteria was living there. We switched his stall without mats and within 2 weeks he had no thrush. We lifted his mats in the old stall two weeks later and they were still wet underneath (aka no air getting there, the perfect ground for thrush to thrive) we bleached the stall a few times before putting him back in and the gelding hasn't had it since.
Picking feet as much as possible is also your best bet. Since it's anaerobic, air kills it.

Mellimaus said...

Hey Sydney,

Daisy's thrush is gone currently (and her back hooves' frog's are bad now; regrowing) but I'm just trying to figure out what to use to daily prevent it...is all purpose lysol too harsh? (killing cells?)
I suppose no matter what I do good cells will be killed...

Lindsey said...

Let me just say, any kind of castration/gelding is awesome. Be sure that you go and see it. Its even better when you can do it yourself!
I am a freshmen prevet student at the University of Findlay. Let me say, its the best school that you could go to if you want to be a vet! So if you are serious about going on the road to becomming a vet, go to UF. Its in northwestern Ohio, but totally worth it!
Here's the website: www.findlay.edu

Mellimaus said...

Hello, Lindsey! Thanks for the comment; I love hearing from readers...out of curiosity, have you been reading long? How did you find me?!

Thanks for the information on findlay, it's good to keep in mind! I'm not quite at the point where I need to decide on colleges and such, but I will soon, so...any info is good. :)

Bella said...

Sounds like the stallion was good! Haha I've always thought the same as you on that note, but I guess after hearing this, my opinion changes!

I would go see the gelding if I were you. It's good to have many experiences. :)

~Lydiah♥

Mellimaus said...

I hope I didn't confuse you all too much; I wrote Fluoride, but I meant Listerine!
Ohhh goodness...don't go sprayin' fluoride on hooves now! ;)

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