Christmas, Hay Net, and Barn Tour

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas! Daisy did. She had a nice salad of apples and carrots (like every other Christmas...) and a little bag of skittles (no, I do not feed my horse skittles on a daily basis, just her birthday and Christmas). She happens to love skittles. :)

I had an excellent Christmas as well. The biggest (and only) horse gift was the harness my parents got me for Daisy! A friend of mine is going to show me how to harness her on Tuesday...but that's for later.

When Daisy is kept at home, she is given a flake of hay about every couple hours. This is for a few reasons. Partially to give her something to look forward to and do while I'm not home and she's alone in her pasture (and to keep her from eating other such things like...manure...trees...dirt...etc). We also do this because it's better for horses to eat continually (or at least in small meals like that) throughout the day because it mimics how they eat in the wild. When Daisy goes to board, however, she's given 3-4 flakes at 6am when she's brought to her pasture, I imagine she's done within the hour, and that leaves her with nothing to do the rest of the day, as well as cold, when it's winter. Similarly, at night she's given 3 flakes that she quickly eats, leaving no entertainment or heat for the remaining 12 hours. 

Enter hockey hay net! I first saw this idea a (long while) back on Laughing Orca Ranch's blog post. I decided to try it myself this year. I ordered the hockey netting online, and when it arrived, I cut it into pieces and tied up the sides of two of them. Today we went and got screw eyes and carabiner clips and hung it on the stall!
It wasn't actually that easy. The walls are oak and I had no drill so I had to use a nail, then remove it, then screw in a screw eye, lose the nail in the stall, find the nail in the stall, attempt to make another hole, lose the nail again, find the nail again so Daisy wouldn't wake up with a puncture wound, finish making the hole, screw the screw eye in, have it break in half half way into screwing it in (yes...I couldn't find the perfect screw eyes at walmart), be forced to make another hole, almost lose the nail again, and screw in the last screw eye.

Needless to say, if you do this yourself...it probably won't be that frustrating. :)

But it's finished! And stuffed with Daisy's dinner hay.

It looked very small hung on the wall, and I was a little worried it wasn't big enough, but it stretched perfectly and held all her hay. If I ever need more, I can just put a flake or two on the ground anyway, and I'm sure she'll survive ;) For now I only have one in her stall, I have to figure out a way to make it possible for her to have one outside.
I brought her in for a test run.
This is a dark video, but...here it is:

On Saturday when I rode shortly, I took Daisy out bareback and bitless on the trail in the snow, had a wonderful time, and then took her in for a little Christmas barrel racing...she slipped going around one barrel and her hind end went down; for a second, I thought she'd completely go down. She didn't, and she trotted out fine on the lunge and didn't seem hurt, but I called it a day anyway. Today when I brought her in, I trotted her out again..she seemed totally fine. I didn't ride today anyway though.
Tuesday Daisy goes to Jean's...and Wednesday... !! We're doing our first ever clinic! It's with the mounted police officer who hosted the trail trial we did in September. It's going to be all about bombproofing and sensory training your horse...pretty exciting!
That said, did I mention I love being at Jenny's? I love the use of the ring, and the trails, and the cleanliness and how small it is; just me, two other boarders, and her horses. It's very homey. :) So I took an impromptu tour on tape today...I didn't mean to, but I wanted to see if my camera flash would turn on if I taped (it didn't). So anyway I decided to upload the tour anyway. The dark opening behind Daisy is the entry to the arena. Lydia said it well when she said it's like a 'farmette'...has a little bit of everything. :) Here it is:

And so I leave you until later, bloggers :),

Merry Christmas from Our Barn to Yours

I have a German heritage, a large part of which means "the day" for the Christmas season is actually Christmas eve.

So I know I'm a 'day early'...but I just thought I'd cover it now. 

I wish you all a wonderful Christmas celebration!

Gloria in Excelsis Deo.

Glory to God in the Highest.

Much love and good wishes,

Mellimaus Really Regrets...

Painting by Katie^

Cookies for Daisy^

No, she is not angry in this picture...she's begging, but so distracted by the new treats, she forgot the "look cute" aspect...^

In the snow, January 6th, 2010^ and below

...Not doing a decent update-post for about two months...or three...
So now I get to update you. I may repeat stuff from my lammmeeeooooooo update video below...
This is kinda a journal update for me...so as usual, if you read the entire thing, it's not because I'm making ya or expect you to :P

November I went to a tack sale and got some stuff...including a new bridle. I priced it online and it would have been a minimum of $80. I got it for?! $40. It's brand new, VERY well made, with padded browband, noseband, and that part behind her ears...(Whatever that's called ;)) and I absolutely LOVE it. It's a little annoying right now because the leather isn't broken in, plus it's sooo cold outside, so strapping it up is kinda annoying...but very worth it.

Christmas came...just beforehand, a dear friend from my parent's restaurant, a waitress, gave me a painting of Daisy she's been working on...the picture does not do it justice. It lacks the depth that the picture really has when you see it...it's beautiful; when I was little, my friend had a horse and someone painted it for her, and I remember thinking that was so cool at the time...now I have one! :)

Daisy got a cute Mrs. Pasture's Cookies for Horses gift container for Christmas...(technically gifted to me :P) and she loooovved those cookies! All gone now :(. But I saved the container. :)
She also got a Likit treat in her stocking and was very offended...pinned her ears worse then usual and refused to go near her food bin...I mean, come on...Excuse ME for assuming you liked horse treats! She got over it after awhile...but it took a few hours for her to realize the Likit was edible! :P

The vet came in...I think early December, on a Saturday. It was the first time I called the vet for something other then vaccinations, and I actually got a new vet because my old one apparently doesn't serve my area anymore... :/

I called because Daisy had been pretty regularly getting colic-y and one night she got to a point where she had "gut sounds" (which is what you want to be able to hear) but was really uncomfortable and pawing and I walked her up and down and up and down the 1/4 mile driveway over and over and it didn't get better...so I got the vet to come out two days later...still not completely sure what good it did. We ruled out ulcers through checking her feces for blood...and we discussed perhaps discomfort from eating dead leaves (possible), or through something called a granulosa-theca cell tumor, which is pretty much an ovarian tumor that's benign. She said she didn't have an ultrasound machine and could ultrasound for it in a few weeks. I didn't know really what she was talking about (researched it a bit since, especially in Equus magazine issue number 367, April 2008, article called "How to Mellow Your Moody Mare") and wasn't really interested in spending extra money to check it without thinking it was really possible...she also said that it could have something to do with a heat cycle...at some point, she said a treatment for some sort of thing could be inserting a glass marble into Daisy's uterus to make Daisy think she was pregnant and make her stop cycling...weird...but since I've read it more it does make sense...

Three days later she called and left a message on my phone discussing Selenium deficiency. She said we could test Daisy's blood and the ground to see the levels of selenium in her blood. When I first got Daisy, a few people told me there was a selenium deficiency in the soil around our area...but after looking it up online now that doesn't seem the case...question being, trust people's answer's or Internet? In any case, I read up on symptoms of selenium deficiency...a few people describe it as a problem that is often mistaken as signs of both colic and tying up syndrome...both of which I thought Daisy had signs of. I found this article, and it seems to be just what it's talking about: http://www.dcfventures.com/snvhforum/index.php?topic=63.0
What caught my eye was this:
The interesting thing about selenium deficiency is that it is found in horses who tie up. Unlike colic, tieing up is not about the gut but about the muscles. Muscles will get too much lactic acid buildup. You will often see a horse's muscles quiver or become rigid and hard. Sometimes they sweat profusely even though the have done little work. After much more reading about this condition I found an article that talked about how horses will stretch out as if to urinate, but it's only to relieve the pain and tenseness in their back muscles. Bingo!.......I have not had any problems. I've started a new regimen of grass hay only, low-carb grain products with no added sugars(mollasses)and I also feed Mezotrace minerals with added selenium. So far my gelding has not exhibited any more signs of discomfort.

I've had some questions about why Daisy would stretch out the way she did/does(?), and Mrs. Mom pointed me to tying-up syndrome.
I've added a selenium block to Daisy's stall besides her regular trace mineral block and she licks it almost every night...She hasn't "coliced" since...this does not necessarily mean that that's what it was, because it snowed soon after the vet appointment so she stopped eating dry leaves as well...However, I remember Daisy used to lick the ground a lot (literally lick the dirt) and, until she ate all the bark off the trees, she used to eat tree bark (this during the first/part of the second year I had her) and she never really got colic-y during that time...so I wonder if she was getting selenium from there during that time...

I really don't know...but I have a lot of fun researching random stuff...Like I've read more about the granulosa-cell tumors, and symptoms include aggressive attitude (almost stallion-like), general irritability, and unwillingness to pick up certain leads (due to where the tumor is located)...for which you can have the tumor removed, as well as have a mare spayed (which is done very rarely in horses)...so that's just something for me to think about a little...I've only ever emailed with Daisy's original owner once, and she described Daisy as "disgruntled" when she was young as well, so I guess her attitude does not at all necessarily mean she has a tumor, but...it's still interesting.

Well...I think I pretty much covered anything...we have at least a foot of snow on the ground everywhere (I think more...idk...) and counting. I took Daisy out today and ground-worked her (haven't done that in forever) and worked on stopping with me, backing, side passing on the ground, and some work turning on the forehand, our goal for the winter :) (Along with hindquarters, which I tried from the ground, but she didn't understand what I was asking of her...). I lunged her in the snow, and towards the beginning, she was feelin' good (what's new? :P) and bucked and fell; slid on her knees and half her face ended up buried in snow...I was half worried, and half laughing really hard. She stood up, I checked her over and had her walk for me, she was fine, and then I just laughed ;). She had snow alllll over her face; looked really silly. I think she was embarrassed. We continued lunging, and she was extra careful after that...she did really well on the lunge. It was good to do something different, other then do nothing or go trail riding (which is nice, but not all the time). We both had some fun; I should do that more often.

And so, here I leave us, updated on the main points of the last two months...or at least, of what I can remember :P.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!
I'm sorry I haven't posted...I have a lot to say, so I almost don't want to start! SOO much to talk about!
I will *hopefully* get around to it during these next ten days off of school.
Until then, enjoy my card. All pictures taken today by my mom!

Love,

Daisy's Away Again

Merry Christmas!

In an effort to spread Christmas cheer to you all, I was taking pictures of many of the animals at our ranch. When told that the pictures taken of themselves could end up as the Christmas card on the blog, most of them hastily tried to get themselves looking pretty...some others were just gorgeous enough not to have to worry about that.

Below is the picked shot of my first target, Huey, a hamster currently residing in my bedroom due to his owner, a friend of mine, going off to other places for Christmas. He was sure that the camera was nothing to worry about (he was OBVIOUSLY lookin' good, why worry?), and that his problem at hand was really how to get out of the cage...anyhow, this is the shot I got of him. No go.

Then there was Gronemeyer...I was in a hurry, so (although he claimed he wasn't ready) I took this picture...I told him it was nice of him to consider hygiene at that moment, but that it wasn't gonna cut it on tape.

Then, of course, the ladies. Survivor ruined the moment by, just as I was clicking the button, leaning over to ask Bibbi if her feathers were on straight. *snort*. But then, of course, there was Bibbi with her head slightly turned...I pretty sure she was asking Survivor "Which is better? My right side or my left?"... Chickens these days... Figures, right?

Well...the next picture wasn't completely Abby's fault...I wanted to have her dress up in her nice fire engine scarf, and...well, it didn't really turn out. On a good note, she seemed to like it, and she didn't bother to try to take it off.

Then, of course, the spotlight was on Sasha. Abby would say that whenever Sasha's here, it's on her, but I'm not sure...Anyway, she's my neice...er...brother's dog. She was pretty tolerant of the antlers--as long as there was a treat to keep her eyes on. She almost made the card, but no go as well...

Now, Genevieve is the fairest little lady on the ranch. Such a sweety. She didn't bother getting ready--she's always clean. Anyway, I heard "Angels we have heard on high" singing in my head when I saw how the pic turned out...sooo yeah...she almost almost almost made the card...

WHO'S SURPRISED?!
I bet I know what you're thinking! How about:
Wait a minute.....somethings fishy...this blog is about Daisy...and Daisy made the card...this wasn't a fair card contest!

You're probably right.

In the end, all I wanted to say was...

Merry Christmas everyone! May you have a safe, happy holiday.

Just Another Taste of the Concert

Just Old Pics....

Hey! Sorry I haven't posted in so long! I was just wondering what to post, and I found these pictures in my folder, so I thought I'd post them. It's snowing here. About 1/2 an inch is there already...maybe more. It's so strange to see these pictures. all the green, the grass so tall in Daisy's paddock. I miss summer already. I don't have time to ride that much, now, with school, and it getting dark so quick, and the cold. I just rode Daisy for the first time since Tuesday! Daisy was really restless. It was cold, and really, really windy, but we went anyway. I got a big, blue, heated water trough for her now.... Tomorrow is the first day of advent. This year has gone by way too fast. I don't like the way time flies. Life seems so short....gosh, this is depressing me. But at least I know that when life ends it's only beginning in Heaven!!!!!
I keep thinking about what I want to be when I grow up. I want to be either a kindergarten teacher,or a vet,or open a rescue center for abused horses, or be an author. I love writing. I was just thinking, I might start a blog that I post stories that I write on every now and then. I don't write many stories, but I think it might be nice anyway....
Bye!