Everything, All At Once

Here's an update on everything, all at once and not in the right order.

This photo was taken while Daisy was colicing. She ended up spending a full day with lots and lots of sleeping lying down.

This was one of her hoof prints on the drive from us walking up and down.

Sunday evening I gave Daisy some hay and she actually enjoyed it.

This was before Sunday evening, this was Sunday afternoon, as Daisy napped in her stall. I sat right next to her as she lay down, which was a sign that she was feeling really bad.

I set up this fun craft for my 4H club. I cleaned 25 old horseshoes. . . I like how mine turned out :)

Daisy got over her colic. The vet came the following Wednesday and I discussed it with her and she suggested I put Daisy on a daily dewormer to prevent colic. I thought about it, and have decided to put her on Apple Cider Vinegar again like last fall instead, and only resort to the dewormer if it doesn't work. I'd rather have her on something natural like the vinegar. 

This photo was taken Tuesday April 12th, when I took Daisy over to Jenny's for the night.

Itching on her tree :)

I love my new camera. . .

Daisy tucked in her old stall at Jenny's farm. She slept there Tuesday night, and Jean picked her up while I was at school on Wednesday and brought her to her farm because I needed her taken care of while I. . .

Vacationed in Germany! :) This is a panorama shot of houses along the Rhein river in Mainz, Germany.

I went to Germany with my friend Stormy.  This is us in the vineyards of Kiedrich, Germany.

This was us at a castle tower in Eltville, Germany.

The view out of the Eltville tower.

The "Mouse Tower" on the Rhein.

Us leaning out our bedroom window in the Castle Stahleck youth hostel.

The only horses I petted while in Germany :) some cart ponies in Obersdorf in the Alps.

I was surprised to see them come down the street soon after I said goodbye to them in the middle of the town.

Two cuties.

Daisy is home now, still trying to gain back weight she lost when she coliced, but she's close to her regular weight again. She is almost shed out and feels and looks so soft and pretty. I bathed her legs, tail, and mane today. I love when she smells like baby shampoo :) 
Sorry for my lack of update,

Just Gotta Love Her

Some things about Daisy bother me, but...there is a bond between us that cannot be broken. I love that girl so much.
That said, I digress.

Jenny and her three mares moved into the nighborhood, and Daisy and I visited on Monday. Daisy was shocked to see them, and they were shocked to see her. I'm excited for all the things their living so close has brought for us; someone to ride with, ponies for Daisy to visit with, an indoor, etc etc. :)

Today Jean picked up Daisy...two hours late. That's never happened before :P but it turned out ok so that's good...by the time she came it was almost 9:30 and pitch dark out. My brother sat in the bed of his truck waiting for her with me (at the end of the driveway...as usual) and Daisy stuck her nose over, breathing in deep, looking around. I sat on her for a bit in the dark, with just a halter and lead...she was quiet. Same interested, not worried behavior as usual. In the dark...it was cool. What a sweet pony I have. I really do. :) <3 Lovvveee her. So...Mounted meeting with the 4H club Friday, possibly riding Saturday (depending on how energetic she is Friday), pleasure show Sunday, and parade on Bubba Monday. I'm super excited for the show...should be good. I need to do a refresher on side passing over a pole, and then we should be all set. We're showing in a borrowed leopard print pad from Jenny for western ;) with my new brown show shirt (I have 5 western show shirts now. I feel rich ;) and the new bridle. Funnn! English we have a new, stark white pad, and new paddock boots and chaps. Tall boots don't appeal to me...I feel like I don't have enough movement in my heel and leg with them...so I got new black half chaps to save just for shows with my new black paddock boots and those are my "tall boots" :P. That's it for now....my knee has been strangely swollen, again, since Monday...I'm icing it currently. :P These pictures were all taken tonight...I stuck the macro flower shot (of chives) in there for fun; it's pretty cool lookin'.

I Just Love Her...

Nothing much new to report but that Daisy is still steadily improving/healing. The swelling is basically gone; now she just rides like a pony with a one week break. I know, most ponies are fine after one week off... not Daisy. She behaves relatively well, but is just really energetic and active...we went on a small trail ride with Jean's two sons today, and Daisy was a bit ahead of both with her active walk...I have trouble keeping her at a LAZY walk! Haha. We rode in a big clearing where a bulldozer was running. It spooked her a little at first (just tried to spin (slowly) and back away, but with the other ponies going she went) but then she got pretty used to it. There's a log jump in the clearing; not big, but big enough to force her to truly jump, and we went over it a few times. She felt INCREDIBLE. It was like a mini-high that I felt like at the cross country schooling in October. When a jump is big enough to challenge her so she picks up her hooves for real and rounds over it, she feels sooo good. I knew in the midst of her silliness there was a reason I loved her! :) She's the bestest, despite her frequent shenanigans. ;) Of course, as soon as she got out, she took a nice roll and ruined the good grooming I have her...*sigh*. I filmed it...may put in on at some point ;)

And these fine young ladies should be our neighbors in a few weeks (*fingers crossed*)
Jordan to the left, Jayda to the right. Jean's sister, Jenny, is closing on a house (hopefully this week) that is on a street next to ours, for me about a 10-15 minute horse ride over. AND! They have an indoor!!!

Yeah. I'm psyched. :D

It's Not an Abscess....

Jean picked up Daisy today. Once we got to her farm, I walked Daisy for Jean and Jean very quickly picked up on the problem.
It's definitely not in her hooves.
Daisy's hind leg is swollen, way above the hock, almost to her belly on the right. It seems like either she was stung, as there is a really obvious lump, or she strained a muscle in her hind end. As soon as Jean pointed it out, it was really obvious. I feel bad I didn't notice it before! However, it did require lifting her tail to actually see it, so it makes a little sense that I didn't notice it...seeing as I'm leading her and trying to look. :P
Anyone else ever heard of swelling there? It's really strange. We cold-hosed it (Daisy was very tolerable) and I'm giving her a few days off...I'll see her again on Wednesday and see how she is. I leave Thursday in any case.

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. :)

Riding Bubba

The Best Word to Use is "Frisky"

And by frisky I mean Daisy's behavior.
I'm sorry I haven't posted...Daisy came home Tuesday a week ago...I was hoping I could ride a lot everyday when she came home...but that hasn't been the case. I've still ridden at least every other day, but...each day I don't get to ride (because of sickness...horsebowl competition...rain...birthday...) she's really really...somethin'...the next day. I rode her down to visit the minis at the end of the street on Wednesday, and she could hardly contain herself...she refused to walk (she did that annoying horse thing "Mom, LOOK, I'm WALKING! Feel it?! I'm going slow!" when in reality she's TROTTING so slow it's almost like walking! Of course.
The trimmer came on Monday.
No thrush. (YEY!)
No laminitis (YEY!)
.... But she has bruising. Her heels in the back were bruised red. It looked painful. The trimmer trimmed 'em up so that the area the bruised area was supporting is now spread out over a larger area...he said it's probably because Daisy's hooves are soft (we've been getting a ton of rain) (oh, excuse me...a ton for US. Don't worry, Mrs. Mom, I know it could be worse ;)) and they bruised out on the road. He is going to start selling easyboots (he'll be an...idk...registered easycare provider or something) and recommended I get some when he does for times like this...and I think I will. In the meantime, I'm riding her on the actual flat pavement (as she prefers.. :P) to keep her out of pain until the mud goes away and her hooves harden. I will be adding pea stone gravel to her pasture for her hooves! I'm pretty excited...I learned that because of taxes, the town provides it for free... ;) YEY! That's good news...so as soon as the mud clears up and we can level the ground a bit, we'll put some down in Daisy's high-traffic areas.

The weather, besides rain, has been (had been..until today) soooo nice. We had about a week of weather in the 50's and 60's...just beautiful. Today it was about 26...and only in the teens tonight. Daisy started shedding, so she's got her blanket on tonight... and her heated bucket plugged in again...

Yesterday was my birthday...and I got two more western show shirts, and the belt and buckle above...I've always wanted a nice buckle! I love it :) Lydia also got me some blue riding gloves for cross country (and barrel racing) :)

I rode Daisy today...it was FREEZING! Of course, normally I wouldn't find 25 cold, but after a week of 60's...it sure was a pain. She needed to be ridden SO bad, though. When she's not ridden, she's sorta reckless, dangerous, and stupid on the ground. She's more aggressive and more of a jerk than usual...I can handle the usual. But when it gets the way she was today, I know I've gotta crack down on her.
We went English... (The first picture is taken of our shadow goin' western on Tuesday :)). I rode pretty far with her. She was soooo silly. We trotted and cantered basically the entire ride...I have no idea how long we went... She had the energy. We had some pretty scary stuff pass us...at one point we were cantering along a rode we go on a lot, and out of no where a border collie comes at us from a house; I had no idea they had a dog. Border collies are into herding, right?...anyway, that's what i thought, so I got Daisy to a walk and stood as a car passed us. The dog seemed to have electric fence, so it didn't come after us. Daisy was so good! Another time, a car with trailer like this came by...There are two things that actually worry Daisy on the road. Motorcycles going fast, or revving their engines, and cars with those trailers. It came up fast behind us (not speeding, just coming around a turn without much warning) and I turned, saw it, and got her over to the far side and kept a strong leg on her...she tensed up as it went by and her head shot up but she didn't move! I love my pony... she's such a good girl...when I'm on her back, anyway ;), on the ground is another story. At one road that we always canter/gallop (about a 1/4 mile, slight uphill) Daisy cantered and ended up galloping...I very rarely feel her truly gallop. Generally it's just a really fast, powerful canter. But she got so into it today, she went faster and faster and then was galloping...she stopped pretty well, though.

The last picture is of her today...taken with my phone. That was after our ride, I shut her in her stall with the cooler on. :)

Tomorrow I ride Daisy and I go to Jean's to ride Bubba...I'm trying to get one ride on him a week while I'm not at the barn, so that I'm ready for county fair with him this week...the Bubba Chubbs... :)

OH! Need to add for memory sake, I rode Jean's new event horse, a big 17hh thoroughbred named Ladd, a couple weeks ago...he was INCREDIBLE. I mean, amazing! He was pretty jumpy at first, but once I got him on the bit, he automatically engaged and his back lifted and he felt amazing. I LOVED him! I'm SO excited for Jean's show season; I can't wait to follow them along. Ladd is awesome already! :D

Pi π Day

Hello, all!
I actually started a post earlier this week, never finished, and decided not to post it at all :) Sooo I'll just tell you about my day/weekend.

Friday, kids from a trade school in the animal science program near us came to see a sort of presentation of Jean's farm. It was SO fun! We went in the arena towards the end and the kids (okk...so some were older than me :P) watched me and two other people demonstrate all sorts of stuff, flat work to jumping. it was awesome! Daisy was really good. The man who brought them their checked over Daisy's western saddle for me (which I stopped using when white hairs started growing in a little) and he said that it pinches her only on her left side because she's more muscled there and that since I ride primarily English anyway it was safe to keep the saddle; yey!

I rode Daisy today and Bubba (second picture). Daisy was great! We worked on flying changes and I got three good ones out of her from right lead to left; I figure we should start easy and once she starts to get it one way we can try the other :).
Then I rode Bubba, for the first time unsupervised! He was very good; as usual. We kept it pretty simple, working on circles (which I did with Daisy, too) at walk/trot/canter. He's awesome!

Daisy comes home this Tuesday...so we'll begin conditioning on the road again. After these two months primarily in the arena, I can't wait! :)

Super Sunday.... :D

I had an absolutely wonderful Sunday, pretty much, so I just had to share about it.
Daisy was trailered to board at Jean's on Thursday afternoon. I rode on Thursday and Friday, Saturday I didn't make it to the barn, and then I went today after church.

I ordered the above cooler from horseloverz.com (AWESOME site; lots and lots of sales alllll the time) for $34 about a week ago, and it finally arrived Saturday and I tried it out today...I apologize for the picture quality, I took it with my phone. :) It looks sorta silly like that, but it's contoured and I'm glad I have it, because Daisy sweats a ton in winter, and it helps to get the sweat off. They didn't have it in red, so I had to settle for blue. :)

I got to the barn, unblanketed her, tried the cooler on, and then finished grooming and got on to ride. Daisy was very agreeable during grooming already; she leaned into the brush like she was loving it and she wasn't really girth-y today during saddling, either.

I headed out to the arena and was alone for the first half hour. I got on, and warmed up slowly, first walking and having her get on the bit at the walk, then slowly the trot. With the new Kimberwicke, she's on the bit a LOT more often, but she's not necessarily stepping through, which stinks...I'm hoping to take dressage lesson soon to see what I can do about that. I got her going and some nice trots in both directions while on the bit the majority of the time, and practiced getting nice round circles. Then I got a nice trot on a small circle going left, and asked for her left lead. She got it and after a little bit actually got on the bit for one of the first times cantering; yey! It didn't last for long periods, she'd get on the bit only for a few strides at a time, but it's improvement! I had her collecting her canter, and then I changed directions and trotted, then cantered right. She's generally really speedy going right because no matter what, it's still not her favorite side. I was really happy today, though, because she collected herself at the right lead much better then usual.

After that, I kinda made up a dressage test for myself :P and ran through it, changing directions and diagonals and canter leads and circling and even tried a free walk and such...she was sooo good!

Eventually Oliver (Jean's son) and Sarah (a 4H-er) came in on their ponies, and I rode with them a bit, got off to do some groundwork, and ended up quitting that and just walking around with Daisy following me. Generally, if I walk around without holding Daisy, she doesn't follow me. Even if we've just done a join-up, she'll only follow me for a little while before stopping or heading for the gate. Today, I did NO join up and she followed me everywhere! I used a lot of body language and had her pivoting on the ground just by stepping toward her, and turned circles and walked one direction, walked another, and she always followed! At the end, I walked toward the door, but stopped in the middle of the ring, said "whoa" and she stopped, too! If I'd been her I woulda kept goin' for the door :P.

So I had a wonderful ride :)

Just wanted to ask, does anyone know of specific problems a horse could have in a leg that's NOT hoof related that could throw off their leads (like Daisy's right lead) or make them stumble a bit while turning? I just know that if I take a dressage lesson, the trainer will jam on me that Daisy's hooves are making her "off" when she makes a tight turn to the right, but that can't be possible because her hooves are wonderful right now; no bruising whatsoever. She's had that funny stumbling turn problem since last winter at least, which is why I know the trainer will bring it up. Daisy's canter to the right is also "funny"; to me it just seems speedy, but another rider told me that she looks like she's throwing her front right out really far, like it looks stiff, when she canters on it. Frankly, it ticks me off that said trainer right away assumes it's her hooves simply because she's barefoot, because it could equally be any other part of her leg/body. Can she just have some sort of leg abnormality? I have no idea what it would be...this is probably silly, but could she have a shorter right leg or something? :P Or is it beginning arthritis (She's only 11, though)? Should I try joint supplement?

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On another note, I dissected a horse leg at a vet clinic yesterday (Saturday)! It was quite an experience, but very very cool...sad, but cool. I learned a lot about the leg, and it was really interesting to see everything underneath the skin and hair :P. Some say that's gross; to a point, it is, but I thought it was a great learning experience that isn't offered often and I'm glad I went.

Goodbye, Bella...

She was one of Jean's lesson horses...the best of them all. Jean often says she needs "another Bella" because Bella was the best of all the horses...one in a million.
She was euthanized this morning after getting sick and going down hill very quickly yesterday...she was in her thirties. She will be thoroughly missed by all of the Yautzy Road Yahoos...
To see more posts that involve Bella, check here.
http://ridingdaisy.blogspot.com/2009/08/we-have-another-show.html
http://ridingdaisy.blogspot.com/2009/08/county-fair-friday-gymkhana.html
http://ridingdaisy.blogspot.com/2008/12/daisys-away-again.html

I've Been Jumping...

Sooo...I had my first jump lesson today, with Karin, the trainer I used in late winter this year... It was, to say the least, interesting.

First off, not sure if I TOTALLY have advertised this, but since July I've had Daisy trimmed with a natural trimmer. I'm LOVING the entire natural trimming process, and Daisy *seemed* and felt, like she was doing really well with it. This week Monday, the trimmer came again, and it turns out Daisy is foundering *very*, very slightly in all 4 feet. She has a small orange tinge on one part of the white-line of her hoof. The trimmer said that since she's on so little grass to begin with, she'd be fine, and just keep an eye on it and if it got worse to take her off grass altogether. He also noticed that she has very slight thrush in her right hooves; it's not advanced, but it's there. As he advised, I'm spraying Daisy's hooves daily now with a mixture of tea tree oil and organic apple cider vineger, which is supposed to help. Sounds like an odd mixture, but (this is a little silly) I have personal experience with organic apple cider vinegar killing off warts, so I think it will work.

Anyway, with all the things I've read about shoeing and farrier's trimming vs. natural trimming, I don't think I could EVER go back to shoeing, lets put that straight. Besides the fact that Daisy nearly killed the farrier multiple times (through excessive rearing during shoeing), shoeing is just wrong. Read up on it, there is a WEALTH of knowledge out there about natural trimming, and it's amazing.

Karin started out the lesson asking me to trot, and change directions at the trot, and asked me why I put galloping boots on Daisy's legs. I said I did because she tends to hit her legs together when I ride, and she responded "So to protect her, right?" and I said yes. Then she asked why I wear half-chaps, and the answer was for protection. So than she asked me why I could go around expecting my horse to work for me while she is in constant pain because she doesn't have shoes on. She wondered how I could possibly put my horse through so much pain when she obviously shouldn't be barefoot and favors her right side.
Those words stung. Bad. I'm a teenager, alright? Not to make excuses, but I'm still young and have experience, but not THAT much, and I try really hard to do the best I can for Daisy. I honestly believed (AND STILL DO) that shoes are WRONG. So Karin berated me for quite a while, which was horrible. Worse than anything, because she's older than me (duh). She has an amazing reputation as being a great riding instructor. She's had years of knowledge. Somehow, I knew that whatever I said, she'd counter, and I wouldn't be able to convince her. It's something that she just wouldn't understand, I know it. So I kept my mouth shut, in a kind of silent disagreement. I didn't agree with anything she said. In all honestly, I felt like crap. It stunk having to listen to her talk, and not figure out HOW to make her understand!
Finally, she seemed to realize I wasn't agreeing with what she said, and she said that in the end it was my choice what I did with my horse, but that I should know that Daisy was in pain and "off" to her right.
We started working for real, which was slightly awkward because I was now very aware of how Daisy's trot would die when we'd turn to change direction at the trot and change when on the right diagonal. She had me work on two-point, which I STINK at because I rarely do it at home as I ride western and rarely english, and just don't do two-point (standing in the stirrups, heels dropped down, leaning almost horizontal over the horse's back and shoulders). We trotted around, and she worked on improving my two-point.
Then she set up this course:
All the cavalettis were at full height. (lines start out magenta, than black, then (although it's hard to tell) maroon.) I would start out the course at a right lead canter, and after the first cavaletti, switch to left lead. I got lost the first two times, as I apparently have a terrible sense of direction...Daisy was, as usual, flat over the jumps in the beginning, but when she got into it and knocked a pole, she started picking up her feet more, and jumping better. At this point, however, Daisy has to go faster to jump better; eventually she was fast cantering, almost galloping, around the ring for the jumps, popping over each one...unfortunately, again no video, just my little diagram... :-/...
I felt pretty dumb jumping...I felt like Daisy was out of control galloping, and though she felt like she was jumping rounded and not flat, her speed was embaressing (I thought). Plus I felt like I was jumping badly. I saw a video of us jumping that Jean took on her phone, however, and we didn't look too bad! In fact...we looked GOOD! Creepy, huh?!

Towards the end, Daisy started to refuse the oxer (two cavalettis side-by-side) and after MUCH smacking with the crop to no avail, Karin got out the lunge whip. That was kinda freaky, because I KNEW she'd hit Daisy, but I wasn't sure how Daisy would react...Daisy shot forward when the whip hit her legs, but she wasn't hard to balance on, and we went over the oxer. Karin had to smack her with the whip 2 more times as she tried to refuse, before we ended with her going over without needing the whip.

Karin still tried to drill the shoe deal into my head again as we finished up...I just sat silent again.

She did give me some pretty cool info on Daisy's past owners, however...Apparently, Daisy used to be really bad at shows because she'd whinny and scream to the mare she was stabled with over the ring fence (I'm assuming her mother)...Ironic, considering other horses mean NOTHING, zip, zero, zilch to Daisy now; they can't motivate her, they don't comfort her, she doesn't feed off them, NOTHING. :P

Sooo, in all, it was worth the money, cool lesson...besides the terrible shoe-talk part. I need to honestly look into Old Mac's G2's...I'm NOT shoeing! NO WAY. Just need to get down and get those boots!

On Monday, I'm riding Daisy in a cross-country jump schooling with Oliver and Phoenix and Karin...Yeah...I'm crazy....we'll see how it goes. I'll try REALLY hard to get some video! :)