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I need help. Completely defeated.

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The fire-breathing dragon needs to be tamed.

Instead of getting better, he gets worse.

Please help.

Seriously though, Subi is getting more unpredictable as the days go on. He’s generally pretty good in the mornings and pretty terrible at night. So I guess he is predictable but I can’t seem to fix it beyond that. We were better a month ago… [He’s fine in his stall. He eats, sleeps (evidence is the bedding found all over him including inside his ears), and looks generally relaxed in the morning)

Daylight used to make a difference, not now. Hard ground sometimes makes a difference, but not always. Mushy soft ground (most of the time) makes things worse.

If I do work in hand, it doesn’t necessarily make a difference in how he behaves. He’s spooky and reactive.

Generally though, if I do in hand work on the driveway before tossing him in his stall, he’s great for that. We don’t spook on the driveway even though the driveway is dark and shadowy. Unfortunately, we have to get TO the driveway in order to work there.

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Icy, slushy mess

Last night he got away from me for the first time. Not my finest moment, but I just could not hold on (it was slippery — freezing rain on top of snow made for pretty awful conditions) and he spooked at my husband and reared and I slipped and… I tried to hold on, but he got caught up in the rope and ultimately, I lost my grip. I caught him a second later, but… I’m ashamed that I lost control. I sort of kept him in check the rest of the way, but his brain was lost. Batt was screaming (seriously? Idiot horse didn’t help the situation) but we made it the rest of the way unscathed.

I need to spend a few hours just leading back and forth. Except, when we’re leading just to lead, he seems to know the difference???? We’re planning to install another gate so we can walk through the wood, but we need to cut up a fallen tree first. This will provide a darker path, but a flatter path too… I’ll take a spooking horse on flat surfaces over one on a hill any day.

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Prime…mush.

Anyway, I need help. I’m about to give up. While I don’t mean it, I feel completely defeated.

Update and help the cats please

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Before I update, just wanted to put this out there. If you have a few dollars to spare, or can send a few supplies, please consider helping out. Some people I know through people I know, are working to help a cat hording situation in AZ. What was initially thought to be about 20 cats indoors and out, has turned out to be 30+ with exact numbers probably well above that. Every time they show up, more cats are there. The situation is taking significantly longer to handle too because the cats are requiring medical attention and surgery beyond just the spay/neuter. Many of the females are pregnant and have had litters. Most have giardia, many have URIs. Indoor cats have ear mites. It’s a horrific situation. Anyway, anything you can do, please do. I don’t share stuff like this often, but I am today. If all you can do is share the campaign, I’d appreciate it. If you can send a case of food, that would be wonderful! If you can donate money, they’d love that as well. If you are in Peoria AZ and can foster, please reach out.

GoFundMe the Monterosa Cat Project ($5 helps!)

Amazon Wish List for the Monterosa Cat Project (List is low now, but I’m assuming they may need more supplies)

Social Media 

img_9569In other news, I FINALLY have had a chance to hang out out with Ranger! I had a short lessons last week (I wasn’t able to do much thanks to my inability to breathe post pneumonia) and now my trainer is away for 3+ weeks at a horse show. But, I can ride during my lesson time while she’s away and thankfully I can breathe again! Nothing worth reporting on, but it was nice to ride again and work on regaining endurance. Nothing fancy, just some flat work and single, low fences. We were both exhausted after that. Lol. Ranger is a bit out of shape too…

Missed this guy so much!

Subi has sort of fallen off the wagon too. I’m not entirely sure what is going on with him. He started to adjust to coming in at night and then suddenly started tensing up, getting spooking, rearing all the time (almost on top of me one morning) and it all culminated 3 nights ago when I could not catch him for the first time in…13 years. This horse has issues, but catching isn’t one of him. And, for all his issues, he’s not spooky. Reactive? Yes, spooky no. The constant tension, stress in his eyes, and a few other things have me fearing ulcers. So, I’m trying a few things and I’ll see if we have any improvement. He’s been eating OK (well, not his hay), but at the same time… I’m trying to trust my gut. I will say I’m not scoping, even though many will say I should. He was scoped 4 years ago and I’m just not putting him through that stress again.

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Someone at work filled the candy jar with peppermints. I may have been taking handfuls for the kids… 

In addition, I’m doing some behavior modification. Teresa from Journey with a Dancing Horse recommended a leading technique that I started introducing last night. Basically, you have the horse follow and maintain the same distance. This video explains it. Probably not the best way to introduce it, but I introduced it last night, in the dark, on the driveway. We’ve been doing work on the driveway at night before heading into his stall. I think he started to get the idea. Then we followed up this morning in the round pen and led to the field that way. He seemed more relaxed (though he is better in the daylight). We did have a spook, but this one was legitimate as my dog came flying around the corner like a bat out of hell. He stayed out of my space and calmed down immediately once he realized it way Hermione so I’ll take that one as a win. Normally we have an incident and we carry tension the rest of the walk to the field. Not today.

That’s about it. Batty’s heaves are acting up, so I’m thinking I’m going to have to go the steamer route soon. I’m broke so I’ll be building one, but I was hoping to avoid it. He’s better with hay outside (despite the round bale form — my round bale guy has really good hay), it’s just the stall seems to exacerbate his issues. Oh well.

Subi and the big, tall, terrible, awesome, scary, wonderful… tarp.

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I’ve alluded to having issues with Subi lately. Sometimes he’s fine leading to and from the barn. Sometimes he’s a rearing mess. I cannot for the LIFE OF ME figure out what sets him off. Maybe it’s being in a stall for the night and he just has more energy? Maybe is that there are big, tall, terrible giants in the sky scaring him to death and only he can see them? I don’t know. But honestly? I’m sick of it.

I’ve been swapping back and forth between leading him in a halter and chain and a rope halter. For a while he was overreacting to the halter/chain so the rope halter was better, but then post OMG CRAZY HORSE incident, I swapped back to the halter/chain combo as I had better control. I had been backing/halting, but I’ve limited that some as Subi has started to anticipate the backing once he misbehaves… So, he rears, halts, and then backs himself. Stupid thoroughbreds…

Anyway, I ordered some ground training books and I’ll start posting about those later. BUT Friday night I basically melted down. For no reason what-so-ever he was stupid. He hates the dark and soft ground and that combo is a perfect excuse to misbehave. So we spooked at Batt, we spooked at the giants in the sky, and we just were stupid and poorly behaved in our walk to the stall. This was AFTER we stood in the howling wind with no halter or lead rope changing blankets (WTF? I can’t do that with either of my other 2). I finally dumped him in his stall, started crying, and told him I’d sell him if I could find someone who wanted to buy him. Then fed peppermints to Jiminy and Batt… Not my finest moment.

But, I started fresh Saturday morning. The ground was frozen and he was a perfect gentleman to turnout. Prior to turnout (post reading 101 ground exercises), we working on dropping his head for a few minutes based on poll pressure (with halter assistance if needed), releasing at the first sign of compliance. He picked it us really quickly. Then turnout.

Later that day, I dumped him in the round pen and did some basic lunging. Just walk-halts for about 15-20 minutes. I reintroduced change of direction too and we worked on that for about 10 minutes. We did some turns on the forehand (both ways) which were hand with his arthritis, but I accepted effort, not perfection, and he was trying. One side was easier than the other. After a while, I realized I needed something else since there were no fireworks and decided to grab the tarp in my car.

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My plan with the tarp was to introduce it over the course of several sessions/weeks. Except, I walked it over, folded, and Subi looked at me and went back to grazing. So I dropped it by his head and he gave no shits. So I made it make noise and no response. Thanks horse. SERIOUSLY????

Next, thinking I might as well risk my life, I tossed the thing on his back and he continued to give no shits.img_9509

Then his neck. From his neck it fell over his head which was not a problem until it blocked the grass, which just required him to push it out of the way.

WHO IS THIS HORSE?????

So, I decided to make him stand on it. This took about 30 seconds mostly because he didn’t see the point.

Then we walked and lunged over it. Caveat. He was only willing to lunge to the right over it and had to be led to the left over it, but since he had no issue walking over it, I’m assuming he was tired/sore by that point.

We have 3000 problems, but tarps aren’t one of them.

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I planned to work him more yesterday, but I was tired and well, day off. Today we have snow and my university seems to want to avoid closing despite the city closing offices…

You crazy lunatics! Why are you spooking?!?!?!?!?!

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Preparing for turn in and turn out lately has been… interesting. Subi is either really good or really… not good and on edge. I’m sure part of it is that he needs a job and being in a stall for half the night isn’t helping. So, he’s either on his best behavior or he rears. I’m prepared for both.

This morning he was pretty good walking down to the field. Until we got close and then… explosion. What made this different was there was a chain reaction. Usually Subi explode and I can get his attention and Batt ignores us. Except this time Batt exploded too. My husband was a little shocked by the calm, fat appendix thing at the end of his lead rope exploding in the air with all four feet off the ground (this is impressive). I focused on Subi while Erik got Batty in the field. Except, once in the field, Batt started rolling and bucking and acting stupid while Subi tried to be good while almost exploding again. I could feel the power keg in my hand and we had one mini explosion as we walked to the gate and while he wasn’t listening, he was trying. Once his halter was off (stupid rope halter…), the fireworks started…

FYI Jiminy had NO IDEA what was going on (he only reacted when the big guys got too close to him and to join the fun)…

Watch with sound…

I’m hoping everyone will be alive and INSIDE THE FIELD when I get home. They were picking at Subi’s leftover mash when I left for work so I assume that was enough of a distraction… Jiminy was VERY disappointed that the boys calmed down enough to help pick at food as he thought the bucket was 100% his…

Horses are stupid.

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It feels like I’ve been saying this a lot, but evidently I haven’t used this as a blog title yet.

But seriously, HORSES ARE STUPID. At least my horses are stupid.

Subi seems to follow a 2-3 day on (good behavior) followed by an explosion.

I had been leading him in with a halter and a chain. Except, he started resenting the chain, overreacting to the chain, and I decided to try something different so we’ve moved on to the rope halter. Prior to the rope halter, it got to the point that I couldn’t even correct any behavior as he’d correct himself… With the rope halter, things have been better. Well, I haven’t had to do anything since throwing it on Friday, but… Most of our time is spent with Subi licking and chewing. Saturday night I even led him to the barn alone. No Batt in sight! (Batt decided he wanted to go out the frozen gate shut gate and I didn’t feel like waiting…)

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Not innocent

Until last night. Last night he was on edge. But, we halted, we backed, we licked, we chewed, we backed, we halted, we kept ourselves in check. I was very proud. Especially considering the ground was slushy and gross.

This morning, slush had frozen over and I pulled blankets. So, 28 degrees out, he was cold. And it was icy. (tough, it was going up to 54-55). And instead of behaving, Subi decided rearing was the right response. I can’t remember my initial reaction. I might have just yanked on his halter a few times and then backed him down the snowy hill. Then we walked onto the icy driveway to take the less slippy path.

Passing the “front” of the house, he tried to be stupid again and I lost it and yelled “ARE YOU CRAZY? DO YOU WANT US BOTH TO DIE? WOULD THAT JUST BE EASIER?” And scared the shit out of both him and Batty. And after that, every time he so much breathed out of place, I might have yelled, “WOAH!” and Subi halted. And then a little harshly yelled, “Back!” and he backed. And then “Walk on!” and only, then did I soften my voice… We made it to the field pretty quickly even with halt and back breaks, but by the time we got there, lots of licking and chewing were going on, and a stupid chestnut’s head was on the ground.

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So. Much. Trouble. 

When he first reared, he nearly reared on top of me and well, not acceptable. The halting and backing HAD been working alone, but sometimes you need to escalate? I’m not sure I’m a fan of yelling (lol), but sometimes I forget JUST HOW MUCH this horse reacts to voice and dislikes being yelled at.

Once the round pen dries up some (haha) we’re going to start working in there. I’m not sure he’ll be sound enough for lunging, but no reason I can’t start desensitizing and other ground work. I need a book of fun ground exercises that aren’t stressful for joints. But if it kills me, we’re going to learn to love tarps. That’s my Subi goal. We’re bomb proofing.

Meanwhile, my other stupid horse is a sloppy eater. Send help. HOW DO I FIX THIS???

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Who does this? How do I fix this? I can’t feed him on the ground as he’d spill his feed all over and eat his bedding… He’d do better without the cubes/pulp but chronic colic and I’m scared to stop what’s working… Picture taken during arctic blast so slop was FROZEN TO THE WALL. 

And my stupid mini likes to poop under the tack room door. We moved mats around, but he’s driving me insane.

WW: a nice change from rain?

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Nothing real to update… Subi is working on ground manners. He’s been nicely behaved since Sunday as we halt and back every day walking to and from his stall to the field. It’s cold, it snowed a little, but it’s nothing here compared to the midwest. Everyone is fine. Batt and Jiminy don’t understand why I turned them out this morning. Tonight and tomorrow will be super cold. Eventually I’ll get results from my chest x-ray (too little, too late as I’m finally feeling a lot better).

 

Only interesting thing…

Home vs work. A grand total of 22 minutes apart. Granted, it was only ~3″ but still… NOTHING at work.

Snowless patch on left is under a large tree where there is almost NEVER snow…

Catching up

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Not too much to write about. I’ve basically been sick since my last post (bronchitis or possibly pneumonia though we didn’t do x-rays so don’t actually know) so not much has happened. Still recovering… Haven’t ridden in weeks due to being sick and with a high of 17 this week, chances are I won’t be riding again… Haven’t cancelled 3 lessons in a row in a super long time. I miss Ranger.

My nursing crew (sleeping on the job)

The boys are starting to get into a routine. Some days Subi is a gentleman to lead, other days he’s a rearing mess (more at the end)… But, he seems to be OK in the stall. He more or less eats his dinner (we’ve been feeding breakfast outside) and picks through hay. Sometimes he drinks, sometimes he doesn’t.

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Tiny holes don’t stop Batt!

Batty is a stall pig, but seems to love his stall. He was inhaling too much hay so he was downgraded from the 2″ hay net to a 1″ hay net. That hasn’t stopped him… But, thankfully he still has a little hay left in the morning.  He has free choice hay outside and stands and eats all day. He really doesn’t need to eat 15+lbs of hay in his stall. Not sorry about limiting his hay AT ALL. He’s a pig. He’s also a messy pig. I switched him Saturday from shavings to pellets and HOPEFULLY that will help. Thankfully the pellets aren’t dusty either so… With his heaves, I worry about stalling in general, but he seems ok. I do want to start steaming his hay, just need to build him a steamer…

Jiminy is fine, but likes to poop RIGHT under the storage room door. Maybe next weekend I’ll add another mat there so that I stop messing with the screenings. Thanks Jiminy, very inconvenient.

I also can’t wait until I have electric. Doing stalls by headlamp isn’t the easiest, but oh well. It works?

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Fun key chains from Painted Flanks (though a little bigger than I thought)

Yesterday, the farrier was out and the boys had there feet done in their stalls. Subi was VERY good considering the change of routine. My farrier was very happy not to be trimming on a hill or in the mud. Batt had several abscesses in his front left — not surprising–but overall, everyone was pretty good.

Turning back out after trimming was another story… Subi was a jerk, and proceeded to take his rearing to another level. I did a little ground work walking to the field as I could feel him on edge (he acts up more when the ground is mushy–he doesn’t like the unstable ground), but outside of the gate he proceed to explode, rearing about 6 times and freaking Batty out. I did get after him and maybe overreacted, but… He exploded once he was free (after halter was off and I was safely out of the field — he’s good about that). When we brought in a few ours later in the dark, the ground was harder and he was a bit better. I halted and backed him every once in a while. He rushed the hill where the footing is a bit…slippery, but otherwise was decent. I did extra halts and backs anyways. This morning he was…strange. Extra slow and cautious. I felt like I had to drag him to the field. I’m thinking he’s feeling yesterday? Regardless, we’re doing halts and backs every.single.day. while walking to and from the barn until he can contain himself.

The barn is OPEN.

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Finally. The moment I have been waiting for. There are ponies in my barn!

It took a lot of hard work (much of which while I’ve been fighting a cold from hell), but the barn is up and running! Well, mostly, we still need the electric to be hooked up, but that may need to wait until spring.

Friday, after panicking all day about HOW to build Jiminy a stall (my initial plan didn’t pan out) and bothering Michele, we purchased gates at Tractor Supply for a whopping $22.49. Yes, you read that correctly. Thanks to a 10% off coupon and 2 gift cards, I spend $22 on gates. We moved out mats in to the stalls and run in when we got home (I’ll probably add another into the run in, but I was in the midst of an asthma attack that nearly took me to the ER) and called it a night.

Saturday, we got up bright an early, purchased straw in case the anticipated 1-2″ of rain left us with crazy pooling prior to the flash freeze, put up gates (10ft and 14ft), put of bucket hooks, hay net hooks, and salt licks. Then stalls were bedded down. Only thing left was…

The horses!

The transition into the stalls was NOT easy. I’m not going to lie.

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The handsomest, but most stressed, horse

Subi reared 4 or 5 times walking to the barn and was a nervous wreck inside. Jiminy was OK, but feeding off of Subi. Batt? Well, he found his dinner and his hay and life was pretty damn good. I checked on them multiple times. The big boys had the outside top Dutch door open until the rain started coming down pretty hard. Subi got a little wet and was less than thrilled that I closed him in. Batt didn’t actually care. They still had the top half open to see Jiminy under the overhang. img_9353

By the next morning, they’d all survived. Subi managed to eat some hay (5-6lbs), but never touched his dinner. Typical. He did have a nap as when I first appeared there was a bang and commotion before he appeared looking disheveled. I’ll take it. Batt emptied his hay net and was annoyed at my lack of hay net filling abilities… Jiminy ate half of his 2 flakes which was all he really needed. Batt, I learned, is a complete PIG in his stall. Subi pooped in his water bucket…

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I turned out and they were SLIGHTLY better behaved, especially after Subi and I had a quick discussion. Subi also only ran around for about 7 steps before stopping so? Progress. He failed to eat breakfast in his stall but ate it in the field.

Last night? Prior to coming in, they were all huddled, cold, in the run in. Subi marched to the barn like a gentleman. He knew where we were going and he knew it was warm. He didn’t eat his dinner between 5 and 8, but ate it sometime overnight. He also ate most of his hay and seemed 100% more relaxed. In a few days? He’ll have the routine down. Batt? Batt likes stall life but feels he needs more hay. Not my fault he’s a pig and 15 lbs of hay isn’t enough for fatty. He also parks himself by the round bale the second he’s back outside…

Last night it was cold. I know that. Single digits and wind chills well below 0. At 9am, it warmed up to 9 with windchills at -12. I’m SO HAPPY the barn is up and running. I do need ideas to block more wind for Jiminy as the gates do let wind in. Or, at least the front gate. The side gate is pretty well blocked with a tree and fence close by.  Any ideas?

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90% There!

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I’m sure everyone is getting tired of barn pictures, but right now that’s all I have in my life about which to update.

Yesterday, despite the frozen temperatures, my site prep people (person) showed up to work on the foundation and add screenings.

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Perfection.

During the installation of the barn, the equipment sort of, kind of got stuck and left grooves/divots in the original foundation. Thankfully, Lloyd was able to fix that, and add screenings to the stalls, fix the grading, and add additional screenings around the barn.

The end result? A perfect barn.

We’re so close! I cut the stall mats that needed cutting yesterday and now just need to move in the full sized mats, add Jiminy’s panels, and add bucket hooks. Hopefully everything will be finished in time for Saturday and Sunday’s ugly weather.

These 2 provided absolutely NO help…

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utterly useless.

Virtual Barn Tour

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The barn project hit some snags, but on Friday, they were FINALLY able to finish the set up! My foundation people are scheduled to come back on Wednesday to fix the footing at add more screenings/stone dust (4-5 inches in the stall and basically fix the run in area which will be Jiminy’s stall plus add whatever they have left to the outside area of the the barn). Basically, MUD (it should be a 4 letter word) and RAIN (the really 4 letter word) have killed us.

But, bright and early Friday morning, the crew showed up and 5 (!) hours later, my barn set up was complete!

And your 3 part walking tour.

The barn has experienced its first snow as well and looks gorgeous!

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Hopefully all will go well for footing this week! I really don’t want to postpone! There’s a possibility for an actually storm next weekend (anywhere from 2-15″) so I’d like to get everything set up before then! I could make the stalls work as is if absolutely necessary, but the run in… It’s not usable until the ground is fixed… It’ll be close to 40 on Wednesday so HOPEFULLY they can do something…