I. Hate. Colic.

Posted on September 28, 2017 by Sarah (threechestnuts)

Seriously.

Colic sucks.

Yesterday after work, I went out to feed Subi meal 2 of 3. All was well. They horses weren’t eating hay (I’m not sure what’s up with that… Same batch as the rest of the hay that they’ve inhaled… Not moldy, smells fine, can’t find anything), but… could be the heat. I decided that I’d run errands and come back and pick through hay to see what’s up.

Came back and jumped into the hay feeder pulled hay out. No dust. No mold. Lovely hay. (Subi not eating isn’t concerning). Jiminy picked at what I tossed on ground. Batts started pawing violently.

Shit.

Then he stretched out in the pee stance.

Shit.

Pawing.

Pee stance.

Shit. Shit.

Belly stare.

Shit. Shit. SHIT.

Oh the misery (from his last colic 10ish months ago last December)

Now, an hour earlier, he was trying to eat Subi’s dinner, but now colic symptoms. Super agitated pee stance and pawing. While I stared at him cursing, he did walk to the water trough and drank a bit, but…

So, with Jiminy already in the paddock picking at hay, I squirted some banamine down Batts through and tossed both Subi and Batts down on the grass and decided to wait it out. Typically my vet’s colic protocol with Batty is withhold hay and allow him as much grass as possible. I usually toss him in the round pen with water, but as he was already agitated, I decided to keep him with Subi instead. Interestingly enough, he trotted himself down and picked at the grass for about a half hour which confirmed my suspicions that we were dealing with a mild impaction rather than gas. Because Batts can’t be a normal horse with gas colic. We have to get these stupid chronic impaction colics…

30 minutes later Subi ditched him and was waiting for dinner and Batty was feeling a little better thanks to banamine. I started him on beet pulp and electrolyte soup (basically super soaked beet pulp shreds and electrolytes and a handful of grain for flavor) and he inhaled that. But, he was still dehydrated.

A little later I fed the other boys dinner and gave Batts more soup which he inhaled again.

At midnight he greeted me when I came out to check on him and thankful decided to poop while I was out there. He was rewarded with the soupiest soup yet. Subi was thoroughly disgusted by the concoction.

At 3 AM I’m pretty sure he was feeling OK, but he was also looking towards his belly. That said, I was pointing a flashlight at his face and the action of looking towards his belly may have been simply turning his eyes away from the light. The second I moved the light his eyes moved away from his belly.

He received a slightly larger breakfast and had a normal 99.1 temp this morning, but I still feel like something is NQR. I just don’t know what. I think I caught it early. I think he just forgot to drink because he’s stupid like that. But nonetheless…

I just HATE THIS! I HATE COLIC! I hate that I can’t prevent it.

I don’t ever want to have him back in New Bolton again like he was a few years ago for around the clock fluids. 3-4 days in the Colic Wing… Not fun. I just don’t know. He was part of a clinical study while there and had an ultrasound that revealed NOTHING.

Anyway, he’s getting a few more days off work. It’s a gorgeous weekend too. I guess I don’t need to open up my tack compartment in my trailer yet after all…

I hate colic.

Now I just have to go home and hope he’s OK.

Ranger Recap: Happy Place

Posted on July 28, 2017 by Sarah (threechestnuts)

I’ve been awful about blogging lately. I had a great lesson last week on Ranger and a really nice ride on Batts on Sunday (we rode in the ring and both enjoyed ourselves), but never got around to writing about it. Oh well…

Last night I managed to drag myself out for a lesson. I wasn’t in the mood, but I made myself. And then showed up to an empty barn. Thankfully after messaging my trainer, she was home and willing to come out and teach me when I was ready so I got Ranger ready and rode.

I guess it was camp week so I had a camp horse. He wasn’t exactly responsive on the flat. I mean, I had great brakes, but that was about it? He was sluggish and just wanted to drift to the middle. So, inside leg was the mode of the day. Great. I had none. But, despite that, he was a good boy and was quite willing to move at the trot. [We also spent way too much time on sit trot circles… Good thing I practiced those without stirrups on Batts…] Canter to the right? Not so much. But, once we re-established that when we don’t pick up the canter I will stop asking, recollect, and ask again, rather than looking like crap until I do get a canter, I got there, but damn, inside leg was necessary because someone wanted to drift in. So, when we cantered left, I was crazy surprised that we stayed out, because normally we don’t stay out that easily to the left.

You can sort of see the course… Not the best view of the ring, but I took it from Ranger’s back while on a walk so…

It was another course change, but our outside single mostly stayed the same (but we lost the inside quarter line I liked so much). We started out cantering up our outside single and then down our inside single (brown boxes) which was actually UP to start with. Goal of this exercise was basically our path and pace. First time through, eh. I was a tiny bit slow the the first fence but the the spot was there, simple change was actually pretty neat and quick, we stayed out and had a nice path to our inside single. However, I didn’t actually trust someone enough and we were too slow to our inside single heading to the barn and chipped. Basically, I had no pace and rode too passively. When I’m unsure, I get passive because Ranger will jump me out of pretty much anything.

So we circled and started over, this time with pace and energy and had a much better pace to fence one which we then carried on to the second fence. Now, after realizing that I was riding Ranger, Camp Horse, aka, “I’m lazy and tired,” I was also I little more confident and active? Ranger can get strong and pull even though he’s amazing and perfect so knowing that heading toward the gate that this was NOT the horse I had, I rode his much differently and actually moved him up. So, turning the corner to our fence, I saw the distance and instead of steadying him, we maintained our pace and had a nice forward pace and distance. From here, we continued to our inside line (I first almost turned to the wrong inside line… oops) in a 4, moving up on the landing of the first fence to actually get the 4.

Do you ever have one of those rides that after the first jump or 2, you just can’t miss? That’s what this ride turned out to be. I saw every distance, made every correction necessary, because we didn’t actually come in perfectly at every given time. But, my eye was on. I need to remember and trust that I can actually find distances as scary as it seems. I just, most of the time, don’t trust that I can.

Our next course was basically the same in a slightly different order/directly. So, we came up the inside single (towards the road/away from the barn), down the outside single (towards the barn) and the same inside green line. And, because, for some reason I’m convinced my trainer likes me thinking on my feet, we can’t ever just do what I’m told, we have to add and keep going. So, after the green line, she had me do the brown boxes again, heading towards the barn. This time though, it just felt easy.

Some of my favorite ears…

We ended with our brown boxes again, towards the road, to our other inside line, gross straw bales (it’s rained a lot lately and they haven’t done well) to the white stone oxer. We landed from the straw bales pretty slow and drifted left but since we started jumping, Ranger has been SO responsive and moved up off and forward off my leg and jumped the crap out of that jump just because I asked him to. I mean, he had campers all week on his back so he wouldn’t have if I hadn’t asked, but he was happy to do so at the slightest asking. Such a good boy. Everything felt easy. I love him so much.

We ended with a nice walk around the property and a bath before helping turn out. Hanging out with him is really becoming my happy place. How can it not be?

summer in chester county

Oh and just because, meet Biscuit!

The Biscuit “Bisquick” kitty

Supplements (BlogHop from DIY Horse Ownership)

Posted on July 5, 2017 by Sarah (threechestnuts)

Olivia from DIY Horse Ownership is doing a Blog Hop on supplements so I thought I’d participate.

Batts:

Batts is my supplement horse. He’ll eat anything (except bananas and fig newtons) so he’s not a good test case regarding taste. He lives by the philosophy of eat first, think later.

Which is why it’s really strange that there are items he won’t eat.

Like fig newtons.

Go figure?

I don’t understand this horse entirely…

Digestive:

Dispersible-Powder_5lb Probios Powder 2 scoops daily (~ $.22/day). I started him on this after his New Bolton stay for colic since I’m just paranoid. New Bolton basically told me probiotics don’t do much, but, it’s cheap and doesn’t hurt and makes me feel like I’m at least doing SOMETHING vs NOTHING so why not, right?

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Joint:

I just feed MSM. Right now he gets the Vitaflex MSM @ $.17/day. He’s a little sticky sometimes and this seems to help him be less creeky and more comfortable. When he gets more ouchy/stiff, we go back to the loading dose @$.34/day but most of the time we do well with the maintenance dose.

Electrolytes:

5762

So, Batts is my chronic impaction colicer. He gets EVERY. SINGLE. MEAL. SOAKED. More than soaked, he gets them soupy. Thankfully he’ll more or less eat anything. He gets a single 3 quart scoop of cubes, 2 take out quart soup containers of plain dried beet pulp dumped in a 5 gallon bucket, and water added so the whole thing is filled 2/3 – 3/4 of the way (lately it’s 2/3 since he’s started protesting the 3/4). To that we add 1-2 quarts of grain for flavoring (right now he gets strategy healthy edge which I can up if he needs to when in higher work but this summer he doesn’t need it — winter he gets too fat and usually needs a diet…). He doesn’t do well on ration balancers and usually looks terrible coat and condition-wise. This seems to work for us… Then he gets electrolytes. LOTS of electrolytes. I buy a MASSIVE 20lbs container of Orange Stress Dex (smells like tang) and he gets 2 scoops AM and PM spring and fall and had been getting 1 scoop AM and PM the rest of the year. But, after he coliced in December, my vet advised he stay on the massive dose all year. But, I go through 3-4 of the 20lbs containers a year. It’s INSANE. So, since he does drink a lot in the summer, I’m experimenting with 1 2/3 of a scoop AM/PM just to limit my use. Yes, our electrolyte usage is insane, but it’s under vet directions. Stress Dex is the cheapest I can find and he eats it so… I have no idea the cost per day nor do I wish to ever calculate it. I usually buy from Dover @ $44.99 per container (tax free) from the local Dover store. If I buy from my feed store, it’s a few dollars more with tax (I buy most everything else from them so I don’t mind skipping them on the Stress Dex purchases).

Flax Seed:

I started feeding whole flax a few winters ago. It improved his coat and hoof quality. I feed a 1.5 cups/daily. A 50lbs bag runs ~ $29.95 from the one further feed store ($45 from the close local feed store) and lasts 2 months since Subi will no longer eat it. Every time I take him off of it, he gets abscesses. Now when he gets abscesses, he’s rarely lame from them so…?

Jiminy:

He’s easy.

Metabolic:

1 scoop of Quiessence just because I’m paranoid. I don’t know if it does anything, but I’m afraid to stop. He’s in decent weight, but just in case… Gets soaked beet pulp with 8 alfalfa cube PM only and a handful of grain.

He also gets 1/2 scoop electrolytes.

img_3376-1 Subi:

He’s terrible about eating poison aka supplements. He gets 1 1/2 cups Buckeye Ultimate Finish fat (~1lbs 2x/day) with his grain and beet pulp in the morning or grain and soaked alfalfa cubes in the evening. He gets chopped hay AM as well (he will ONLY eat the tractor supply brand chopped hay… we are that picky…). He gets way too much grain (combo of Equine Senior and Omalene 200 RT which is currently willing to eat now, but I’m sure it’ll change when he decides that’s no longer edible). You haven’t met picky until you’ve met Subi. When feed reps actually suggest mixing feeds (which they do NOT do), you know your horse is picky… Nothing medically wrong with him either. I’d love to add at least one supplement (MSM), but I’d risk him going on a hunger strike so it’s just not happening.

Grumpy Chestnut: We jump stuff

Posted on June 28, 2017 by Sarah (threechestnuts)

Somehow I have a happy horse again. I mean, he’s grumpy and he’ll always be the grumpy chestnut, but at he’s a happy, grumpy chestnut.

I haven’t hauled him out ANYWHERE in a while so we’ll have to see if he’s happy attitude continues when we go ride in a ring (or, if the attitude was due to the 2 abscess he had even though he was sound on his right front…). Either way, Grumpy Chestnut, aka Batts, is back to his old self.

Note the crazy dogs around us… He still loves his nose net…

Just like last time, we kept the ride relatively easy. A quick warm up on the lunge line (he’s just happier that way), some trotting and cantering hill work (SO GRUMPY when I won’t let him just canter up the damn hill), then off to jump all the things in the backyard. By all the things, I mean 3 crossrails and some ground poles (ground poles we did 1x because I stuck them too close to the trees and wacked my head against the branches…).

So I decided I would walk idiot horse up to our first crossrail and let him look. Because that’s how we roll. Well, someone wouldn’t get near it and had a temper-tantrum. HOW DARE I TRY AND MAKE HIM LOOK AT THE DAMN FENCE! HOW DARE I THINK SO LITTLE OF HIM! HOW DARE I! HOW DARE I! HOW DARE I! It was going to be THAT kind of ride.

See, let me remind you, Batts is a stopper. We have jump issues. THIS is why I ride Ranger. When your trainer tells your no amount of training will likely fix the issue (and your horse was just miserable)… Yeah. So I like to make him look. Well, not happening today.

So I circled, tapped him with the crop (extra encouragement to hopefully remind him that yes, we would be JUMPING), and closed my eyes. We’d do one of two things. Jump or slam on the breaks and realize he needed to inspect the jump. Today we launched ourselves over with complete confidence. We were NOT inspecting jumps. It was a Batts is right, I am wrong kind of night.

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So, I decided to trust him and trotted the other two crossrails (sans inspection) where we also launched over with enthusiasm… Go figure. Sometimes this horse is confident? It’s kind of scary. But, he is crossrail champion of the world.

He wanted NOTHING more than to canter the broken line between two of our crossrails. The first time I WOULD NOT let him. Pissed him off so much. Second time I gave in and we did it, but you can see the slight hesitation at the base. Lovely that now I was going to have to ride… Damn you horse. Make me work? Later?

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The first several jumps, my Hermione dog was having fun running up the hill along side of us (several feet to our right). Batts is NOT a dog horse (that’s Subi). But you can tell he was having fun when that wasn’t even annoying him. He learned long ago not to mess with them (and they know when to get away from him), but it’s amazing when he’s having fun. Meanwhile, my cat started watching our antics from the window, with great confusion…

He didn’t quite love the other fence as much after the first time through (boredom) and I was too lazy to put them up to a larger crossrail, but he still had fun “galloping” up his hill. He’s such a weirdo.

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And I did make myself go back and redo our bending line, adding leg, and thankfully it was a success. It’s still hard to trust a horse who has such a stopping history, but he loves his crossrails and seems to ADORE jumping uphill on grass. Go figure? I’m telling you, if Batts could go jump a cross country course of all crossrails and MAYBE a water element (we’d have to school water a bit, but eventually we’d be OK with it), he’s LOVE IT. Seriously. I’m not sure how he’d do with banks, but again, it’s solid jumps that freak him out, so he might actually be OK with those. Weirdo.

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I do have a log from a downed tree I want to see how is with… It’s small enough to walk over… I just need a good place to put it permanently so that my husband can mow around it without messing with the mowing flow…

“I jumped all the things!” So proud of himself!

How to ride The Grumpy Chestnut

Posted on June 15, 2017 by Sarah (threechestnuts)

In all my posts lately about Ranger, I haven’t written a lot about Batty. In fact, after our few disastrous rides, I haven’t really WANTED to ride him. So far this year, we’ve had a grand total of 3 rides.

So, with summer coming up, I had to change that.

Why not pick the hottest day of the year to ride again?

I was going to haul out on Sunday morning, but instead, I decided to sleep in (7:30 just seemed so nice…), and then the idea of hooking up the trailer just seemed like too much work. I was already making excuses. So I decided to ride at home. I decided to try and bring the fun back for both of us and created a little playground in my backyard highlighting what Batts likes (crossrails, hills, and fun) and avoiding what he dislikes (anything that’s not a crossrail, solid jumps, too much work, non fun stuff, collection, etc.). So Batty watched me set up his course/playground with extreme interest and when I finally went to catch him, walked up to me rather than away from me (often I can’t catch him…)–huge change.

We also made 2 other changes. I lunged him lightly at whatever pace he wanted (to the left he chose the trot, to the right he chose a combo of a trot and canter) and I stuck a nose net on him to see if we could do anything to combat the violent head tossing he was doing the last few rides. He didn’t love the nose net but the head tossing did NOT resurface so… ???

Surveying our “playground” — what you can’t see is the steep hill after the extreme right crossrail or that the crossrail right in front of Batts head goes up an nice incline after

After lunging we warmed up with some trot and canter sets up the hill by my driveway before we visited our “playground” in the backyard. It was already freaking hot by this point. The plan WAS to be off by 10 but we didn’t actually get on until 10 so… Oops. Either way, we didn’t do a crazy amount. But, we visited our poles and crossrails and had a look. A certain chestnut eventually got mad a me for making him look and then stopped but then started launching himself over his crossrails and “galloping” up his hills afterwards. He was having fun. At one point I tried to trot my one crossrail to the next one but someone would have nothing to do with it and insisted we canter to it and gallop out and up our hill, but other than that… I’m pretty sure I looked like a little kid on a pony I was laughing so much. I had no control either. If only I could do cross country with crossrails… he’d shine at that… But ONLY that… Crossrail champion of the world.

So sleepy!

So what did this tell me? No idea.

Walking back after a walk through the development to cool down because we do stuff like that because, why not?

But, he wants the fun back in the work and ring work just ain’t fun. Crossrails and hills? That’s fun. Weirdo. Batts is an odd one.

Happy Grumpy Chestnut!

Well, he did take off on my after I untacked him and pooped in my neighbor’s lawn… So he wasn’t 100% well behaved…

Diet? what diet… Oy.

I’m alive… sort of.

Posted on June 6, 2017 by Sarah (threechestnuts)

Short recap, but I am alive.

I’ve barely ridden this past month (good riddance May!) and managed to miss my last 2 lessons due to work travel. (Thank you work conference in Seattle that also had me miss the entirety of the Devon Horse Show).

Yay for latte art

But, hopefully work has settled down and I can start riding again. Lesson this week and I can finally see my Ranger again! I miss him.

Miss that face! But, work (hopefully) calmed down and most students are gone!

Meanwhile while in Seattle, this little bugger nearly needed to find a new home.

Free to a home? Free to any home? He’s so damn lucky he’s cute.

Recently he’s been a turd. After 2 years of ownership, he’s started testing fence boundaries and breaking through fences and escaping. We put up electric and that worked until it didn’t which was day 2 of my trip. I got a frantic and angry call from my husband that Jiminy was loose and could not be caught.

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Eventually he was herded into the paddock and then the shed. The next day he was released and got loose again… This time the calls were MUCH more angry and divorce was imminent. However, beyond the screaming (what the hell was I to do from Seattle?!), Jiminy decided his best place to escape was down the tree lined hill between the fence and the woods where he got caught up the fence between a downed tree branch, old pallet, and the fence and patiently waited for assistance. If there is ONE this I can say about this turd, he doesn’t NOT panic when stuck and understands when the fight is over. Humans are here to untangle you from the messes you get yourself caught up in…

At that point, Jiminy was jailed. I told my husband to leave him stalled until I return with hay and water less we repeat the near divorce proceedings again. Since the mid atlantic has been without much sun, we turned our charger off and this gave it some time to (hopefully) fully charge as well. Since my return, he’s been on supervised turnout with the assistance of an attached lunge line (it’s his ball and chain) –he’s fine with it– in the paddock. We added an additional strand of electric fence polywire Sunday but I realize we’ve got a bleed underground which is probably why the shock is so weak and the battery/solar charger is running down so quickly (we used the plastic tubing to bury our wire, but we’re just going to replace it with the underground wire since I can hear the stuff buried under the gate pulsing…). So, we need to fix that before he can resume normal turnout. But, Sunday everyone spent some time out on the grass and he was a happy pony for several hours.

Then there was that moment I thought he was dead…

The other boys are doing well. Subi is Subi. He’s happy, eating well, and I thought was super sound, but still is having these skip trot moments behind that even my husband is noticing. My one dog does this thing were sometimes she trots on 3 legs (skipping one hind leg). My husband is comparing it to that. I haven’t seen it, but he’s noticing every once and and while he’s avoiding that one hind leg with the stifle issue. Overall, he’s happy and pasture sound, but I’m feeling justified retiring him. It’s usually after he goes for a nice gallop that he’s hitchy.

If he had muscle, he’s be fat. But, no sign of ribs, he’s round and happy.

Always my best boy

As for this guy, he needs to get back into work which HOPEFULLY will happen now if life has settled down some. I need to call the farrier again (for some reason never got a scheduling call back…) and the dentist, but I should still be able to do something with him in the mean time. He’s a little hivey and it turns out his fly sheet had a big hole in it I forgot about. With all these other expenses, I’m going to try and get it repaired by the blanket lady (she thinks it can be salvaged), but I need to wash it first so I don’t need to pay for that. So, hopefully I can to that today… In the meantime he’s got one of Subi’s old one’s on… He’s busting out the front. My husband compared it to the pudgy guy who wears a too tight fitting v-neck t-shirt, but that’s body-shaming… Half of his belly is hanging out too. But, better than nothing…

When your mom makes you where your older, skinnier brother’s hand me downs…

Changing plans… the story of one pissed off chestnut.

Posted on April 3, 2017 by Sarah (threechestnuts)

Once upon a time there was a chestnut gelding known as the Batthorse… Said Batthorse lived a happy life. Said Batthorse ate and rolled in the mud, got really dirty, and hung out with his friends, Subi and Jiminy. Said Batthorse lived the retired life. “Life is good,” thought the Batthorse. Said Batthorse lived the retired life, or so he thought.

Then one day, life changed. Life became bad. And THIS is the story of one pissed off chestnut gelding.

“It I close my eyes and concentrate really, really, really hard, maybe I can be maybe this is all just a really bad nightmare. Or maybe I can pretend this isn’t happening. Or maybe I can just fall asleep. Or maybe she’ll forget I’m here.” (ignore poorly adjusted noseband made worse from rubbing then fixed after pictures)

So for the first time since the end of December, I decide to try and ride the Batthorse. We were planning to attempt a paper chase this month, but due to illness and weather, that was becoming a more and more unrealistic goal. Unfortunately, a certain chestnut’s poor behavior sort of cemented his fate and this paper chase just isn’t going to happen. Oh well, this is why I don’t make goals people!

Normally bringing Batts back from extensive time off is easy. He may be out of shape, but he generally has a good attitude about it. This time however… Since the ground has been AWFUL (through the area, paper chases, point to points, and a whole lot of other things have been cancelled and postponed) combined with monsoon rains on Friday (and a flooded basement FML), I decided to haul out to my trainers on Sunday for a ride. Generally she’s at shows on weekends anyway and doesn’t teach so weekends are a good time to ride. This weekend was no exception (yay rated shows).

This thing needs a trip through the car wash… But he loaded without
issue which showed he truly had no idea what he was in store for…

So, the place was pretty empty when we arrived and thankfully the big rig was gone and I was able to pull around (u shaped driveway on a corner so I came in on one road and can leave on the other) — which is good for me since backing up isn’t a strength –especially when I’m rusty. Unfortunately, that’s where the good stopped.

Mr. “All I Did On My Winter Vacation Was Eat” sort of, kind of out grew his 52″ double elastic girth though I managed to get it on with some choice words. Seriously though, how does he outgrow a 52″ girth? He’s not that big? And my billets aren’t short? Every year we come out of winter needing a diet. So, grumpy, we headed into the barn, bridle in hand, with a bad attitude. Inside the barn, he was at least curious about his surrounding but got mad that I wouldn’t let him in a stall to eat someone else’s hay. Once our bridle was on, we stopped by Ranger’s stall, dropped off a peppermint (yes, I’m mean, but I did give Batts one too), and headed out to the ring.

OMG. This horse is fat. I mean FAT. I nearly pulled a muscle once I got on. I got used to Ranger who is wide, but not that wide or that fat. But Batts? OUCH.

“You really can’t be serious!” says the Batthorse. This is the look of complete denial.

I got on an immediately thought things were going to be OK. I mean, he didn’t take off with me. But, I did regret not wearing spurs on bringing a crop. We didn’t exactly have our forward button installed. We puttered around at the walk for awhile, me adding leg, while a certain chestnut pinned his ears at the slightest pressure… Eventually I picked up a trot on a loose rein…

…then the head tossing, flinging began… and continued… but we managed a lazy trot around the ring and all was well. We trotted and trotted and trotted. And tossed and flung and tossed and flung and tossed and flung. I added leg and we tossed harder and pinned our ears but failed to actually increase our pace… When I FINALLY managed a slightly forward trot, we walked and watched a buckskin mare avoid capture for a while. Batts found this QUITE entertaining. Don’t get ANY ideas.

Then we trotted again. Then I tried and failed to cantered. “ZOMG NO!” said the Batthorse, tossing his head in anger and frustration, trying to run me into the fence and losing all ability to steer. Suddenly we were a wild-horse. Trotting a million miles a minute and we WOULD NOT CANTER. So we trotted and trotted and trotted as fast as possible. And I got in mean mom mode and introduced circles. So we circled, and trotted, and circled, and trotted, and circled, all while flinging our head in disgust (meanwhile Buckskin Mare was captured). Eventually, Batty decided that cantering was WAY easier than circles and we cantered around in the slowest canter ever before resuming our circles the to the right before canter to the right and finally being rewarded with a walk break.

One pissed off pony.

While we rested, we were joined by a couple of pony kids and the recently captured buckskin mare. Whether he was tired, over it, or just feeding off of the ponytude (honestly, they’re well behaved ponies — 1 was up and showed energy by swapping but that was it… and Bucky, well, she’s a mare), but our behavior… In true Batt fashion, we decided to do things our own way.

Determined to spend the last bit of our ride cantering (after a brief chat with a pony mom), I grabbed a crop that I located (or what was left of it) and attempted some cantering… It was…well, I stayed on? After a tiny bit of trotting, we started to the left and did ok? Despite the constant flinging, seriously, did he suddenly become a headshaker overnight? And one or two minor “bucks*,” it was uneventful. On his best of days he’s more comfortable to the left. On his worst of days he’s 100000x more comfortable to the left.

So, stupid me, I save the right for last. And he was PISSED off. And really did try and “buck*” me off (*this idiot horse barely can buck without a rider on his back–he isn’t coordinated enough and can only lift his hind end about a foot off the ground–with a rider on his back he just drops his head between his knees really really hard and fast and thinks he’s bucking even though his hind end doesn’t do anything*). He actually caught me really off guard despite lifting him up at the canter and sitting up and back. Idiot horse grabbed the bit, yanked his head and dropped it so hard and fast between his knees I actually fell forward a bit. If he had gotten me off… We cantered a bit more for that and then backed down an entire long side simple because I was angry. He doesn’t back well–not that he can’t more that he doesn’t want to. Well, he has never backed so well or easily. We ended there and headed inside for a brief shower (and I may have showered Ranger with some peppermints).

Home. He didn’t think he’d live to see this moment

Despite the long recap, our ride wasn’t actually that long. Lots of walking, lots of fighting, lots of pain for both of us. But, definitely no good Friday paper chase. If our attitude was better, I’d get the rides in to make it happen. But, it’s not, so why push it? There’ll be other chases and we’ll get back in shape when we’re back in shape. I’m not going to kill myself to ride every day the next 2 weeks.

But, if anyone’s up for a trail ride soon, we can certainly do that!

I rode my own horse?

Posted on January 5, 2017 by Sarah (threechestnuts)

Since I’m still in denial that it’s 2017 and I’m back at work (which is quite a challenge considering I’m back at work), I actually rode the Batthorse for the first time since the (day after) thanksgiving paper chase the Friday before New Years. Between work, weather, and the whole colic thing, Batty once again thought he was retired. So, Friday morning when I walked him over to the trailer, he was a little, well, surprised.

We headed over to my friend’s barn at Marsh Creek since I was feeling cheap and didn’t feel like paying anyone ring fees. Somehow that justified a 50 minute trailer ride to ride outside vs a 5 minute drive an $15 ring fee to use an indoor. But, I have actually hauled Batts over to the place I take lessons since I started riding Ranger and I don’t know… I know they were at a show, but I didn’t want to be in anyone’s way. I’m sure at some point I’ll bring Batt again, but for now, we took the cheap(ish) way out.

“TREATS!” We eat for a living now…

The ground was a little iffy in the beginning, but thankfully other thank a couple of icy patches, the rest of the footing was nice. Despite having had a month off, Batts was dead quite, meaning, at some point I was going to pay in his own unique way. Soundness wise he was OK, but not quite 100% but that’s also what I get for him having had a month+ off. It didn’t stop him from running around like a lunatic the day before either (PSA starts: his back hoof is also currently crap thanks to tearing apart as a 2 year old. As a result, he has a lot of scar tissue and regular cracks that result plus a couple growing out abscesses, one of which grew out at the crack and broke off, this happens at least 1x a year. He’s sound on it, but it accounts for the slight unevenness and will be fixed at next trim. Anyway, vet and farrier agree that it doesn’t affect him to warrant time off and he’s fine to work through all of this. I’ve known him ~12 years, owned him 6, this is regularly the case. In addition, time off = weight gain = loss of fitness. He’s always more comfortable was he’s lighter… He’s currently wearing his 52″ girth on the 2nd hole on each side rather than the 3rd and 4th hole… PSA over).

So we trotted, we canter, we were super quiet and dead. Stiff to the right (damn all the flat work we did this summer and then lost my not doing any real work since Ludwig’s Corner Labor Day weekend…), loosened up some. One of the lesson kids trotted him around a little and he was a good boy for her. Then I got on and all hell broke loose…

See, Batty doesn’t get up like normal horses. He doesn’t really buck. He doesn’t exactly take off. He doesn’t do anything. But, he get ideas in his head and basically stops listening. Rider becomes a passenger and he tries to take control. Some times successfully, sometimes not. He decided we were going to jump. Cross rails, but jump nonetheless. Before I had any idea what was going on, we were heading towards a cross rail at a power walk. So, then I was able to take control and trot it a few times before he got bored. We did a few others before attempting a little course.

That’s when the antics started. Our first attempt, we landed the white single and promptly jumped (all 4 feet off the ground), followed by a full body shake, tried to take off at a “gallop” and then continued on, pissed off that I made him trot into his last line and canter out, adding as many strides possible in between because he was pissed off, then landed and “bolted” down the long side once, extra proud of himself. Unfortunately, I didn’t get that course on video.

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We did the course again without any enthusiasm, this time, pissed off about the last course, we trotted the line. Then repeated our line just to prove we could trot in, canter out, regardless of the number of stride we included…

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Overall, it wasn’t a bad way to spend the day. And, despite not driving the trailer all the often as of late, I successfully backed into (!) and down the driveway without assistance! Usually I need my husband to meet me at the top and guide me in and stop traffic. Considering this time last year I wasn’t even driving the trailer (and Batty wasn’t even getting in the damn thing), we’ve come a long way. My driveway sucks… I need to post a picture of it but think long, narrow, and the need to back in and down… I use the street that’s not quite perpendicular to assist but it’s really not fun to turn into my driveway.

(side note: show cancelled for this weekend due to cold temps. Rescheduled for next weekend though haven’t talked to trainer to see if we’re still going)

fun new saddle pad!

Trail rides and Paper Chases

Posted on November 29, 2016 by Sarah (threechestnuts)

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Instead of shopping (or eating too much) Thanksgiving this year was spent enjoying our new found freedom thanks to having a horse that actually loads on a trailer. It’s amazing all the fun things we can do!

Technically I had to work Monday through Wednesday but that didn’t stop me from taking some time off for more fun things like riding lessons and trail rides. Tuesday was still super windy around here so I had my lesson indoors and it just sort of..sucked. It tuned out it was only Ranger’s second time in the indoor (since the first time I’d ridden him in there), and while there wasn’t anything inherently wrong with the lesson, I just kept sucking and he took full advantage. Basically we were doing an inside line and ducking out of the second jump. First time my fault, second time over and perfect. Third time, fine, 4th time, haha look at me caught you completely off guard! Then it was just a fight and I lost my confidence. We ended up just trotting a few times and Ranger got the “oh shit” look but the whole thing… especially considering we’re supposedly showing next weekend… yeah. Spatially I’m bad with indoors anyway. We’ll see how this week goes… I originally agreed to a barn schooling show but now it appears it’s a schooling show elsewhere an hour away…

So Wednesday I took a half day to take a trail ride with my friend Sandra who was visiting for Thanksgiving. So Batty and I headed to Marsh Creek for the afternoon. After 3 days of wind, it was finally a nice day. Sunny and warm(ish). We got to borrow Batts’s buddy Ben and had a great time and managed not to get lost while taking a trail I’ve only been on once before! Success! Anyway, the footing was great and we managed a decent amount of trotting and cantering too. Good prep for Friday’s paperchase!

Of course by Wednesday night I had some debilitating head cold (that I’m still dealing with now) so Friday morning I was still flip flopping on attending said paperchase but I ended up going. It was hosted by Fair Hill Stables and when I arrived around 9:30, my normally sane horse was a nervous nelly. Horses were screaming and he was just feeding off their energy. I eventually got tacked up and managed to get on and then asked for directions to registration. A nice pair asked if I had a team (the organizer was going to add me to one of the groups renting her horses), and invited he to join them. So Batty and I made our way down to the stable amid chaos and barking dogs, somehow registered while spinning, calmed down when a group of horses left, got reworked up, and then calmed down again once our team headed out. Once we were out on the trail, he was his normal happy self. Go figure?

5 minutes into the ride we suffered equipment failure when the wire in his one hoof boot snapped and Batts freaked out. Well, he was pissed that he went from cushy boot to harsh gravel… thankfully the girl I was with jumped off her pony (yay for vaulters) grabbed his half boot), jumped back on, and the other lady stuck it in her saddle bag. We were approaching grass so I just walked to that point and luckily Batts was ok without a boot. But I wasn’t exactly happy. But grass brought us to out first canter stretch which left me with a very happy horse so his hoof boot was quickly forgotten.

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The first half to two thirds of the ride went really well. Batty’s not great with bridges but he was happy to follow over them and through tunnels. He doesn’t actually care where he is in line so while we mostly stayed in the back he did get his chance to lead at times. He was also the brave horse through water (usually the leader) so all my fights at Marsh Creek have finally paid off! The trail was really well marked as well which was great. That said, it was crazy long. We did a massive amount of trotting and cantering in the beginning but ended up walking the lasted 1/3 as one of the horses we were with came up lame (stone bruise). We were out probably 3+ hours. They said it was 10 miles but it had to have been longer… it felt longer. By the end the horses were just over it. We did have one bridge where Batts just wouldn’t cross. Leader didn’t help. I ended up getting off and forcing him across. He eventually walked over a few times willingly and I got back on and we moved on, but something a boy that one stupid bridge…

Overall it was a fabulous event, just wish it was a tiny bit shorter. The footing was great, the trail was super well marked, but it was just crazy long. Nonetheless everyone had a lot of fun. Met a good pair who loved Batty too and we plan to do more chases together in the spring. Professional pictures

Must. Eat. All. The. Hay.

After my long ride Friday, the last thing I expected to hear was “trail ride” on Saturday but sure enough… so after lessons and armed with a killer cold, I took a nice couple out. Nothing like riding when you are so frickin’ sore. Saturday was back to being colder and miserabler. And windy. Not bad wind, but enough. But I did get to ride the Heidi-Mare, the only mare I actually enjoy riding right now. Of course, thanks to the wind and downed branches, we were looking and spooking at things left and right so it wasn’t exactly a relaxing or enjoyable ride, but at least she’s cute?

Happy 6 Year Anniversary to the Batthorse

Posted on November 22, 2016 by Sarah (threechestnuts)

(alternative title: how I bought a horse via text over breakfast)

So Facebook told me yesterday was the Batthorse’s 6 Year Anniversary. Unlike Subi, I don’t have the date etched in my memory.

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Batty was sort of a spur of the moment purchase that I tried to buy multiple times before–and failed. But his actual purchase was unplanned and came as a complete surprise and without any actual planning or thought.

So the story of Mr. Batman. Yes, I’ll call him Batman even though 99.9% of the time I refuse (seriously, how can you name a bright red horse Batman?!?!). He came to the lesson barn I rode at, worked at, taught at, as a young “5” year old when his previous owner realized he was way too much for her and donated him. Turn out, he was green broke and she was learning how to ride. By learning how to ride, I mean LEARNING HOW TO RIDE. In that she was walking and learning how to steer and post and with someone leading her could bounce around a couple of steps. His first day at the barn, I had a lesson on him and while he was a wiggly mess but had a gorgeous trot and canter. I think he was known then as “new chestnut.” We tried to jump and he was a complete green bean and I probably ended up in tears. We got through some lines but it was a disaster. My instructor told me I’d ride him again, but I doubted he’d actually stay at the barn too long. But, despite his green been quality, he was quiet. The next morning, he tore off 3/4 of his hind hoof. He spend the next 6-8 months on stall rest re-growing back his right hind hoof.

After he came back from stall rest, he was leased out to one of the barn teens who wanted a summer project and learned all about crossrails and verticals and still though ground poles were torture devices. He also expressed thoughts that solid jumps were going to eat him.

The lease ended after the summer and he was back in the lesson program. I had Subi at this point. I was teaching by that point (I think) and at some point, my friend Sandra started riding him. The time line is pretty blurry here. There may be a year or 2 missing. I have no idea. Anyway, the lease was the best thing for him. He was forgotten about and money was invested into him and as a result, no one remembered how green he was so he stayed. Thankfully, he was dead quiet too so that was good. Anyway, Batman was great for w/t/c and less good for everything else. If he walked up to Xs and looked at them first, he was pretty consistent jumping them. Poles were OK if his ride could ride and steer and add leg and be prepared for him to jump the damn things. Basically, don’t set up a line of trot poles because that wasn’t happening. Over time, he got pretty good.

Thankfully, people didn’t like using him and when Sandra graduated college and was back for good, she started riding him regularly and he started improving drastically. It’s amazing how good Batty got with only 1 rider jumping him. With support to the base of jumps, he actually improved… Wow. As a team, we got to the point of consistency over stuff. Xs, verticals, milk crates, flowers, brush boxes, oxers, coops, and even the astro turf roll top (strangely, he had the least problems over that thing). I mean, he never jumped it first time and we always fought and had to build, but we got there (key point for later).

But, this damn horse was still dead quiet. In a lesson with another instructor, he carted a dead beginner adult around who was learning to trot. The bugs were bad and when swishing his tail, he caught it on a standard and dragged a jump standard about 6-7 feet. When feeling something was caught, he stopped, turned his head to see what was up, and waited for assistance. Now, that was enough to unseat his rider, but most other horses would have taken off. Not Batty.

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The summer before I moved Subi, I was holding Batty for the dentist (or getting him from the dentist) and we were chatting about him. He asked me how old he was. I think I said 10 thinking we had him for 5 years at that point and he was 5 when he got him. That when he told me we were completely wrong with his age and by his estimates he was much younger. We did some math and he had to have been a green broke 2 year old when he had shown up at our barn all those years ago (what is wrong with people?!)…. At some point, Sandra approached the barn owner and asked his she’d sell him. She was quoted some outrageous price. 10K I think? For a stopper with some soundness issues. Yeah, ok. Needless to say she said no. My timeline is all mixed up, but I know that I also approached her when I moved Subi, but before I bought Hayley to see if she’s sell me Batty. After all, BO was always complaining that no one used him. I never received an answer. Strangely enough, I continued working for her for another year…

A year later, I taught my last lesson and Sandra came out hop on Batty for what she thought was the last time. I left a message saying as much, thanking BO for everything and leaving things on a good note. Then next morning, while eating breakfast with my mom, I received a text from BO saying she was getting rid of Batman. I read the text to my mom and the next thing I knew, my mom had me text back, “Is he for sale? And for how much?” and that was how I came to buy Batty over breakfast via text message and why it is my mother’s fault. She takes full credit. Still. To this day. All of this followed with a text to Sandra that read, “So I think I just sort of bought Batty…”

Since then, Batty’s lived at more places then Subi or Hayley. He moved first to a friends for a few months then joined Subi and Hayley and the self care place I was boarding before moving down to Southern Chester County to my apartment before moving back to my friends place when I got pissed at my landlord for being a lunatic and taking away shelter during the summer while I went on vacation. They stayed at my friends while I waited to settle on my house and then waited to put in fencing (wedding gift from friend) and build shed before finally coming home.

Since coming home, things haven’t been without challenges. We’ve had the whole trailer loading stuff come up…

Then the whole colic and New Bolton stay.

Plus losing Hayley.

The 3 nuts

We tried becoming a hunter horse again and failed, but his true calling is just being him. He’s a crossrail expert and a hill gallop-upper extraordinaire. He likes to explore just so long as he doesn’t need to take the same path back home. But mostly, he’s just the quietest, best little appendix without a spook and trustworthy mount I could ask for. He may only have been officially part of the family for 6 years, but he’s part of my heart so much longer.