What's the best thing to do on a dark, stormy night?

RIDE, of course!

My schedule doesn't often allow me time to do much of anything, so I take my chances when I get them. And the storm brought warmer weather and, strangely, a great motivation to ride. The horses have been pretty "amped" up because they have been spending much of their time inside (by choice...it's WET outside!) So it's really a great time for training. Sage and Chinook have had lots of little spooks, but I want to teach them that our routine--which consists at least of standing tied each day for feet picking--is the same whether or not the boogie man is coming around the corner. Because in reality, there is no boogie man. And if I act like there is no boogie man, sooner or later these horses might believe me. So tonight I rode Sage and started to teach Chinook how to be ponied. He was less than amused, but picked up on it pretty quick.

Last night because the weather had warmed up, I gave stronger consideration to hosing out Chinook's incision. One of the professors at school encouraged this, though I'm sure HE has never tried to do anything of the sort. If you're wondering about using dirty hose water to wash something like this, you just have to remember that it's already infected. And my favorite saying ever is "Dilution is the solution to pollution." Also, the force of the water would help to keep the incision open and draining.

Now, in theory this sounds really easy, but in reality standing outside in the dark with a flower basket watering wand, in the whipping wind and rain, trying to shove a bunch of running water between a weanling's back legs while he's spinning in circles...well, it's not that easy. In fact, it's rather ridiculous and a good way to get hurt. Thankfully, Chinook is a nice boy and did not kick out. And thankfully, the incision seemed slightly itchy and at moments he appeared to enjoy the spray (though definitely not at other moments!). Still, it was nuts, and I didn't get enough water where I wanted for it to be super effective.

So I brought him inside and started to dry him off with a towel, and something about the way he was standing invited me to towel very close to the incision, something he had never let me do. I think he realized that me using my hands was a lot better than a hose! So he stood there while I took anti-septic laden cotton and scrubbed the heck out of everything. It was the most satisfying experience ever, and the incision looked so much better afterward. Even tonight he let me clean it again and pick off more crusty pieces without even so much as a rope on him.

Now, it's pretty darn clean and new pus hasn't really accumulated. It's just so satisfying when you finally convince them that something is beneficial and they let you do it even though they are not so sure at first!

And we have infection...

About a week after Chinook's operation, I noted that the castration site was still pretty swollen and had started draining pus--despite my best efforts at making him move around. Since his attitude was good and he was eating, playing, and acting just fine (and still is a week after that), I figured I would let nature take its course. After all, infection seems almost inevitable in these situations because a scruffy little mustang laying down in dirty shavings is bound to contaminate the wound. It would be great if it was summer and he was out on clean pasture! No matter how many times a day you muck out an area, it's still teeming with bacteria waiting to make their debut.

And it just refused to look better. So I tried to clean it out (which, let me tell you, is not the best plan). Although he did not kick me and was actually quite good, he really only let me wash the drainage off his legs. Again, I decided to let nature take its course. The wound was still open and draining, and there was nothing I could do without help (that is, drugs).

But the wound has just been nagging, begging for a good scrub and flushing. I considered hosing it, but it's been extremely cold outside and I thought that wouldn't be very nice. Either way, I knew one of us would get hurt without some proper restraint and assistance. So I'm probably going to have to bring him back to school so they can sedate him and clean it up, as long as it continues to look bad tomorrow. The last thing we need is some sort of chronic, persistent, terrible infection. Still, the whole bringing him to school thing is an ordeal, and I was hoping not to have to do it.

In the meantime, I have been away a few days this week being on call and up in Portland taking the national board exam (which was quite a blur!!). But when I've been home the weather has been crazy stormy and the horses have been pretty wild:



And of course, hungry as usual:

Hopefully we can get this situation fixed if it hasn't fixed itself already!

He's a gelding!

The scruffy little man in the picture below has been a gelding for a whole day! He and Brandy traveled well to school, and he was pretty much the best boy ever. He let my classmates take him to the scale, weigh him, lead him outside, and then the surgery went really well and he was back in the stall and begging for food within an hour. He and Brandy stayed at school for the rest of the day, then trailered back home well in the evening. They stayed together in their own pen overnight.


He is a bit sore today and has a little swelling, but he's been doing very well. I made him trot around a little bit with Sage this morning. Although this seems cruel, this is the best thing to do with newly castrated horses. It helps keep the wound draining and keeps the swelling down. After I turned them all back out together, Sage took it upon herself to clean the little bit of dried blood from Chinook's legs. What a good mother she is. :)

Tomorrow is the day...

...that Chinook goes from wild stallion of the west to best mustang gelding in the world. He and Brandy will come with me to school tomorrow so the equine service can castrate the boy and inject Brandy's arthritic coffin joints with some steroids. Is it sad that Brandy travels much worse than Chinook? Yes. But it just goes to prove that while the boy can be very annoying, he's pretty good in the end. :)

Putting the mustang to work!

It's hard to believe, I know, but I actually do make Sage work sometimes. I have been trying to ride often in my few weeks at home, and it has worked out fairly well. We've been doing lots of trotting! Long straight line trotting, circles, roll backs. She feels quite good! Almost too good, perhaps...


So I decided to challenge her. That is, lunge on a crisp fall day out in the big pasture. You would think that wouldn't be too hard, but when Sage gets spicy and decides to try to buck, bolt, and run away, she knows just how to throw her head and shoulder so I can't stop her (physically, at least). So I have to teach her to do the right thing, and the only way to do that is to challenge her focus, have her try to run away, and successfully stop her. Look at how cute she is when she applies herself:

It's really hard to take pictures while lunging; suffice to say that she was not this cute the entire time. We had two run outs, to where I had to let go completely and go catch her again with the lunge line trailing. But by the end, I felt like she was responding much better. I stopped a few run outs and got her listening, stopping and turning a lot. I didn't want to chew up the ground, so once we got some calm circles (which, by the way, often come in between big explosions), we moved inside. I think she did kind of get the point that bucking and rearing is bad. I am not afraid to get on her in the arena as I know she feels like she has nowhere to go, so she won't take off. We rode inside for a little bit and called it good. Just had to take a picture to prove it, but she did get sweaty!


She wanted to make a point about how tortured she is:

Which, I guess she kind of was, because I once again attempted to put bell boots on her. There is something about them she really dislikes--most especially the velcro noise, but it's not just that. It's the combination of the velcro noise and something trying to eat her leg. Except that she's dead calm when you wrap ropes around her feet, and she's much better with polo wraps, so I'm not sure what the deal is. I figured that like everything with her, it would get easier each time I tried.

However, I was wrong. It took me an hour to get them on, and one I could only get on her cannon. So I left them on, figuring at some point she would have to be fine with them. Which she was, except until I tried to take them off, which was another half hour ordeal. The thing I can say is that she is much better about the velcro noise now, but this whole concept really gets her in a tizzy. So much so that she was willing to go for a walk with me in the pasture (in the wind, which usually gets her going) and just walk quietly after I took them off.

You might be wondering what the point of all this is, and so here it is: I want to be able to trail ride this horse. No, she will never probably wear bell boots ever. But there is no reason to put shoes on her, and although her feet are excellent, I will not ride her on sharp gravel without some sort of protection. I'd like her to be able to wear hoof boots, which basically grasp the pastern in a similar fashion as bell boots. But if she's going to come undone about it, this may not be reasonable. We'll just have to keep working, and I'm making a note to expose Chinook to things like this early.

The little man himself has been doing reasonably well. He is now 12.2 hands and weighs 500 lbs. I trimmed his feet for the second time yesterday, and he was great with a bit of hay in front of him. He can be pretty squiggly otherwise!

He's learning to not be so pushy about his food, and he's learning to trot up in hand (always a useful skill). He's also wearing a sweatshirt for a saddle and he could care less. I've started feeding him Purina's Ultium Growth feed along with his alfalfa pellets, and at first he was a bit of a pain, spitting it out for the first few days. Not okay at $27.99 a bag!! But he has learned to like it, and he has also finally learned to eat apples all on his own.

Tonight was the first time he was ever really bad. I took him for a walk out in the pasture and he did the buck and bolt trick of his mom...except, he tries to run through you because he figures that's the best way out (instead of running away). He's fairly block-headed and does not respond to sharp tugs on the halter. Or at least, he didn't until tonight. He got in big trouble, and then he went on another walk and was a very good boy. We are constantly working on the back up cue because he's just so pushy. Now it's a matter of backing up quickly, because he's often not very responsive and does things like try to walk on top of you.

He is, however, a very sweet little boy and he loves hugs and kisses. He is going to grow up to be a nice gelding!

Happy fall!

Lots of news from here! Fall has fallen and the horses are spending a lot of time in the barn (by choice, of course...they can go outside whenever they want, but who would want to when it's raining sideways?). The girls helped us harvest the 135 pumpkins that we grew in the manure pile this summer! Sage was not really convinced that pumpkins are all that cool, but Brandy on the other hand...

Chinook is back out with his mom and Brandy, but now he's a big boy. No more nursing, just time to get some schooling from the mares. He's been a good boy overall. Although he gets pushy when I am away (and I was away for the last week working in Bend), he is capable of learning how to not be pushy again.

He leads like a champ, is much better about his feet, and has a generally chill attitude about everything. He'll stand tied for over an hour! He does haunch turns, forehand turns, and backs up. He, like his mom, is hard to get moving but he'll trot if you really get him going. Today he wore a stirrup leather around his girth, very similar to the setup I first started Sage in, and he didn't have a care in the world. He also wears sweatshirts and saddle blankets over his back with no issues at all. I lay over his back and scratch his belly, and he doesn't even flinch. I am still hoping to hold out until January on gelding him, and so far so good on that front!

Although my time has been very short, I had a little bit of time off this afternoon and set to work on Sage. The only thing we've really done since the last post is go for a walk up the road/field, where she was good but had a few spooky/bucking moments. I had asked my farrier if he would ride her the next time he came out, because I hadn't been getting anywhere and wanted to see her respond to someone else. Of course, I have mixed feelings about this. Part of me thinks there is no problem with where we are at, and the other part tells me she needs something more.

So today I vowed that I would try my hardest to get her trotting no matter the consequences. I am fully capable of riding her even if she bucks, which is just what I had to tell myself. So I got on and I kicked her forward, clucked to her, told her to trot. At first, she did what she typically does: bunches up, slows down, lifts her head, acts like she's thinking about doing something bad. But I kept kicking, and encouraging, and FINALLY she took a few steps of trot. After a few more tries, all I had to do was lay my leg against her side and cluck and off we went! She was so ridiculously floaty, so balanced for a young horse. I felt like I was riding a broke horse. It was like once she figured it out, it was no big deal. We might have done a few circles of the arena total, but I'm sure she knew I was thrilled with her. I can't wait to get out there again and do some more trotting!

AND...as I was in Bend last week, I happened to catch the beginning of the BendFilm Festival. Amazingly, they were showing "Wild Horse, Wild Ride" (http://www.wildhorsewildride.com/), and I was able to get a ticket. If you haven't already heard me babble on about this movie, I have wanted to see it for months! It follows several trainers in the Extreme Mustang Makeover and has several scenes showing how amazing mustangs are. The filmmaker was also present and answered several questions about the movie. It was fabulous! So, if you get a chance to see it, definitely do!

My schedule is very busy for the next month: traveling to St. Louis and then back to Calgary, giving my senior paper presentation on the unwanted horse, and taking the national veterinary board exam. So, posts may be slow, but I swear we're still all alive and well. :)

The terrible terribles...

Things have been busy recently, but I did find some time to try to work with Sage the other day. Since I know she has serious issues with Velcro-products around her feet, I decided to try polo wraps. Once again, we had quite the run around. She just gets incredibly, irrationally nervous. Tried bell boots again and it was the same deal. I'm not sure we were really successful at all. In fact, I think we made it worse. However, we did have a great round-penning/free lunging session shortly after where I feel she's been the most responsive ever. So I guess it wasn't all for naught. Chinook, on the other hand, has been moody and crabby. He kicked my mom the other day, and just tonight he kicked out "at me" (well, he kicked the wall) when I went to scratch his barrel while he was eating. I did some work with him on the halter and picked up his feet, backed him up, etc. He did fine. I think it's just the hormones speaking. Kids!!!