Simon came in from turnout Sunday morning with a surprise for me…….
This is the full scrape wound, fresh from being cleaned.
It is pretty easy to tell from looking at the injury that it was as wire scrape. The side of the heel has the worst damage.
The coronet band (where the hoof meets the hair) bore the brunt of the scrape. It was pretty crusty with blood and gunk before I cleaned it off.
I got it cleaned up, texted pics to my vet to get some guidance on how to treat it, and waited for direction. We opted to just get it really clean and spray it with an aluminum spray as opposed to wrapping. I’m a believer in wounds getting air to breath being better than wrapping them up and trying to keep everything out. He wasn’t sore on the foot that I could tell and there wasn’t any heat in his hoof or leg, all good signs. So I put him back in his stall and hoped for the best.
Before I rode Coco I walked the fence-line between our property and our neighbor and found where Simon got hurt pretty easily. I don’t have photos, but the fence dividing the properties is a woven wire fence with a smooth strand on top and set with t-posts. Well, Simon got his foot wrapped in the TOP wire and pulled the fence down so the t-posts were at about a 110 degree angle! The wire was pretty stretched, too. Simon likes to play over the fence with the neighbor’s geriatric QH gelding so I guess things got a bit out of hand on Saturday night. I never saw the neighbor’s horse yesterday so I don’t know if he got hurt, too. Boot City did a minor repair to the fence, but we know that a full fence replacement is in the imminent future. Oh the glamour of owning property! Never is there a fence that doesn’t need to be repaired or built!
Fast forward to this morning and Simon’s leg is swollen and his leg/foot clearly is sore. I cold hosed the leg, cleaned the wound again, gave him some bute (like ibuprofen for horses, it treats inflammation and pain), and poulticed the canon bone of his leg (poultice is a clay based mud that helps bring out heat and swelling, really more people should poultice themselves when they get hurt, it is awesome stuff). He’s definitely not getting ridden for a week or two, poor guy. Hopefully this gets on the mend sooner than later and he’s back to normal for some more summer trail rides!
Yesterday I posted a photo of a cut/puncture wound in Coco’s nose on my social media accounts and subsequently was asked by a few folks how I found said wound. So, here you go.
Note the trail of blood trickling out her nose. She also has a cut on the outside of her nose.
It was not a tremendous amount of blood considering it was a “facial” wound, which usually bleed a LOT. She did NOT enjoy having it cleaned and putting medicine in her nose, but I can understand that and she really wasn’t terrible.
This photo is after I cleaned the injury and before I put medicine on it, you know, to send to my vet. When my vet builds a new building at his clinic I really think it should be named for me after all the money I’ve given him this year.
This photo really doesn’t do the injury justice. It is at least 1.5″ long and .25″ deep, if not deeper. It’s a pretty stout cut/puncture. I still have no idea how she got it.
To make up for the gross blood/injury photos, I give you PUPPIES!
Sleepy baby girl #1.
There are only two girls in this litter. SO CUTE!
On the move girl #2 with brothers in the background. They are getting VERY active!
Pablo was being weirdly nice to the dogs yesterday. Quila wasn’t too sure of his intentions, however.
P: Hello, dog friend. I would like to smell you. Q: WTF are you doing, you ass.
And this morning I got to share my latte with a visitor to the barn!
Hello young grasshopper.
It is BLAZING hot here in Texas so I’ll be getting rides in early in the morning this weekend and possibly cutting all my hair off tomorrow. Have a GREAT weekend!
2018 has turned out to be the year of art for me. I have acquired some of the most beautiful and heartfelt pieces of art I could ever imagine. I’m blessed to have many gifted friends and family member artists so I’m going to take a moment to brag on these people as well as a couple pieces from truly amazing professional artists that are now in my collection.
First I’ll show you an “oldy” but a goody. A few years back, I don’t even remember how long ago, a friend gifted me this wonderful watercolor piece she did for me of a fox hunt. I had it stored away in a tube for a long time and when my company moved to a new office building and I got a new office, I knew I’d finally get it framed and hung. It makes me so happy to look at this view from my desk every day.
I love the modern interpretation of such a traditional sport!
This past winter our old foxhound, Peaches, was included in artist Lesli Devito’s Dog-A-Day series. She painted this just after we lost Peaches, so it holds a very special place in our hearts. I love how Lesli captures the spirit of the dogs so well, but adds an element of modern with the colorful background. I don’t feel like I’ve found the perfect spot for this painting just yet. For now it lives in my sewing room and Peaches smiles down on my sewing projects like a good girl.
Peaches by Lesli Devito.
In March (also my birthday month, so extra YAY!) I entered the drawing that Paperchases and Petticoats for a piece by artist Swenn Jedraszczyk. I was ELATED when I won the drawing and I did a little informal survey on my Facebook page to pick which horse to have drawn. The hands down winner was Jaguar, my 25yo Quarter Horse. Swenn is in France so it took a little time to get the piece completed and then mailed over to the US, but it was worth the wait! I LOVE this piece! I received it without the frame and haven’t yet gotten it framed myself. We are planning to do a full home restoration so I’m going to wait for that to be completed before it gets it’s place of honor in our home.
This is from Swenn’s Instagram post when the piece was completed. I can’t wait to get it framed and hung in our “new” house.
And last, but CERTAINLY not least is an absolute stunner painted for me by my Aunt Soni. This painting means so much to me for so many reasons. I have a ginormous family and my aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents were my best friends throughout my childhood and really into adulthood. When I was in college my Aunt Soni and Uncle Mike offered me the opportunity to live with them in the Twin Cities in Minnesota to do a summer internship in the big city. This was one of my first forays into being an adult and my aunt and uncle were the most gracious hosts and supporters. I had the best time living with them; going to amazing restaurants, a LOT of concerts and just hanging out.
My Aunt Soni has always been very creative and artistic. She made the most%I0lovely scrapbooks of their trips to Europe and around the US. @er homes have always been impeckably dekorated. More recently s`e has started painting. Her Mom, my Grandma Swana, painted%:C too. A even have a piece in mq house |hat my Grandma Swana painted benore I was born. Well, you can#imagine my delight when#Aunt Sofi offered to paint a portrait on my horse, Sterling. I sent hmr a bunch of photos and#she paifted the most breathtakifg portrait of Sterling I could mver imaoine!
It is a large painting, 30″x40″, and she captured his likeness absolutely perfectly! Let me tell you, painting a grey flea-bitten horse is not for the faint of heart! Those little bitty black specks had to have been a nightmare to get just right. What really stopped me in my tracks, though, was his eye. It looks alive and just like Sterling. His perfect white eyelashes with the eager expression are so him.
The most lovely portrait of my Sterling!
This portrait is hanging proudly in my office. Everyone who comes to see me gets to feast their eyes on this happy po
Y’all. I think Coco has found her Big Girl Pants! A little help from some hormones and better riding doesn’t hurt, but we had an AMAZING weekend recently! I took Sterling and Coco to my trainer’s place outside Houston a couple weeks ago. This was Sterling’s first leg of his trip to his lessee and I took Coco to a small schooling horse show as well as a few lessons with my trainer.
The first day we were there both horses acted like lunatics; first when they got off the trailer and then later because we separated them into separate pens so they would (hopefully) not hurt themselves. By the time I rode Coco for our lesson that day she was pretty much exhausted so was a super easy ride. She jumped all the jumps with no hesitation and we even got in a few nice flying changes.
The horse show was on Sunday only, but we opted to take Coco and the other horses showing to the show location early Saturday morning. This allowed us to ride in relative peace and get her away from Sterling. It turned out this was a really really good idea. She schooled fantastically and was generally pretty chill about the venue. Much better than she had been at the previous two small shows I’d taken her to. Perhaps she was getting the hang of this leaving-home-and-showing thing.
Fast forward to Sunday morning. My division was going first so I got on pretty early to attempt to warm her up in my ring before it was closed. Long story short, the warm-ups were ALL chaos, she was very agitated and amped, and the start time was delayed AN HOUR! Needless to say, by the time my ring started I felt like I was riding a hot wire. My trainer had another student showing in the same division so she had me get off and take Coco to her stall to chill out until the other student was done. Coco never really chilled out, but I do think it was a better idea than continuing to wait around with the other horses and make her more frazzled.
We were showing in a 2’3″ division with 3 hunter trips and a hack plus a warm-up trip over fences. My trainer sent us into the warm-up trip and with the guidance to trot the first fence in every line. Just get her around soft and easy. And I’m so pleased to say that it was just that, soft and easy. She definitely relaxed and was happy for the first time in a few hours.
Looking happy and fancy! Photos are all from Ernesto Photography!
For our second trip we opted to trot the first fence and my trainer said that if she felt good go ahead and continue cantering. If she felt hot, then bring her back and trot to each jump in the lines again. Well, she felt great so after trotting the very first fence we cantered the entire course. We did one lead change and it was spot on.
She’s definitely very green over fences, but I don’t think we have to worry about her scope!
For our second two trips I took it very slow before starting to canter, but we cantered both trips entirely. She is SO FUN TO JUMP! She seems to really like it and you can really feel her spine curve over the jumps. She overjumped the jumps on the first course by quite a lot, but settled down a bit for the last few trips. All her lead changes were perfect, especially when I didn’t look down.
She looks so happy to be jumping!
After our four jumping trips we opted to skip the hack. The thing about schooling shows is that there are often horses and riders that are a bit on the rough and ready side. Either the horse and/or rider are inexperienced or maybe don’t ride under the guidance of a trainer, so they can be a bit crazy. Being that some of the horses in my division were also very green, it just didn’t seem like it would give Coco a good experience in case one of the other horses got out of hand or they did something that would unnerve Coco (like ride up too close behind her, or pass her too close, basically anything to crowd her would be bad).
All things considered I was ecstatic about our day. It had the makings of being a true disaster, but through the fantastic guidance of my trainer and a little patience on my part, it was an unforgettable day. After six long years of waiting I finally feel like I really might have my fancy hunter. Don’t get me wrong, we have a long road ahead and there will be plenty of bumps in the road, but she proved she has the talent and she likes jumping and showing. Those are things you can’t train or teach any horse.
Not a bad horse show day!
The icing on the cake was that we ended up Reserve Champion in our division, even without doing the hack! My barn-mate was Champion! Coco won the two over fences classes that she cantered in their entirety and was 2nd in the first hunter and 3rd in the warm-up. There were six horses in our division. What a good girl!
Happy Friday the 13th y’all! Boot City has a “13” tattoo and Coco has a “13” brand, so the number 13 is near and dear to us. It has been cooler and stormy this week in North Texas, which has been AMAZING, but sadly we haven’t gotten very much of the rain. Only .15″, but as long as the hay fields got it I’m happy.
The goats like to clean up the hay that the horses spill in the trailer. They are so helpful!
Introducing Nellie and her babies! The puppies were born on June 30. She had 8, but we sadly lost the runt at day 11. The rest appear to be doing fantastically!
Samson is the hungriest pony you’ve ever met. He is always trying to steal food at every opportunity. It helps that he’s so cute.
This puppy has the cutest nose spots. I’m hoping to have a name theme for them by the end of this weekend. I’m taking suggestions (but Game of Thrones is not an option. That has been suggested to me a lot and I don’t watch the show!).
A very exciting thing happened this week. Sterling went out on lease with the world’s most delightful teenager! I’ve known for at least a year that I 1. need to start showing Coco 2. don’t have the funds or the time to show two horses 3. would prefer to find Sterling a job with someone else at least until I know where things stand with Coco’s future as a hunter. My trainer and I have been talking about it for a year and she finally found the PERFECT situation for my favorite unicorn with one of her clients.
His new rider is a teenager who has been showing hunters since she could barely walk, so is clearly a more skilled rider over fences than me. I think she will be WONDERFUL for Sterling. He has taken me so far with my learning and been an absolute saint to put up with all my mistakes without ever give me the middle finger. His new kid will hopefully be able to take him even further and over bigger jumps because she’s less likely to cram him up to the jumps and make him look like a frog, which I’m really good at doing.
Here is a clip from her lesson (and first time riding him) yesterday. They are an adorable pair!
I’ll keep everyone posted on their progress and will shamelessly post pics and videos when they start showing!
I took Coco to another show this past weekend and we had a much different experience from the previous weekend. In a good way, too!
Hidden Lakes is a great little show venue near Flower Mound, Texas. They often have show series throughout the year that are great to attend if you are starting out as a rider or for young horses that need miles. Clearly, Coco fits the bill for #2. I had intended to go to more of these shows, but at our first attempt Coco was having nothing with getting on the trailer. We worked that out. Then I had a show with Sterling in Waco. Then we opted for the closer to home show we went to last weekend, so we only ended up going to the final weekend of the summer series.
We got to the show grounds at 7:30a (my ring started at 7a). I THOUGHT there were only 6 jumpers so we would go around 8:30a or 9a. I was very wrong in this regard.
When Coco gets to new places she isn’t particularly energetic or spooky, which is great. However it makes me a bit lackadaisical in getting her acclimated to the venue. On this occasion I got her tacked up and headed to the warm-up ring immediately after completing our entry at the office. She started out OK, but got more and more amped up as other horses entered the warm-up area, she started to notice horses showing in other rings and the energy of being at a show started to spark.
It was at this time that I figured out there was no way we were showing around 9a. “Then she started doing the same thing she had done the previous weekend (which she didn’t do at home all week) and offered to buck when I added leg to ask for the canter. Rather than be in a dangerous situation and scaring other horses/ponies and riders, I decided to untack and go the the lunge ring. This was the BEST idea I’ve had in a long time.
She is nothing if not beautiful!
It was a hot day and it didn’t take too long before she was showing clear signs of getting tired. Thankfully she’s a good sweater in the heat.
After lunging I led her down to our show ring to await the completion of the jumpers and get her into the ring to lead her around and show her the jumps. This was happily uneventful. At this point in her life she had never jumped anything with fill under it. No flowers or walls or really anything other than rails and standards.
There was a still a full division before mine so we headed back to the trailer to tack up (again) and get ready. I could tell when I got back on her that the sassiness was still there. The edge was gone, but not the sass. We meandered to a warm-up ring and she was clearly going to kick up at the canter again. I was about at my wits end with her shenanigans. Back to the lunge area we went , which is just a circle area of sand, but I stayed on her rather than lunge her again. We trotted, all was well. I asked for the canter, head down and hind legs go up. I sat down in the saddle, grabbed the reins in one hand, and gave her 2 strong (not hard) taps with my crop. This got her attention and she rocked back to her haunches and cantered on. YAY! A win!
We changed gait a few more times with no issues then walked a bit and changed direction. She did the exact same thing again; trot, leg on for canter, head down and hind legs up. I sat down gave her 2 strong taps with the crop and it was back to business. From here on out for the rest of the day she was awesome. Relaxed and willing to do everything I asked her to do.
Our first trip around the course was OK. She stopped at the second fence in a four stride line, but it was completely my fault. I looked down, leaned forward and forgot I had legs. The second trip was fine. No big mistakes other than a couple close spots to jumps. Same with the third trip, except I think we may have added a stride in a line, but I’d rather have a calm young horse add an easy stride than one running away with me around the course.
My goal for our hunter trips were these:
Jump all the jumps
No bucking
Use my legs for the entire course
Look ahead to help her get leads and not have to change lead
Should the need arise, do lead changes
And guess what, we pretty much met all these goals! She did multiple flying changes exactly on purpose. I got so excited she got the changes, I forgot to look where I was going and she dang near jumped out of the ring!
Before this Saturday I really was having reservations about Coco’s future. Was I asking her to do the right job? Would we ever “get along? Am I wasting a nice horse that should be doing something else with someone else? I’d be jumping the gun (pun kind of intended) if I said that all these questions have been answered, but I feel 99% better about us getting along and at least 70% better that this might be the right job for her.
We didn’t place very well and I REALLY wish I had video of our trips so I could see what they looked like, but it FELT good. She felt relaxed over the fences. She was incredibly consistent in her canter. She didn’t look at the jumps. She didn’t get spooky in the ring. SHE DID FLYING CHANGES ON PURPOSE. We have another outing planned this coming weekend, then she will get a few weeks of a break from “showing”. Miles, miles and more miles are what she and I both need right now! I’m sure excited to see where we are at this time next year!
