SOLD!

Offer accepted- Love Bug will now be a permanent member of my family! Love Bug is the first horse I ever had a real connection with, and truly loved, so it makes me incredibly happy to have her with from now on.

I just offered to buy Love Bug! The polo club better freakin' accept my offer, or LB and I might mysteriously vanish.

I'm mentioned Love Bug a few times. This is because my family is leasing her for the summer. So my mom pays for her board and rides her, while I teach her basic horsemanship and manage Love Bug's care. I also ride Love Bug occasionally, for conditioning and schooling purposes, especially when she is being bratty with my mom.

I freaking love this deal. Love Bug is a doll, and Andy loves her as well. I get to ride with my mom, and I also get to ride Love Bug whenever I feel like it. Shockingly enough, after riding just Andy for 7 months, I prefer riding him to Love Bug. I just like his big trot, and his rocking horse canter. He's a very good dressage prospect, and very responsive to slight cues. I can ride him completely from my seat, and I can work with him on variations in each gait (ZOMG extended trot). Love Bug...well, she's a pokey, fat little pony with a short-legged trot/canter that's heavy on the forehand. She's sweet, but Andy has my heart completely. But riding her helps convince me how far my riding's come in the past three years. 2 1/2 years ago I tried cantering her without stirrups. I lasted about 3 strides, then ate dirt. Now I can canter her not only without stirrups, but bareback as well. And I can sit her trot now, which makes me feel less like a failure for not being so good at it with Andy (but now I can sit her trot, I am doing better with his!).

Love Bug is 22, and I can tell she is slowing down. She seems to have less energy under saddle than I remember. I do not, under any circumstances, want her going back to the polo team. Now that I have my claws into her (well, have her at my barn), I don't want to let go. I am 110% sure that she will be happier and better cared for with me. Not that the team mistreats their horses, but playing competitive polo and getting whipped and spurred by multiple fucksticks is no way for a 22 year old mare to spend her time. Plus the club doesn't have the money to spoil their horses like my family and I do. They didn't even shell out $10 for a West Nile Innovator Vaccine. Wtf, polo club, wtf. She'll get a 5-way, her feet done every 3 months, and her teeth floated once a year. We will get her every vaccine the vet recommends, yearly check-ups. bi-annual teeth floats, trims AND shoes every 8 weeks, treats, love, very light riding, and lots of playtime in the pasture with boyfriend Andy.

I have several plans. The one I am going with now is this: I have a wellness exam for her with my vet next Monday (And I am going to have her get a damn West Nile vaccine then too! Silly polo team! It's a core vaccine. I'll even throw in Strangles for good measure). I am going to have a talk with him about whether or not she should be playing intercollegiate polo. And I will take whatever he says to the polo club, along with an offer to buy her. And if they decline, that's where it gets fun :-). My options might include faking a career ending injury for her, or a high-maintenance medical condition that they won't want to pay for, or maybe just going AWOL and not answering my phone, because they don't actually know where she is. HA! Okay, I actually won't steal LB, but the thought has crossed my mind. I will go to bat for my animals, and Love Bug is as good as mine.

Comparisons

These pictures were taken a week after I moved barns, out of the shit heap that didn't feed enough to keep weight on crapaloosas, much less Andy, despite me paying $400 for hay.





These pictures were taken today, a little less than two months after I switched barns.




What an improvement! Of course, he's still got some weight to gain, but he looks so much better. Thank God I moved when I did!

Mares

I much prefer geldings. I know this is a horrible generalization, and each horse is an individual, but it's my general feelings. Love Bug is great, but she sometimes has an attitude. We had a come-to-Jesus moment a week ago, when she found out that I can be the bigger bitch. Geldings are simple. Andy and I don't have battles of will. The barn staff actually think he is better behaved, because he actually listens to his handler. My barn owner told me he's probably the best-behaved horse in the barn, and she doesn't even like geldings (crazy lady! although the other gelding there is proud cut, so he's a bit of a jerk). Love Bug, however, embarrassed me by acting like a spaz and kicking the farrier in the shin. Oh Love Bug. She acts like a mare, and then comes up to me and cuddles into my shoulder, and I forgive her for everything. How can you not love a cuddly pocket pony?

I had such a good ride with Andy tonight. He was doing his floaty, almost extended trot that I love. I actually prefer riding him than Love Bug, which is surprising, because Love Bug use to be my end all favorite horse of all time. But Andy is so responsive, and his gaits are so lovely. He's got this big canter that is so much fun when it's collected, and I feel like I could ride that big, floaty trot all day. Love Bug is so heavy on the forehand, and much slower to respond to cues. On the plus side, her trot is much easier to sit, and I can canter her back back, which I am currently unwilling to do on Andy, as I like my ass on my horse, not in the dirt. She also has a better whoa. So they are both awesome horses. My ultimate goal is to keep Love Bug forever. She's 22, and I don't want her to go back to the polo team. They take care of their horses well, but I can just do it better. It's a money thing, and she deserves to be done with polo, and not be ridden by dozens of people.

Success! Sort-of. Andy had another vet visit, and one of his gums had healed up nicely. The other was trapping food still, so it had to have some work done. The vet used a burr on the power float to widen the space in between the two molars where the pit was, so any food that gets in there will just fall out instead of getting mashed up into the gum and getting infected. So on Saturday Andy gets to go back to his normal diet of hay, and he gets to go out on pasture again! Yay! He was such a good horse for the vet. Last time the vet tried to look in his mouth without sedation he threw a hissy fit and gave him quite a fight. This time he cooperated quite nicely. The vet was even surprised. I figure his mouth was probably hurting him before, so now it probably feels better and he's less fussy about it being touched. He's also taking the bit easier, so I bet he feels a lot better. From now on I am definitely getting his teeth floated every 6 months instead of once a year.

I looked in Love Bug's mouth this week to see what her teeth looked like. Hah! Teeth? 22 years of cribbing has left her with practically NO incisors to speak of, just gums. My mom was horrified when she saw it, but the lack of front teeth obviously isn't affecting that fat little pony too much.

I love my new barn. Seriously, every day I am thankful that I moved Andy! I'm paying maybe $20 more a month, and getting so much more. He's looking really good; definitely putting on some on the weight he couldn't gain at the old barn due to not being fed enough.

I am doubly thankful that I moved in now. I had his teeth floated last week, and they turned out to be in worse shape than I expected. His incisors were seriously angled and he had two periodontal pockets, one of which was really big. So his teeth are in as good of shape as they can be after one appointment with the vet, and the pockets in his gums are healing for the next two weeks. Unfortunately, this means that he can't have anything with a stalk, in cause it gets stuck in the pocket. This means no hay or grass. So he's on a diet of Senior mush and beet pulp and he gets turned out in the arena during the day. Poor Andy. In a little over a week he can have hay and pasture turnout again, and the vet will be back to see if the pockets healed. If not; well, we have more work to do and I have more money to spend! But I would be screwed if I was at the old barn, because I would have no way to feed him the 14 pounds of mush he needs a day, not to mention I couldn't really keep him in the huge barn all by himself.

Andy and Lovebug are in looooove. It's so cute, and slightly annoying. I don't really want herd-bound, buddy sour ponies, but they are so KYOOT together. They are stalled next to each other, and get turned out together. The new barn owners actually really like them both, but actually think Andy is better behaved! I am so proud of him. I was telling someone a while ago that if I love my kids half as much as I love my horses, I will be an amazing mother.