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.

I have been MIA for a while, thanks to work. Sadly, this meant that I have also been MIA from Andy-pants as well. During the past two months I've been working as a campaign manager, which is means crazy hours and crazy stress. Seeing Andy during the week was next to impossible, and sometimes I only had an hour or two on Sunday to see him. Lame, I know. But now my works hour have gone down from 70 a week (!) to about 15, so I have some time to breathe, relax, and ride!

In other big news, I am moving barns. This is actually long overdue, and in Andy's best interest. I can't fool myself any longer into thinking that my current barn is a safe, acceptable place for my horse. It's a rude awakening, and I feel super bad for keeping him there for so long, but he will be in a new place within the week.

I never could effectively manage Andy's weight where he is now. My BO won't feed grain, and in the best of times I could only get out once a day to give Andy some senior feed. He never put on weight after I got him, and he might have lost a bit. I made sure our worming program was working, got a blood panel on him, and chalked it up to him being a hard keeper with some dental issues. Now, I'm having a terrible hunch that he is in need of groceries. Now that everyone is shedding out I look out in the pasture at my barn and can see ribs on almost all the horses. This is unacceptable. There's no reason for big, beefy quarter horses and crapaloosas to be showing ribs in June, or ever for that matter. I can see now that they aren't being fed enough. I can't change the past, but I want a fat, happy pony, so that is reason enought for Andy to GTFO. But oh boy, there's more.

I need to know that my horse is safe, and looked after even when I am not there. That peace of mind should come with boarding. I don't have that here. A few weeks ago I showed up on Sunday, for the first time in a week. As I was leading Andy in from the pasture, I was horrified to see a huge gash in his left hind. Okay, not huge, but it was significant, and went over the joint. It was maybe a total of 5 inches long. It wasn't wide enough to need stitches, but I could tell that it would probably scar, and maybe develop some proud flesh. Arg. I know he's an accident-prone horse, but this cut was obviously several days old. So BO didn't notice it, and I wasn't notified that Andy tore a good chunk out of his leg. It's healing okay and will be fine, but the I might not get so lucky the next time, and I'm not willing to gamble with Andy's safety. Obviously BO isn't really checking horses to make sure they're not injured, and they've all been getting injured. Pasture buddy Lance got a nasty puncture wound to his shoulder bone and has since moved barns (smart!), and this cute Palamino got caught on some barbed wire and I found him covered in blood. Which brings me to another point- the fences are barbed wire.

I am an idiot, and when I checked out the place I didn't walk the perimeter of the pasture and examine the fencing. I walked in through a nice wood section, and thought everything was hunky doory. A few days after Andy got there I realized that the majority of the fencing was 3 strands of barbed wire. YUCK! It's only a matter of time before Andy gets caught in it, so I really can't delay moving him.

The icing on the cake is just that I don't agree with BO's idea of horsemanship, and he is not very accomodating to his boarders. His idea of horsemanship is summed up by this anecdote. There is a dropoff on the edge of the gelding pasture that is really a very steep hill of about 20 feet. A horse fell down it (a few, actually have), and was sore. BO's comments: "When they fall, it hurts, so they learn not to do it again." Headdesk. This guy told me to put DMSO on Andy's cut. DMSO is a liniment with anti-inflammatory properties, and is more for inflammation and pulled muscles. Dummy jar. Can you tell I've had it up to here? A few weeks ago I asked to have Andy kept in the upper pasture, which is, IMO, safer, and I can access him at all times. He said no, so Andy is turned out in the back 100 acres, with fallen trees, cliffs, creeks, and all sorts of shit to injure himself of. Right now I have to call the night before if I want him, and he'll move him to the front pasture. Not cool.

The very last straw was getting a phone call two weeks ago from BO. There is this very nice trainer who recently started boarding at my barn who gives dressage lessons. She asked if she could use Andy for some lessons with imtermediate students, which I actually thought to be a good idea. I'm too busy to ride him enough, and having other people ride him under the guidance of a trainer sounded good to be. So trainer looked into her insurance, and found that I would be covered liability-wise if I leased him out to her for those leasons, in a partial-lease type arrangement, which is fine by me. It was my understanding that we were holding off on using him until June, when we'd do all the paperwork and whatnot.

So in the midst of all the god-awful stress I'm under, the Sunday before election day (my only day to sleep in!) I get a phone call in the morning from BO. Apparently, trainer brought my horse in from the pasture and was going to give a lesson on him. I'm a bit perturbed about that, as I haven't signed a lease yet, and I wanted to be there to observe at least for the first lesson, but that's between trainer and I, and when it comes down to it I like her and trust her judgement, so I'm not too mad. But BO was quite the dick to me on the phone. He demanded that I sign a release form if I'm going to allow anyone to ride my horse when I'm not around...Which I suppose I will pull out of my ass, as there are no release forms for riding at that barn (unlike any other barn I've ridden at). Whatever. I can understand him not wanting people using other people's horses without permission, but he continued on to say that before I could let Trainer use my horse, I also had to go to "my insurance guy," and make sure I had coverage for that and get him a print out of that, to which he added the smart ass comment of "I bet your insurance guy will laugh at you when you ask him." Grrr...I think I'm overreacting, but this guy is such a douche canoe who lets anything go at the barn, then is rude to me when I decide to partially lease my horse out to a very good trainer. Not to mention, what insurance? hahaha, whoops. I never really got around to any sort of insurance for Andy. He's not worth enough to quality for mortality (and probably medical), and I think medical would be a waste of money anyways, plus that would take my decision-making power away from me in the case of a serious medical issue. And I just have been lazy and cheap about liability, but I bet my ass that no one at my barn as equine liability insurance. It's not a requirement to board there, so why would he assume I had insurance for my $300 horse? On a side note, I am gonna spring for liability insurance now, as I don't want to get sued if something bad happens. I use to have some through USPA, but that ship sailed a while ago.

Anyways, the point of that rant was that barn owner called me on a Sunday morning, and was generally rude and flippant, which doesn't fly with me. I am just ticked about him telling me what I can and can't do with my horse, and not letting me keep Andy in a pasture where I can actually access him 24/7. He can kiss my $200 a month goodbye. I wrote up my 30 days notice and left it there today. 5 other horses left in the past month too, so I hope he realizes that his barn sucks. If he asks me why I am leaving, I haven't decided what I will say. Nice, mature Me thinks I should say that I found a barn closer to me, for a similar price. Snarky me wants to say that I am moving Andy to a barn where his weight can be maintained, and he will be monitored for safety, and where I can access him 24/7. Bitch me wants to say that the facility is unsafe and the horses aren't being fed enough. What shall I do...probably nothing. Move him this weekend without saying a word is the probable course of action.

I'm actually super excited about my new barn. It's the barn where I use to take lessons in junior high and high school, only with a different owner. This really feels like I'm coming full circle. As a little girl taking lessons, I use to dream about keeping my own horse there. I'd go in to ride and feel like such a little urchin, poking around on a school horse while there were all these actual horse owners around. Now I'm going back there, a much better rider with my very own pony. Shit, I love my life!

23 is a weird, awkward age to be. Graduating college, starting a career, and working on relationships is a big transition, and it did not come easy for me. All I can say is thank God for Andy. He has literally been my saving grace through this all. I don't know where I'd be emotionally without him. Equine therapy has gotten me through this first post-college year. Now I've got a job, and lots of prospects for my career, I'm settling back in with my friends after an uncomfortable falling out, and I'm in a good relationship. Buying Andy was kind of crazy, but it got me through the bad times, so now I can enjoy the good.

I took Andy out on the trail today, with no bolting!!! Hallelujah. Of course, I didn't let him canter at all, so that might explain it. He definitely wanted to run, but generally listened to me when I told him no. We also saw the elusive herd of elk that lives in the area. Andy actually saw them first. When I looked ahead to see what caught his attention I saw a shit-ton of elk, about 50 feet away. It was very neat.

Feeling Better

I feel much better about Andy today. My friend Katie, who taught me to ride came out to Hillsboro to visit me and Andy today. She gave me some helpful advice, and confirmed my idea of switching him to a gag bit. She rode him for a while, and also made me realize that he's been ignoring the snaffle even in the arena. I told her how I sort of feel like a failure, switching him to a harsher bit, but she reminded me that he is a lot of horse, and that he was always in a gag bit for polo. She also told that he use to event, which means he is a fairly good jumper! I had no clue. I think this is so cool! I don't jump, but it's something that I eventually want to learn to do. I wasn't going to start with Andy, because I didn't want to make him start jumping at this age. He's old enought to earn his retirement. But if I ever want to start to learn, I could use him! Apparently he went up to novice level eventing, which means he could clear 2'11''. So maybe I will do really low jumps on him! hahah, or not.

In other news, I can finally pop the knuckle on my pinkie finger! I know this might not seem like a big deal, but I hurt it the second day I got Andy, back in November. He pulled back and broke a lead rope, so I grabbed his halter, and somehow got my pinkie stuck into the halter while he was still pulling. I might have broke it, but I think I just sprained it really bad. I haven't been able to pop it for five months, but I finally did! Now I'm glad that I was cheap and never went to the doctor.