300th post!!!!! A look back at my journey

It is hard to believe I have been doing this for 300 posts.  Three hundred!!  I have 29 followers and have semi-regular comments on most of my posts.  How awesome is that!  I figured in celebration of my 300^th post I would do a recap of my time in blog world.  This is very link heavy :)  Once upon a time, a lady moved to Michigan with her 2 horses and it all began….

In January 2011 I got a donkey to rehab because I wanted a companion for the horses and I felt sorry for her.  I gave her until August and if she wasn’t better I was going to let her go to be pain free. February 2011 I found a riding buddy in RB1 and also decided to give up on showing dressage shows with TWH and focus on eventing.  Stupid politics.  In April TWH and I went XC schooling for the first time and it was a success, in May TWH jumped 3’6” for the first time ever and figured out that refusing isn't an option.  It also made me realize just how hard 3'6" is for TWH.   Appy went XC in super wet conditions and TWH went to our first hunter/jumper show and we won ribbons!  In June TWH had our first ever real eventing show and placed 2^nd!!  He was going to become an eventer and it made me so happy.

We celebrated the donkey's 6 month anniversary and her successful rehab.  In July I met RB3 and in August TWH went to our second ever hunter/jumper show and won ribbons again.  September came around and App and I went to our last eventing show though I didn't know it at the time.  I wish we could go again, maybe at a lower level.  Someday.  

TWH went to his second eventing show and we got our first ever 3 and 4 in dressage (for pacing) but still placed in the ribbons because TWH is a rockstar in jumping.  In October I got my first blogger award and also determined what kind of bedding I really did NOT like.  In November I posted some videos of the App jumping and then I determined the bedding I really DID like.  And still love.

  

February 2012 I met RB4 and she has been an awesome friend ever since, she is my right hand gal at shows and I love it.  Come March my awesome vet alerts me to App’s declining vision and I started training a horse for RB3.  We also get chickens (of which, only 2 are left L) and our farm becomes a real farm now that there are chickens.  In April I pick up a new boarder/training horse and things start going badly, a precursor for the rest of the year.  I tear my calf muscle in May which causes App’s last eventing show  (though I didn't know it at the time) to be done with someone else but he still placed first cause he is awesome.

I get bronchitis and still help sell the horse I had in training for RB3 because breathing is just a minor detail.  In June I have my first fall in Michigan but I don't call it a REAL fall and I am done with the training horse after he re-tore ligaments in my knee which forces me to fire my first customer, which almost severs my friendship with RB4.  I enjoyed my last ride before I went in for surgery and had to wait until August to finally get back in the saddle.  In September I started teaching the donkey to drive which quickly progressed to teaching her to drag poles.  Cause I wanted my ass to pull my ass around in a cart!!

2013 started well with TWH working with COWS and he didn't freak out!  I finally had the dentist out for the first time since late 2010 (cause I am a bad horse mom) but there wasn't any serious problems because of the delay.  March gave me my second jumping session since surgery and in April I shared that I had to rehome the donkey (who is still doing very well!) which was/is sad but then I went to ROLEX and had a great time!!

In May TWH and I had our first show of the year and it was a success as was our second show in June.  TWh and I went to our first ever clinic in July and we also finished the HUGE project of fencing in our property as pasture.   September started off amazingly with a great show and TWH and I started to go Novice level.  That success was immediately tempered with the realization that TWH was hurt and that App was also lame.  2 broken horses in a 2 horse home is not a good balance.  We went to the equine hospital for ultrasounds and that realization was enough for me to realize TWH wouldn't make it through the higher levels.  They say everything happens for a reason, if TWH hadn't been hurt and App hadn't been going blind, I wouldn't have considered Mia.  

Thankfully come October things started going better.  I started Mia from the ground back up and in November started cantering.  December had the Blogger gift exchange hosted by Tracy and I got TWH’s most favorite treat in the mail, he really appreciated it!  

2014 though, 2014 was a whirlwind of activity.  As Mia jumped for the first time, I realized I may have a superstar on my hands and I finally had sound horses again.  In February I had my first bareback ride on Mia which was nerve wracking and finally got the courage to canter outside of an arena (big girl panties!).  It shouldn't have been that hard but I really think I was scarred from the 2nd training horse more than I realized.  Thankfully all better now.

Mia had her first ever cross country schooling and I sprained my finger (which still hasn’t recovered almost a year later) and then went to her first ever clinic where we met our current trainer M.  TWH’s season opener show was in the Novice division and we started rocking the season.  The second show in June went just as well and we were moving up in points.  

Mia’s first ever judged trail ride was in July and I learned she does NOT like bridges but her first real show was in August and she was awesome with a 2^nd place in both classes.  TWH dealt with my stupidity in dressage and again placed at the Novice level in spite of it and ended the season sound.  September had Mia’s eventing debut at the Beginner Novice level and October had results that were good for her experience level and we learned a LOT.  TWH got a new leaseee K and showed in the 18" division.

November had me ordering my first ever new vehicle and it is S-E-X-Y.  We also found out TWH and I won reserve champion in our division for year end awards.  YAY!!  I finally participated in No Stirrup November and was pleased with the results, going to have to keep doing that and not slack off.  SO and I ended 2014 huge and I went on the best vacation ever.  

2015 has been good so far.  I started taking lessons from an actual dressage instructor and am seeing really good changes and Mia and I actually jumped up to 3’9”.  How you ask?  Amazingly enough, if you refuse to look at the jump AT ALL, you can’t see  how big they are!  Who knew, right?  K is riding TWH several times a week and he is looking and acting great. 

Our plans for 2015 so far is to go to a clinic in April and our first show is the first and second weekend of May.  Thanks for joining me on this journey, it has been fun!  I hope that you decide to stick with me even though I don't post a lot of pictures and I don't post a whole lot.  Here is to the next 300 posts!!

Some announcements and going for a walk

Unfortunately there has been precious little riding since my lesson thanks to the holiday weekend, busy schedules and an extremely dusty arena.  It is now very obvious that the flooding that I have had over this past winter has washed away most of my arena treatment as I tried to ride on Monday and it was simply too dusty to anything more than walk. How frustrating!  My tentative plan is to throw down some more treatment on Saturday and see how it does.

I have delayed posting about this but I figure I need to share that Daisy is now living with alpacas and is not our babysitter.  She has become increasingly noisy in her protest that she is turned out separately from the boys in the morning.  Since the hay I secured for the boys last year is mostly alfalfa, she can't have it so she has to have breakfast separately and wait for the boys to finish eating.  Around lunch I go outside and let her in with the boys. The issue is her braying at least every hour because she is separated and then when I turn her out with the boys, she immediately goes over and eats as much of the alfalfa chafing as she can.  She has become lame a couple of times, has been ouchy on her feet and the farrier agreed it is likely her alfalfa chafing consumption.  On top of this, she decided that she didn't want to be caught at night unless boys had already left. She could be standing at the gate, when I walk to the gate to get everyone she would turn, walk away and refuse to come up to me if I called.  Half of the time if I then walked over to her she would walk away.  BUT as soon as I took the boys out of the pasture, even if they were just on the other side of the gate, she come right up to the gate waiting for me to bring her out and I would then have no problems catching her.  I tried round penning her (which she did really well at but didn't fix the issue outside of the round pen), treats, ear scratches and chasing when she walked away and she kept up her behavior for 3 weeks.

Eventually I posted on a forum asking for ideas and someone that is about 45 mins away said they were looking for a friendly guard donkey for their alpacas.  They had just started an alpaca farm and this was their first birthing season, they wanted something to guard the babies.  I met them and really liked the couple, they met Daisy and fell in LOVE.  I brought her down to their farm and Daisy hopped off of the trailer and walked through the yard like she owned the place.  She didn't spook at anything and was very interested in everything.  When she was put in with the alpacas, she immediately walked over to them and chased them off of a flake of hay on the ground.  I have kept in touch with the people and Daisy is doing great.  The alpacas decided she wasn't evil after 2 days and Daisy has stopped braying every day.  They even have pics of their young grandson sitting on Daisy.  She seems very happy.  Chippy wasn't happy though, he stared at the trailer when we brought it home and looked for Daisy for a full 2 days before settling down.  Thankfully he got over his heartbreak and he is now fine with having the TWH to buddy with.

Last weekend the vet was out for spring shots, he drew blood on the App for his yearly CBC and said his levels are the same where the were last year, yay!  He has some kidney disease so I am glad it isn't getting worse.  He did say, however, that he is glad I retired the App from jumping last year.  Apparently when in bright sunlight, and his pupil is small, the App about 75% blind. *sniff* That makes me really sad, I guess I can't just pull the App out of retirement if the TWH can't do eventing : (  I guess he is going to have to be happy as a lesson horse and slowly adjust to life with limited-to-no visibility.

Since I haven't been able to ride, and I am trying to get back into a shape that isn't round, I have started walking.  Taking a tip from the NuzzMuzz book I took the boys on a walk.  I don't have any awesome trails to walk on but I did walk almost 1.5 miles last night on our quiet little road and it went really well!   I expected the App to jig and rush like he can under saddle but he was an angel, they both were.  They stopped when I did, backed up when I did and I held both of them on a very loose lead line.  Walking win!

What does the dentist of the year get? A little plaque

Yesterday was a busy day here at LogDog Acres, after some cancelling, rearranging and last minute finagling, the dentist was out!  His original appointment was last Tuesday so last Tuesday I got everything ready, drugged up the donkey with some Ace and waited.  Unfortunately the dentist called right before his appointment time and said a deer hit him and he had to reschedule so we made the appointment for last night.  When he came, he showed me pictures of the deer accident.  The deer didn't just hit him, it went completely through his car, all the way through.  The car in front of him clipped the deer, it went airborne and came into the car's passenger side windshield, through the car and out the passenger side rear glass.  OMG the pictures were scarily amazing.  The dentist said he was so glad he didn't have a passenger, they likely wouldn't have made it through the accident with as much damage as the deer did to the passenger side of the car.  The pictures were jaw dropping.  Glad everyone but the deer made it okay, and at least the deer didn't survive and suffer.  Yowsers!

Donkey is very unsure about this

That night the dentist cancelled, I had a drugged donkey.  Since donkeys tolerances for drugs is a good bit different from horses, I decided I might as well see how she reacted, was 2cc's of Ace going to be enough?  I brought her out and tried clipping her bridle path, a task which I have tried only once before.  Without drugs I would say her reaction had been about a 9 on a scale of 1-10 with lots of leaping, jumping and body bumping.  With the drugs it was about an 8.  Ugh.  I called the vet and asked for an opinion.  He had me try again with a different dosage but the second test failed too.  We had a talk and he sent over some xylazine to mix with the Ace..

No idea why this is sideways, can't figure out how to fix :-(

Unfortunately the xylazine has to be given IV and not IM and only lasts about 30 minutes.  I had heard donkeys are really hard to stick and they weren't kidding.  It was HARD!!  I finally got her vein after tying a tourniquet around her neck and sticking her, getting plenty of blood everywhere else in the process while fumbling for the syringe. *sigh*  Nothing is easy with her is it.  After letting her hang out for about 10 minutes we went to work.  The dentist was very nice and calm and handled the donkey with skill.  And she handled her treatment very well!  I am very glad I decided to go with the drug route though, she may have been obviously drugged but she still gave him a hard time at a few spots.

Toward the end, drugs have certainly helped her relax!
The little bit of blood on her chest is from the IV stick.  Her neck is also shaved
in an effort to get the IV better.

He said her mouth was in very good condition.  She had some pretty sharp edges but that was her only issue and her tooth health was very good.  Yay Donkey!  He did a lot of rasping and rinsing and let her take quite a few breaks, 20 minutes and she was done.  He finished by saying that she isn't as old as I was told, she was supposed to be 8 or 9 when we got her back in 2010 so she should be 10-11 now.  The dentist said she is just now about 7-8, guess now we know!

He's an old pro at this

Up next was the App, I told him the App's short history and the dentist was impressed with his teeth.  He said the App has some sharp edges but for being almost 20, he has really really good teeth.  He still has plenty of tooth left so he isn't even close to having mush yet and had no breaks, cracks or other tooth issues and still has all of his teeth.  Yay App!

Stupid sideways picture.

The App is an old pro at this stuff and has never needed sedated to have his teeth done, he just stands there and takes the abuse.                

He doesn't look too thrilled does he?

Finally we had the TWH and I figured he had something going on since he can be so inconsistent with bridle contact.  I expected there to be some issue we would need to address or something, turns out he only had sharp edges as well.  His back molars were really sharp but his teeth are also in really good condition and a quick rasping session got him back in line and to his hay bag.

What is he doing to me mom??

The best part of the App's and TWH's dental visit were their expressions.  The App would go from a relaxed look to a WTH look and all looks in between.  The TWH, however, had one look and it was a look of horror.

No matter how many pictures I took of him, this is the expression he had so it looks like I have simply have the same picture zoomed in or out in almost every single frame.  

Mom!  He is killing me!!

When I fed everyone this morning I was very happy to see the App didn't drop any grain while eating and he had finished his night hay, something he has been leaving a little bit of every night.  The TWH and donkey ate like normal, big vacuums, so I am exited to work each of them in the bridle to see if there is any behavior changes.  I expect there to be a change in the TWH, for him to be more consistent in contact.  I am not sure if I will see a change in the donkey but it will be fun to try her out.  It is supposed to be be bitterly cold this upcoming week, highs in the low 20's, so we will see how much I end up riding.

Donkey do not like tires

With my goal of having the donkey in the cart by the end of 2012 dashed, I am trying to have her in the cart by at least spring.  Other things just keep popping up and taking up my time, stupid life events.  When I found I had a free night last night I told SO that I planned on either riding the App or driving the donkey, maybe even both.  He made the off handed comment that the donkey would probably make the decision for me, wouldn't she?

Alas she did.  Her current "thing" is that she doesn't want to come to the gate to be caught at night.  It has gone from severe to minor and then settled in the middle, the worst was one night she was at the gate when I went to bring everyone in for dinner.  I walked up to the gate, she turned around, walked away and went in the arena.  She had been doing this for about a week or so at this point so this time I didn't try to go after her and instead brought the boys in and left her outside.  After about 3 hours I went back out to see if she wanted in and she came trotting up to me and hasn't been that bad since.  She does, however, still walk away while I halter everyone and I have to insist she come closer to me several times before she is close enough (5-10 feet away) that I will relent and go and halter her.  She rarely ever walks away when I finally do go to halter her, it seems to be a power trip for her.  She is making me go to her, she doesn't want to come to me.  This whole week I have been bringing the boys in and leaving her outside until I am done with feeding and then, if she is by the gate, I will bring her in.  So far she has been by the gate each time.

Last night she did the same thing, she heard me call everyone, the boys came out of the arena and came up to the gate while she hung far back.  As I lead everyone out of the pasture, she sauntered up close(er) to the gate.  When I was done feeding she was at the gate.  This time, however, I didn't bring her in and instead haltered her, tied her in the arena and grabbed her harness.  She tacked up just fine and after closing the arena gate, we did some ground driving.

She is doing really, really well with ground driving.  She walks on command. She halts quite nicely and while she does require some bit pressure, she requires very little.  She yields to very little bit pressure in turns and hasn't spooked or taken off for quite a few sessions.  I hooked up a pole and had her drag it around and that too went just as smooth.  At this point SO let me know he had finally found a tire for me.  I had been asking for one for a while, it has been suggested I have her drag a tire before hooking her to a cart as a graduating step and go from there to introduce the weight and noise.  I drug the tire up to her and she didn't seem to care.  I drug the tire to behind her and she didn't seem to care.  I walked with her with the tire and while she scooted a bit, it wasn't bad.  Alright!  She is taking this just as easy as the poles, I thought.   After a circle or so she was fairly relaxed so I stopped her and tied the  rope around the tire to her tugs using the old tie-backs that came with the harness.  They are old and dry rotted and I didn't plan on using them, thus I had no issues with using them for another purpose.  In this case, something that would break if things went awry.  After I snapped the rope that was around the tire to the loop I had created at the end of her tugs, I went up and took her bridle off and put her halter on.  You know, just in case.  Best.  Idea.  Ever.  I walked with her about a quarter circle.  She got fairly uneasy when she was feeling the weight on the breastcollar and after the quarter circle she decided she had enough and took off.  I ended up face planting as I struggled to stay with her and eventually just let her go.  After a lap around the arena the tie-back broke and the tire came to a stop.  She ran for a half circle before facing me and going "What. Was. THAT?!?".

I figured this was obviously a sign that I needed to back off the training and take a different approach.  I went up to her, grabbed her lead rope and walked her around a few moments.  When she relaxed I went back up to the tire and grabbed it's rope and tried to walk with her while I pulled the tire again.  It had worked before, it should work again right?  Wrong.  At this point the Donkey decided she no longer cared that I was holding her and took off again, this time tripping me as she body bumped me, sending me flying into the wall and my shoulder met the support post.  It was a hard fall, knocking the wind out of me and leaving a (so far anyway) large, palm sized bruise on my arm about 3 inches below my arm socket.  It was not humerus (hehe, get it?  Ugh, I am a dork.)

At that point I decided it was not worth getting hurt over so I collected the donkey and took her harness off.  Then, instead of putting her away which she seemed to think we were going to do, I snapped the tire rope onto her halter.  C-ya donkey!  She ran and bucked and kicked trying to get the tire off.  I got comfortable and watched her go and go.  It took her about 40 mins before she really settled down (not nonstop, she took several long breaks of standing around staring at the tire).  She was still occasionally trotting around with the tire but she no longer was kicking or bucking at it, even if it bounced off of the wall.  At that point I grabbed the lead rope and went out to her.  I hooked her up and told her if she walked with me and didn't act stupid, she could be done.  We were almost a quarter of a circle when she started to take off.  I ran her into the wall and told her to stop or she would be out here all night and tried again.  This time we were successful in walking half the length of the arena without a spook or takeoff so I unhooked her tire and called it a night.  I walked her around for almost 15 minutes as I made her pick the arena with me and then I put her away.  She was surprisingly a bit sweaty, as she is rarely sweaty, but she was cool, though damp, when I put her away.

This morning she was her normal self, we will see how she acts tonight.  I can't tie her to the tire tonight as I am giving a lesson however there is always tomorrow!  They say donkeys will first assess a situation and that donkey spooks don't last long, last night was not a donkey night as she didn't show those qualities!  Last night was more horse than donkey behavior.  No worries, the cart will come, all in due time, one step at a time.

Driving Ms Daisy

My goal is that by the end of the year I would like to be driving my donkey in a cart.  Will I reach that goal?  I have absolutely no idea but it is what I am working towards.  My aim is for the donkey to be able to give cart rides for Christmas.  Lofty goal, I agree.

I broke out the harness and decided to work with the donkey, much to her annoyance if you read the flick of her tail.  It is so funny watching her pout, she sticks her head down with her ears out to the side and is all angst teenager-ish.  I brought her into the arena, harnessed her up and worked on ground driving first.  She is getting much, much better.  I no longer worry about her taking off (and when she does, it is really easy to control), she turns, halts and backs with relative ease and while she still gapes her mouth at times, she is getting better about holding her bit and is still very soft in the bridle.  She is being driven in a simple spoon snaffle.  I am trying to get her to halt by voice command instead of rein pressure, she halts with very light rein pressure but just doesn't always stop with a Whoa.  We just need more practice I guess.

After we warmed up I tied a pole onto her tugs and tied it onto the loops for the traces.  Last time we pulled poles I had used a surcingle and not her harness so this was the first time she would pull with her breastcollar.  While she did have some "donkey scoot" moments, she did really well and did better with turning then last time.  Since she was doing so well I went ahead and hooked up a second pole to her so she was now in "shafts".  Her first walk with them was a bit quick, she tried to scoot away and was fairly concerned about having something behind her on both sides.  Some reinforcing butt scratches when she was correct goes a long way while driving her.

It took a bit of encouragement to continuatlly go forward when she had two poles, she went from walking when asked to now needing a flick of a whip to get her to move forward.  She also started stopping a lot too.  Almost anytime we were by the arena gate she was stopping (despite having NEVER stopped by the arena gate while we have worked) and it was a 50/50 shot of her stopping while we walked down the long side of the arena.  If we were changing direction or going in a circle she wouldn't stop.  Strange donkey.  I worked her almost a full 30 minutes before I let her be done, longer then I normally work her and she seemed miffed about it.  In the end though, she went an entire lap around the arena (cutting the corner by the arena gate so we didn't start an argument) without stopping and while she didn't stop when I said Whoa, she only required a very light pull on the reins to halt.  I unharnessed her in the arena and then led her straight to dinner, I think she forgave me at that point.

Perhaps this weekend I will do this again, she obviously needs more time with the poles.  She is starting to figure out how to turn in them but she certainly needs more exposure.  After she pulls the poles a couple more times I will try dragging a tire behind her for additional weight and noise before I hook her to the cart.  Only 4 weekends left, can I meet my goal???

One pole at a time

Things are getting colder.  And darker.  Fall has definitely settled in and the daylight is leaving sooner and sooner each day, leaving little time for outside tasks.  No worries though, I finally got the gumption to torture the donkey.

The goal of the session was to ground drive her a little, something we have only done a couple of times, and then if all went well, add a pole to drag around.  To her credit, she is being really good about everything I throw at her because I don't actually work her often at all.  Once a month is all I average in my goal to get her to pull my butt around in a cart.  Unfortunately with lack of time and then my knee recovery, I haven't had the ability to work with her at all since late July when I was showing some of her skills off.

A content donkey is content to have her head held for her

I started to get out her harness, admittedly not that big or heavy of a harness but still, and then got lazy and instead hooked up my surcingle to the App's dressage girth (which made it fit PERFECTLY!) and used it for our work.  While I have been typically bringing the halter out and driving with both the halter and bridle/bit to get her more accustomed to the bit pressure, this time I left the halter in the barn.  My long training leashes (repurposed as draw reins long ago) were repurposed again as driving lines and they fit her pretty perfectly.  We worked on walking,whoa and working towards get her a little more accustomed to the bit.  After several circles going both directions that included directional changes, we finally tried going straight.  It was the more tense part as it opens to door to a take-off, something that happens occasionally when on a circle.  Much to my surprise the donkey did great and marched on with no running away. Yay!

A crappy cell phone pic done at night is better than no pic

Lots of practice is still needed with walking and stopping on command however the donkey is halting with fairly minimal pressure on the bit.  This is a pretty big improvement over our last session where she didn't seem to understand bit pressure at all.  Her only bad habits so far is to continually flip her tongue over the bit and continually gape her mouth, grr.  She is in a plain half cheek driving snaffle, I am sure time and experience will help fix these issues.  She is still learning how to hold and handle the bit, we will give it time before getting something to keep her tongue from flipping around.

Just to give an idea of how she is going.

As the final test, I had a friend drive the donkey around while I started dragging a PVC pipe around the arena, progressing until it was behind her.  She gave quite a few "donkey shuffles" as she wasn't super keen on having this noisy thing being drug around with her but after about 5 mins she settled down.  After she settled I placed the pole on her as she walked and eventually tied the pole to her surcingle as she walked around.  Again, several "donkey shuffles" but after another 3-4 minutes she settled down and accepted that she had to drag this noisy pole around.  Success!

On that note we stopped a couple of times until she gave a pretty nice, soft halt and then disrobed her and put her back in her stall.  I got a couple of unhappy donkey looks but treats appeared to make things better and by the time I went to the house I stopped getting dirty looks.  Looking forward to getting a second pole on her and the trying to hook her up!  Someone needs to pull my butt around in a cart :)

Rides and changes

I would say things are going along and nothing has changed here at LogDog Acres but that would be a lie.  While some things are still the same, other things are changing very fast.  The TWH is still lame though he seems to be every so slightly better.  I am not going to really check him until Friday so we will see but he doesn't seem as ouchy when walking from the arena to the stall.  That is a good thing!  The donkey is recovering nicely and is at least weight bearing on her hind leg.  Last week I gave her several days of stall rest, much to her extreme dismay, and it seemed to really help.  She may have totally destroyed her stall each day and brayed constantly but she is now walking fairly normal and is relishing the time outside.

Things are changing all over though.  We had to get a bigger tractor as we were burning our current tractor up.  The hydraulics were being maxed out almost every time we used it and we could smell the pump starting to burn.  Instead of running a new, not paid off tractor into the ground we traded it in on a bigger one that has more than double the hydraulic capacity.  I used it last night for the first time and was impressed, it handled the routine task of the poo box without any issues what so ever.  With our new tractor we are starting to clear some of the brush to make it pasture.  Some of the attachments we have just ROCK.  The chipper we got is amazing and this thing called a Ratchet Rake makes clearing briars and these stupid, thorny, invasive species Russian Olive tree a breeze.  We have a lot to go but how quickly things are being cleared make my outlook on the pasture pretty bright.  Also my super awesome boarder is unfortunately leaving, the daughter has lost interest and the mother can't justify having a horse that she herself can't ride.  Since he is a 10.2 hand pony, only the daughter can ride him.  Thus they have sold the pony and he is being picked up here in a few hours.  The mother has said she will probably lease the TWH for herself when the weather is better so we will see.  Finally, among the list of changes, I am getting a horse in for 30 days of refresher training, they want the horse to be able to stand while being mounted, stand while being groomed, know basic leg commands and such.  He is coming this evening so no rest for the weary!

On the riding front I have been riding the App and making okay progress.  On Saturday I rode him and he wasn't being super cooperative.  RB4 was trying to help with giving a mini "lesson"/pointers to try to help.  Some of it did, some of it didn't but I appreciate the feedback.  I played with the first level 1 dressage test to see how it rode.  O.M.G.  It is much, much harder than a few years ago when I played with first level.  It is also extremely hard to do in a 50x100 arena (a small dressage arena is 66x132).  Those extra feet would sure come in handy!  I may have to ride it outside in my pasture to get a real feel for it.  Hopefully it gets easier on a day the App decides to work with me instead of against me. 

I will probably be blogging about my training rides as a way to keep track of the progress, hope no one minds.  I don't see the point of making a blog for 30 days of info.  Here's to hoping things settle down a little!

Daisy's progress

It is now Wednesday and the donkey is still very lame.  She is boarder line non-weight bearing, she will set her toe down but not her heel and hop.  I flexed her out a bit last night and she only really reacts if you pull her leg all the way back, flexing her stifle, or when you palpate her pastern.  I even tried wrapping her leg but when I checked on her an hour later she was in a full body sweat from her nerves.  I even tried a second time last night and got the same reaction so I took it off and am just applying the Buta-vet sweat.  I will call the vet tomorrow if she isn't better.  Goodness.

When the vet was out he took new xrays of Daisy's feet and he was mightily impressed.  He had the xrays from last year on his computer so he flipped back and forth and was very impressed with how she is standing now.  He does want to take at least a quarter inch of sole off of her, now that we know where her bones are, other than that he is pretty happy.

Here is her left front, exactly 1 day from a year ago:

Note she isn't actually standing on the foot

 Here is her left front today:

Standing like a good donkey

Her coffin bone, connecting the tip and the start of the bone, are now parallel to her hoof angle which is a big improvement.  The bone is also slightly more level along the bottom which is fantastic.  To more easily see the difference, here is the first picture I have rotated about 20 degrees so that her foot is flat:

Her right foot is her worst foot and the one that she was non weight bearing when she first arrived here.

And here she is today:

Here you can easily see how much height we have taken off and we still have more to go.  You can see the angles are much better and her bone remodeling has left her coffin bone now nicely flat on the bottom.  This has caused much comfort for her and has helped her stay sound.

Now I can confirm that I am very, very far from an expert in x-rays.  If anyone sees anything else in the x-rays and would like to share I would LOVE your feedback as I am going mostly by what was pointed out to me by the vet.  Overall I am very happy with her progress and she has been cleared to be a cart pulling donkey!  At least when she is sound again.

Vet visit

The vet came out on Saturday for vaccinations, spring check ups and to look at the TWH who is now been lame for 2 weeks.  We started with the TWH and while he looks much better, he is still lame.  The vet had us do a trot/pace out, hoof tested him and then flexed him a whole bunch of ways.  The vet diagnosed a left front medial splint that is very high and close to the knee.  He also suspects suspensory involvement in the left front, not a tear but maybe a small sprain or inflammation.  The TWH is on very controlled movement for 2 weeks, is having a sweat applied once a day and has his leg wrapped.  The vet will come out in 3-4 weeks to recheck him and if he is not better we will haul over to a clinic where he will have a few specialists look at him and we will have more diagnostic tools available to us.  He also said the TWH's hocks were full but he didn't want to mess with them as he would prefer the TWH be ouchy so that he will stay sedentary while his front heals.  We will then reassess the situation at the recheck.

The App's visit was rather uneventful, I did have the vet draw blood for a full CBC to see if there was anything amiss due to his age (19 this year!) and his declining attitude.  The vet did say my App is starting to loose his sight and that he doesn't seem to have good peripheral vision as the "shelf" in his eye is starting to completely cover his iris.  Ugh, just what I need.  A blind cross country horse who thinks he is alpha and can have an attitude problem.  He can still see, however, seemingly quite well in fact, so I am to very closely monitor him when I start jumping.  If he starts acting abnormally over jumps I am to stop jumping immediately because it will mean the App can't see the jumps well enough anymore.  Poor App will be heartbroken though as he loves jumping.

The Donkey had come up lame on Friday morning and was non weight-bearing on her left hind.  I suspected the problem was around her pastern as that was the only place she was ouchy/kicky and she didn't react to bending or palpating anywhere else.  The vet checked her over and agreed, he said he suspects she tweaked it.  He said it would be like us rolling/twisting our ankle and spraining/almost spraining it.  The Donkey is now on a half gram of bute 2x a day and also having the sweat applied.  She is now weight bearing, but is extremely lame on it still and is laying down a lot.  I am to give her a week and let the vet know if she isn't better so we will see.

Turnout now become a challenge as I have 2 animals that have to be on controlled exercise and 2 that are fine, if not rowdy.  If I turn everyone out together they will be quiet most of the time but I can't guarantee they will stay quiet and I would prefer no one stay on stall rest for 2-4 weeks.  In the end I talked to my boarder and she was okay with the App and the pony staying outside in the winter turnout/sacrifice area.  It is a decent sized area, has water and I will put hay nets out however there isn't any real shelter.  She was fine with it, thankfully, so the TWH and the Donkey will stay in the indoor.  The TWH and Donkey won't run around with each other for the fun of it and the App and the pony can enjoy bugging the poo out of each other but one group won't be able to chase the other.  Everyone will share a gate so they can still hang out with each other but antics shouldn't be raised.  It worked out pretty well yesterday so I am keeping an eye on them today.  We will see how it goes.  X-rays will be in the next post!

Karma? I give!

Uncle!  That is what I feel like yelling lately.  Things are going pretty well in most regards but I seem utterly inept at keeping animals sound.  The TWH went from having lameness in his hock to having lameness in his front leg.  His hock appears better, still short strided but better, but he now has a pretty significant gimp in his front leg on semi hard ground.  He has been on bute for 2 weeks now and is still lame.  I am now not sure if the vet will be able to see if he is lame in his hocks thanks to his front leg. 

So I brought everyone in last night and everyone was okay.  Or at least as much as I expected everyone to be.  Everyone also appeared okay at night check, though I admit I don't specifically remember seeing the hind end of everyone.  I went to feed this morning and the donkey was resting her hind leg.  Odd, I thought, she doesn't normally cock her hind leg like the horses.  I dumped grain (donkey gets one pathetic third of a cup of oats and a hoof supplement) and it was pretty obvious, the donkey is non weight bearing on her left hind.  I palpated her all over and can't find an obvious source of pain though her heel is slightly warm.  She was a little kicky (more snatching it away than a kick) when I kept picking her foot up, something she hasn't done in a while, but other than that she didn't react to anything.  I tried to put her out and she just couldn't do it.  She won't put weight on her leg so I threw her a flake of 2nd cutting (spoiling the donkey!  She only gets first cutting when in her stall), gave her a gram of bute, put some poultice on her heel and left the radio on for her. 

Poor gal, I've heard her bray a couple of times wanting to go out so I checked on her at lunch.  She was laying down and got up when I came in, she took her time and it was obvious she still didn't want to use her leg.  She wasn't as kicky and she let me completely inspect her leg but she is still very sore.  Leave it to me to have 4 equines and have 2 of them be dead lame.  And neither of them are the "old fart" you would expect to be lame due to age. 

The vet will be out to Sat morning at 11a to check everyone out and give yearly shots.  He is bringing the xray machine so we should have plenty of options in terms of diagnostics.  I will share what happens and hopefully post some of the xrays.  Happy St Patty's Day Eve!

Donkey, TWH and a show

So on the plus side, the TWH no longer has a swollen hock, it is nice and cool and tight.  On the downside he is still a little short strided on it.  I have kept him on bute for 6 days now and had hoped to flex test him this morning however alarm fail, I ended up sleeping until 7a!  Thankfully I had taken the time last night to fill hay nets so I didn't get too far behind but as a result I didn't get him flexed out.  I will try again tonight and see what he looks like.  I do have the vet scheduled out on the 17th and we will inject him if we think it comes down to that.  We will see.

For the horse show I have decided to pass on the show on the 18th.  The TWH is certainly not ready and I am not confident in the App being a rock star so I am going to wait.  My instructor is going to a show on the 31st, however, so I am now looking at going to it with the App.  The instructor said we certainly should do First level 1 and either First 2 or Training 3, depending on my comfort level.  I got the tests printed out last night and will try to ride tonight to see how they go.  First 1 isn't a hard test, per say, however the transitions will come FAST with almost no room for error.  I am excited to see how it goes and am planning to take another lesson on the App after riding this a few times.

While I understand planning on showing the App goes against the plans for the TWH, I am going to push forward.  Hopefully by the time I take my next lesson the TWH will be sound again and I can re-evaluate.  I am torn as I want to keep showing the App, especially since he is finally making good progress in his dressage, but I don't have the resources to show two horses.  It sounds like I will have the same dilemma as last year, we will see how it goes.

On a side note, I tried something new last night.  I tortured my donkey!  My boarder is a 10 hand pony that used to drive.  The owners are selling him and offered to sell me the harness and cart if it fit.  I tried it on and it doesn't look like it fits, some pieces do and some don't.  The donkey was not pleased about any of it but handled it really well.  I am going to try putting it on her again tonight and make sure it doesn't fit before passing on the offer.  The donkey is only 11.2 hands so she isn't that much bigger, the biggest part of the pieces that don't fit is the length of the crupper and the breaching is a little high.  Going to see if adding extenders would fix it as those are the only pieces that are too small.

I am not amused.  Not amused at all.

Fail, fail fail

Ever have one of those days where everything you touch goes wrong?  I had one of those days.  Thankfully enough it happened at the end of the day so the entire day wasn't trashed but it made for a pretty bad night.  It started out by my getting out of work fairly close to on time and deciding to start dinner before bringing the horses in for the night.  As I stood at the kitchen sink washing my hands I gaze outside to see the horses standing at the gate staring at me, waiting for me to bring them in.  Except I don't see them standing at the gate staring back at me.  I see them eating grass outside of the pasture.  Next to the house.  Everyone is out!!!  All 4 of them!  It is dark, dark too, not dusk but full on night time with no moon shining through.  I casually walked outside and said Hi to the App and walked quickly to the barn and started to make noise in the feed room.  Of course no one is interested in grain, they are OUTSIDE and have GRASS.  I grabbed a bucket with grain and a spare lead rope (Thank goodness I love having extras of everything!) and walked up to the App.

The App is the herd leader.  The App controls where everyone goes and at which speed.  If he decides to run around then everyone else will too just because you do what the App suggests.  I had a pit in my stomach as I walked up to the App but he let me put the lead rope over his neck like it was no big deal.  Thank goodness he didn't decide to take that moment to show Appytude and move away from me.  In my mind I pictured him knowing he was outside and knowing he wasn't supposed to be outside and choosing that moment to flee for more freedom with his tail waiving in the night as he faded from sight.  Yes, I was shaking as I walked him back to his stall.

I successfully and easily grabbed the TWH and put him away, leaving me with the pony and the donkey.  The TWH is such a good horse.  I went for the pony next and he stuck his head in the bucket for a nanosecond bite before taking his head out and then started to run away.  That is one of his tricks, one I really dislike.  About a half second later he stopped though, he realized I had sweet feed in that bucket!  I didn't have stupid boring carrots or plain pellets, I was offering sweet feed!  He decided if sweet feed was the offer then he was happy to be caught and went happily into his stall.  I went back out to grab the last escapee and the donkey wasn't there.

I looked around and barely saw a swish of her tail as she went around the house to head to the road.  Dang donkey, what is your problem?  You are dark grey and it is dark out.  I can only see you because I have the outside lights on, do NOT run away from me.  I ran around some things to cut her off and offered her the grain.  She, unfortunately, was not nearly as impressed as the pony and turned around and headed back to where she had been but this time had her ears on the treeline.  She was enjoying this freedom.  I was again able to cut her off and she stopped and stared at me for a moment before deciding to make a run for it between me and the fenceline.  I did the only thing I could think of, I jumped at/on the donkey and hung off of her neck until she gave up.  Thankfully it only took about 6-7 steps to do so but she gave a small rear and a little buck in protest.  I then ordered her to her stall and told her she was a bad donkey.

For good or bad it looks like they pulled on the gate and since the gate post isn't driven far into the ground due to rocks, it was loose and I think it wiggled just enough to be loose enough to let go of the gate.  Needless to say I dug the pole up, put some sand in there too to fill gaps and refilled the hole.  I also now have a pin that goes in a hole in the gate's lock.  It is reserved for padlocks but I am using a lynch pin.

After that endeavor I didn't think much more would go wrong, right?  What had I done to Karma to deserve more?  Well I don't know the answer to the last question however I had to dump the 10 cu ft wheelbarrow filled with pasture poo and then dump the poo box into the dumpster.  The wheelbarrow didn't make it all the way into the poo box before dumping it's contents everywhere resulting in my cleaning poo off the ground again.  Then I forgot SO had placed the back blade on the tractor so when I pulled the tractor out of the barn to empty the poo box, the back blade drug the ground making a mess of all of the mats we store the tractors on, making a mess of the grass and making a mess of everything.  What was supposed to be a 30 min chore night (bring in, feed and dump poo) ended up being almost 1.5 hours as I tried to fix the tractor damage so SO didn't see my dumb moment.  Is it bedtime yet?

Donkey in action!

This morning started out like any normal morning with the exception of having the present of 5 dead mice, that is a pretty high number.  Go cats!  I was running a little late but made up the time nicely and got everyone fed and turned out and was working on cleaning stalls.  Our dog stays in the chain link backyard while I do morning chores and this morning while I was cleaning the TWH's stall he started barking a warning bark.  Since the dog is afraid of his own shadow and is only brave when he is hiding behind something I went and investigated and there was a large chocolate lab trotting around the backyard and sniffing our dog.  Our dog was barking but also trying to play, good job guard dog.  I walked over to see if the dog would come to me as it had a collar and tags and it didn't, it trotted away and went into the Electrobraid pasture.

I shook my head and told him he didn't want to push his luck and sure enough he ducked under the Electrobraid and went into the winter turnout and trotted around.  Now the winter turnout is woven wire fencing to the ground except where the Electrobraid is so he is now in a 3 walled pasture.  I told him that was probably a bad idea as I know my donkey was a guard donkey and was told she has a confirmed coyote kill.  I was curious if she would defend her herd.  Not 30 seconds after ducking into the pasture, however, here comes Daisy in full alert.  Her ears were up and she charged forward with a mission.

The dog was in a place I couldn't see him from my angle but I heard a yelp and then some scurrying and then saw the dog fly through the winter turnout and shoot under the Electrobraid and out the other side of the pasture by our property line before stopping to see what happened.  Daisy had chased the dog so aggressively she did a reining sliding stop/rear and turn to stay out of the fence which, thankfully, was on.  Of course then she sounded her alarm bray (very different from a normal bray) and I had to walk into the pasture to make her hush.  It was such an odd thing to watch, to see her so focused was definitely different.  I am super happy that A) she will defend her herd and is on the watch for danger and B) despite wanting to kill our dog she certainly doesn't act like that so I guess we are lucky in that respect.  Go Daisy!

Daisy gets her learn on

Back when we were rehabbing the donkey she was extremely lame and needed twice daily bute.  Our hope was to get her pasture sound and off of bute by August or I was going to put her down as a life on bute isn't a good life.  After some good trims and a helpful set of xrays, Daisy has not only become pasture sound but a whole new personality has shone through.  She has had her days where she would rather not be caught and the few days where she figured out how to escape and I had to try to catch a sound donkey (not nearly as easy as catching a lame donkey).  She likes her routine and will give a hearty bray if things aren't "just so", if I am late for breakfast/dinner, if she doesn't get the 1/3 cup of oats first during feeding time, if she ran out of dinner hay "too fast", if she doesn't get her "nightcap" of apple or carrot at nightcheck, etc.  As a result of her newly found appreciation of life I have decided she needs a job.

The job I have picked for her is to pull my butt in a cart.  The reason is that is the easiest thing I can think of for her since I don't want to put additional weight on her as a pack donkey or riding donkey due to her feet.  My goals are that she learns to lunge, learns to move off of pressure if I push her, learns to long line and then ground drive and not care about a dragging pole.  Would eventually like to also start ponying her off of a horse in the arena, that is more of a like to have though.  If I can do all of this then I think I can get her to a cart without too many issues.  

I am lucky in that she learned whoa pretty well so far through normal leading.  She learned to stop when I stop, she (mostly) walks when I walk, turns when I turn and so on.  She has learned to move away from the pressure of a gate and will now walk around one instead of trying to either A) barrel through it or B) stand there and wait for the gate to move.  She also seems to be a learn-through-watching kind of donkey as some things she does can't be coincidence and I can only figure she learned it by watching me with the horses.  So last night I brought her out to learn how to lunge and it went pretty well.  I had just a halter, her lead line and a lunge whip in the arena and she figured out how to walk around in the circle pretty fast.  She learned that "Walk On" with a shake of the lunge whip means walk and "And Whoa" means stop.  She gave me what I asked for about 90% of the time, pretty good for the first time in my opinion!  I had her walk over a pole on the ground (no biggie) and turn around (no biggie).  I tried to teach her to trot/pace on the lunge but she wasn't getting it and I couldn't consistently convince her to go faster than a walk.  Oh well, that will be the next step in the process.

We finished the lesson with yielding to pressure, I want her to move her hips or shoulders away if I push on her.  Currently it happens only about 10% of the time when I ask, the rest of the time she pushes right back which is a typical donkey move.  What I ended up doing is taking my (warm) gloves off and if she didn't move away from a push with my hand, I would push with my fingertips for about 3 seconds, release and do it again until she moved away.  A couple times she got really irritated and I was afraid she may actually kick me as she was throwing her head, swishing her tail and stomping not only her front but also back feet.  In the end she seemed to have gotten it figured out, every time she moved away she would get an ear rub (no treats) and a verbal "Good Girl".  She is now moving away from pressure about 75% of the time, that after just one session!  

Hopefully I am able to figure out a way to make her trot on the lunge line, if not then I guess we will just have to bypass that step and start work with a bridle and learn long lining.  My donkey, she has come so far.

Getting back to it and Donkey is annoyed

As I have a cross country lesson next Saturday I need to get my butt back in gear and get on a horse.  I have finally ridden twice this week, the first being a rather leisurely w/t/c ride.  We didn't really working on much because the horses haven't been worked hard and neither have I.  The App was a bit of a pain but is accepting the new (old) thought process of leg means go NOW and that I will no longer nag him.  He was anticipating in the canter pretty badly, he was ready to do tempi changes without me even asking and did a couple of times. We had a couple of discussions that he shall not throw his head and prepare to take off simply because I am reinforcing a bend and am not asking for a flying change.  Taking off is not the best idea Mr. Appy.

I rode again on Wed and had the App all tacked up when I made a last minute decision and decided to ride bareback. I used to do it all of the time and just don't do it much anymore.  I can ride without stirrups or bareback without an issue, I just don't so I took the time on Wed and it ended up being a really nice ride!  The App was soft in the bride, responsive with the legs and didn't try to take off a single time (who is this horse?!?).  I worked really hard on sitting back as I found in my last lesson that I am very upright due to my dressage riding.  I want to be able to sit back when I need to and did a fairly good job of accomplishing it.  I did have to audibly remind myself a few times but it went well.  I had a thoroughly enjoyable ride and called it quits after about 45 mins and a few flying changes just for fun.

Starting tomorrow I am hoping/planning on riding every day.  SO will be out of town for a couple of weeks so I won't have much else to do.  Luckily RB3 is coming out and riding with me so I have someone to talk to and then the TWH is getting ridden too.  I have cleaned my bridles, my girths, washed my saddle pads and have the saddles in the house for a cleaning.  I am ready for some serious riding!

For my amusing story of the day, I think I am going to start driving Ms Daisy and she is not amused lol.  In a tack lot I bought there is a pony sized bridle and though it is a half hole too small, it fits the donkey.  I also found a small copper mouth bit in storage that fits her pretty well.  I put it on her for the first time last night and let her stand with a bit on and she was so annoyed and it was so cute.  She acted like a 2 yr old trying to spit the bit out but the best part was her ears which kept twirling back and forth in complete confusion.  Ha ha!  I am going to let her sit with the bridle on for a few days and then start working with her on lunging again.  When I start actually driving I will need to get a new setup, this is just an old bride with an old tom thumb but I can work with her for now by attaching lines to the check piece.  I don't want to put out a fortune in new  equipment if I don't actually end up driving her.

Daisy's 6 month update!

So I realized today that I have had Daisy for 6 months and a week.  I realized this because I received an email from former owner asking how she was doing and to ask for the number of my farrier because his "donkeys really need to be trimmed bad".  Ugh, I don't even want to know what those poor donkey's look like.  I called my farrier and passed the numbers along to everyone and sent the previous owner pics of Daisy to show that yes I can in fact "fix" the mess he made.  As a result I was looking at old pictures and comparing them to the new ones, what a difference!

Here a pic from when she first arrived, 12.21.

How here is picture from yesterday, 6.27

 

Front feet from 12.21

Front feet from 6.27

Comparison pic, second picture is the best I could get with her being as close to the same position as possible

I think she has definitely had some body changes, her shoulder is pretty significant IMO.  The slope of her dark line is shows significant direction change as she has developed muscle.  She doesn't have the little wormy belly and has a lot more muscling along her hindquarters.  And while it doesn't make much sense, she looks taller.  It seems confirmed by the wood along the back of the stall, I thought maybe I have more sawdust in then previously but in thinking about it the opposite would be true.  I really think she looks taller even without the wood reference.

Her fat pad along her back is nice and cushy and she now has a roundish barrel.  When she came she was truly flat from her shoulder clear to her haunches, there wasn't a single curve about her.  You will have excuse her coat, she is still shedding and is about 75% done but still has a lot of very long hairs that won't come off yet so she looks funny.  I am very happy with her progress and am pleased with the success I have had in rehabbing her.  Here's to another 6 months!

Daisy update

So the donkey has been making progress, she is finally shedding her winter coat.  Very slowly and in ugly patches but she is shedding and is getting a pretty nice gray coat with a nice shine to it.  She enjoys being brushed and has no issues with brushes or the shedding blade which is nice.  She enjoys having her ears scratched still and is very content to stand around if you have a desire to exercise your fingers around her head. 

Daisy is doing very well with leading, we haven't had a "parking brake" issue or a "take off" issue for a good while now.  A couple of months ago she slammed me into a wall in an effort to break free and eat grass, something she had been getting worse about.  Walking along without a care in the world and then suddenly taking off to the front or side in an effort to break loose. Then it became body bumping me while taking off.  Then she made the mistake of slamming me into a wall while doing it.  I got a good nail puncture on my thigh, ripped pants and was scraped up but didn't let go of her.  I decided that months of being diplomatic weren't working so out came Mr Stud Chain.  After two weeks all issues seem to have been resolved and Daisy has been leading like a good, behaved donkey ever since!  So nice considering I remember the times I fought and fought with her. 

The farrier was out on Thursday and trimmed everyone and I have the pics I promised. First is the right front, the worst foot.  This is the one that had the "blowout" and had all of the old frog taken off.  If you look, there is a tiny little frog growing in there.  Showing heel height and new hoof shape.

Right front

Right front

Right front hoof shape

Only picture I seemed to have saved for the left front, showing heel height

Left front

 Left rear, showing how much little heel we now have, nice trimmed frog.

Left rear

Left rear

Right rear that has also been trimmed up pretty extensively.   Showing heel reduction and nice trimmed frog

Right rear

Right rear

So I realize my pictures really kind of suck, unfortunately these were done at 6a all by myself with a donkey who is afraid of cameras.  She doesn't like the click or the flash, go figure, so it was an interesting adventure.  Mr Stud Chain made a brief visit when Daisy thought it would be acceptable to pseudo-kick at the camera and reminded her that it is absolutely, positively unacceptable to kick for any reason.  Especially when I am holding her foot!  Will try to get some pictures of how she looks overall now that she is brushed but she looks so goofy with her patched, shaggy coat.  

All in all Donkey is doing very well and I am very pleased with her progress.  I am very happy that I have a donkey that is easy to catch, easy to lead, easy to brush and can be handled easily.  We are still working on  accepting fly spray and have given up on hoof soaking for a while, maybe I will try trailer loading as the next project.  That may be interesting.