Update on Bentley's Owies

As of last night, there was no change in his condition, and still unable to find any heat or swelling.

So now the suspected cause is an abscess in his foot.  For those who don't know what that is, its basically when bacteria finds it way up into the hoof and causes an infection.  The buildup of pus causes pressure that is very painful.

The farrier cant be out until Monday, so in the meantime I am going to be poulticing (applying a clay) to help soften the sole and maybe help relieve some of the pressure?  Here's hoping.

Its no fun having an out of commission horse due to something that's hard to prevent. 

Oh and the extra fun part?  Having a young horse that has never been poulticed before.  Extra fun for me never having to have done the hoof before either.  Poulticed many legs, never the hoof.  So my duct taping of the foot looked bulky and awkward.  Luckily I had Liz holding him while I tried.  Things were good until the sound of the duct tape set him off.  Had I been able to wrap from the roll, maybe it wouldn't look so terrible.  Lets just hope it stays on.

Abbey the Accountant

I entered the room the other day to find Abbey reviewing our hotel bill from a few weeks ago.

I dont think she approves of my expense report.  Needs more Tuna.

Still catching up

After Bentley got to go to spring ride (so by now I'm only 3 weeks behind), everything we usually did when we rode became baby work.

On one day, we did a 15 mile ride.  Nothing new, but the first 8 miles I had speedy horse under me.  There was no more quiet trotting... my boy wanted to RUN.  I think Sable must have told him that this is her technique.  We ended up finishing the ride in 6.9mph.  Far faster than I had intended to ride even though we walked the last several miles to bring down the speed.  Well I guess we know he can handle a set speed!

Hang on!

The other "baby" stuff he no longer did, was happily jump the little jumps.  I would point him at anything under 2 feet and he would take a full lap to bring back to a trot or at least reasonable canter.  My usual training plan is that if he is going to be silly and not pay attention, he is going to have to work harder.  This is what led me to set up an oxer at what I thought was about 2'9".  Warmed up over a small x, turned around the corner and....

Wow this horse has wings!

As soon as he knew he was being given a chance, he was wonderful.  Had a great canter and was easy to control.  Just so darn happy to have the challenge.  So yes, he proved his point, and I think my plan backfired... or succeeded?  I really cant tell you.  Oh and that jump... I measured it and it was a full 3 feet.  His first time ever jumping that height.

Funny thing was the next time I rode him, he was an angel.  I guess he just had to get it out of his system or maybe prove his worthiness.  I don't know, but its great to see what I have to look forward to once we are more ready!



Bentley is Lame

And not the kind of lame where you wear vintage clothes to appear ironic.  No, the painful kind of lame.

I went in yesterday intending to have a pretty intense ride.  Walked around the outdoor ring for a bit to warm up, before picking up the trot.  There it was... bob, bob, bob of the head.  Had a couple of people take a look too, and it was as obvious as I thought.  Even tried the indoor ring to see if it was just the slippery footing that bothered him.  No luck.

Good news is we cant notice it at the walk at all, so I may still walk him around for exercise.  Our best guess is that it is either an abscess or slip in the muddy paddock.  I am leaning toward the latter since he was 100% sound on Sunday and knowing how things are in his new paddock.

He is in a new paddock because his grain needed to be increased and its easier for him to go with the other horses that come in for food.  However, Friday night Linda called me saying my horse looked pretty miserable.  The meanies of the paddock weren't letting him or Sable eat hay, and we suspect they hadn't eaten all day.  He has also come in with a lot of new kick and bite marks (nothing too big, but still clearly sore).  So I am guessing he has been chased off at some point and slipped in the mud.

So instead of a good intense ride, he got a big bucket of grain with extra beet pulp, a haircut, and a 30 minute massage.  He sure was happy after that!  I swear he gave me a kiss... there was one moment he just rested his lips against my forehead for 8-10 seconds and then gave a "smack" kissing sound and motion with the lips.  Guess he liked the special treatment.

Going for a walk tonight, wish me luck.

Spring Ride 2012

Spring ride could not have been more of a success for me.

Let me start off with the thing about horses and people. The thing about horses and people is they have a way of changing your plans last minute.  The whole week leading up to spring ride changed so rapidly, I wont bother you with the details, just the result.

Thursday night at about 11pm, we decided Bentley was going to come along to Spring ride to learn how to camp and see all the action.  We didn't really have much of a plan, but we figured we would put the horse in the trailer and figure it out from there.

Friday, I had a half day at work, and rushed immediately to the barn.  I couldn't sleep the night before, so I had done all my packing.  Loading Bentley was pretty easy for a first timer.  Took maybe about 10 minutes and one broken lead rope.  The chain got caught in the trailer and snapped, wasn't because he was being bad.

We thought traffic would be best on highway 407 considering it was a long weekend, and it was good, until we got off and realized hwy 7 was still under construction.  Poor horsies stuck in trailer while we were stuck in traffic.  We got to the ride site about an hour later than expected, but still with lots of daylight left.

Did I mention... we no longer have square bales at our barn and had a bit of a dilemma when bringing hay there? 

Yes, that is the major part of a round bale.

We had intended to go for a ride that night, but with the traffic delays and just "Stuff" needing to get done, we opted to postpone our ride until Saturday.  Fortunately Bob (who's property we were staying on and horse I was riding) let Bentley and Sable have the executive suite (aka round pen) to stay in as we didn't trust Bentley enough on high ties or in the electric fence yet.

Saturday was the 25 mile set speed.  I was riding HAF Allieena, a very experienced arab.  I rode with Bob, Val and Dave.  Dave was doing the silver level while the rest of us bronze.  Therefore the strategy was to go at the top speed for bronze level: 7mph.  2 loops of 12 (although we suspect it was closer to 14... but I had forgot to wear my gps that day) later and we had completed.  It was a fast pace, even the experienced endurance riders I was with commented how hard and fast a set speed really is.  Lots of trotting and cantering, only walking the parts which were too narrow or rocky to trot.

Leena is a great little horse, we had a bit of an argument just after the start line where she decided to do a bit of bucking... I think it was just contagious from Helfire, who was giving Bob quite a difficult time.  We came to an agreement and the rest of the ride was magical.  She is one of those horses that you just have to trust to do her job.  Point her what direction, and she says "lets go!"

Me on Leena

Helfire is living up to his name

Our group crossing the start line.

 The trail was beautiful as could be expected.  We had 25C+ days leading up and during the ride, so it was nice and dry.  Only mud we came across was towards the end on the rail trail.  Unfortunately, we were the first group out (a staggered start was chosen by the ride managers... wonderful to have!) and the water truck hadn't been out yet to fill the troughs at the first stop.  There was still a pond we could drink out of (errr.. the horses... I didn't drink from the pond haha).  About that time, the front runners from the 50 mile endurance ride came by too.

We finished about a minute before the minimum time allowed, so we had to wait before crossing the finish line. It was good to help bring our heart rates down a little too. I was worried we had calculated our time wrong, and cutting it so close would disqualify us. As the awards went out... working their way up the places (oh and I wasn't expecting it to be placed, i thought we were graded) I got even more worried about this as I didn't hear my name. But then finally, my name was called... as first place!

Big smiles as I accept my first place ribbon and get a spring ride t-shirt!

After dinner and awards, we just relaxes.  Sorry Bentley, we will have to postpone our ride until Sunday!

The good news continued as Linda won an award for last year for the most miles ridden by a first year rider/horse!  Oh and Linda received a grade 1 completion (that's the best grade) on her 12 mile set speed.

Bentley was jealous, he wanted an award too.  Bentley your time will come!

It was early to bed that night. However, I think my pit crew must have had a harder day than I thought... couldn't even make it to nightfall.

Sunday was another day of the same thing, with some differences.  Again, we completed 25 miles but this time it was a Competitive Trail Ride.  So it is less like a race (you have a certain time you must complete at) and judges you more based on your horses condition throughout.  We got nicked pretty good for a girth sore.  We were still allowed to ride, but had to change the plans.  I rode in Michelle's saddle (her owner) with a VERY loose girth.  I think the first 12 miles was just me getting used to the saddle.  I must need some chiropractic work done, because I could really feel myself leaning to the left while cantering, and would grab the pommel and shove myself into the seat.

By the end of the ride, I could also feel me right knee acting up.  I am pretty sure I rode the last 2 miles without stirrups (yes trotting too)  So kids, if you are reading it, your coach isn't being mean making you post trot without stirrups... there may be a day you will kill for that skill!

We completed with 3 penalty points, largely from that girth sore, and earned a 3rd place in my division (middleweight), 5th overall. 

Lee didn't take any pictures this day, but at least I remembered my GPS this time!
http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/184075710

But wait... we weren't done with Sunday. Not even close!

Linda and I had decided we were crazy enough to try our first ride and tie.  So after 37 and 50 miles of riding respectively, we set out for 6 miles of running/riding with Sable.  I started out as the rider, Linda as the runner.

Our strategy was to switch every mile.  So I rode up about 1 mile, tied Sable, and ran off.  I later found out Sable wasn't too happy about being left, and got herself into quite the tangle.

I jogged for the first mile.  Congrats to me!  Then I did about 50% walking, 50% jogging, as I hadn't seen my teammates after the first mile.  Also, Sable was carrying my water and I was sooooo thirsty!  I will never do that again!  2 miles goes by and I start to wonder whether I had turned down the wrong trail, not only had I not seen my team, but any other horse or rider.  Around 2.5 miles, I swear i hear trotting hooves coming up behind me.  Checking several times with nothing materializing, I realize its the sound of my blood pounding through my head.  Ok... lets just walk.  Then what do you know, there they are!  I know we are almost at the vet check so I tell Linda to go on.  Since she started out running, she has to be the one to ride Sable into the check. 

I came up to the check shortly after, and with some confusion over the rules, and Linda having to backtrack a bit (forgot to leave me the helmet!) we vetted out and hit the trail again.  While I was riding down a steep hill, I look down and notice the water bottle I had lost on the CTR earlier.  See, it pays to do ride and tie!  We meet up with Linda somewhere down the line and switch off again.

I walked and chatted the rest of the way with Rob, who I met in the last mile.  We agreed when we got to "that gate up there" we would jog in.  Well I did, Rob decided to save it for the last stretch where there was an audience, so I came in slightly ahead of him.  Maybe that wasn't so fair haha.

It was so wonderful as I ran up the hill and through the treeline, everyone started cheering!  Something I haven't had for any of our rides yet.  Really made the accomplishment feel that much bigger (however I wish I had somehow mustered up a bit more energy to run more)  Turns out, we came in second too!  That last little push really helped.  Finished only 5 minutes behind the leaders, and everyone else followed closely too.  I was a little surprised I didn't see more people on the trail!

I would highly recommend you try ride and tie.  It was so much fun.

Here is our garmin results:  http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/184075680

Kind of cool to see, you can tell when I started to get tired!

Needless to say however, I was DEAD after that.  I managed to keep up for some of the campfire, but still called it an early night.  Oh yeah, sorry Bentley, we will ride tomorrow.

And we did!

Bentley was a good boy for our ride.  He was fast, probably clocking a 12mph trot.  But good.  At first I thought he was being naughty and running, but I relaxed and realized it was just him being fast.  About a 2 hand  (8 inch) difference between him and Leena, so that made a pace difference AND the trail looked very different from way up there.  Just had to relax and let him trot fast.  Did about 6 miles, and called it a completion!

Solstice and Phyllis were there when we came in.  Solstice had met Bentley a few nights before and the two of them had hit it off.  Bentley has a way of luring children in with his charms.  Thankfully they helped us load him in (which took less than 60 seconds this time) and we scurried to get the last of our stuff together.  At one point, I had lost track of Solstice, and found she had crawled into the hay shelf of the trailer and was cradling Bentley's head as the 2 of them snuggled.  It was so cute... oh darn, where did I put my camera? Maybe we will have to stage that photo again next ride.

We had smooth sailing the whole way home.  We pulled into the driveway and ALL the kids came out to see us.  Bentley had a huge cheering section to help him off the trailer.  He still wont back up off it, but Mr. Jack B. Nimble Gianthorse somehow was able to turn around in the tight 2 horse with the divider swung to the side.

We had just gotten them off, when the trailer carrying the show kids came in behind us.

I cant remember how I spent the rest of the evening, but I am guessing I took a well deserved nap.  And that's it for Spring Ride.  I told you it would be worth it!

If you arent moving forward, kick harder

How many times do I hear coaches say this to little kids on lazy ponies?  How many times do I say this myself when I toss someone up on a horse?

Well I needed an encouraging kick, and I got one today and yesterday.  I have been so bad about blogging and without that kick, I was doomed to be a lazy pony forever.   Not that I haven't been doing anything, quite the opposite really!

I promise, by the end of Monday, I will be posting all about Spring Ride (now 2 weeks old) and some of the excitement since then.  I would do it now... but... zzzzzzzzzzz

Seriously, I have a good reason, I want to blog with photos and they are all at home. 

See you Monday!

I can't believe THAT was living in my house

Last night as we were getting ready for bed, I heard Lee muttering from behind the closed bathroom door.  This was followed by a lot of thuds, slams, and overall painful noises considering the location.

I asked him if everything was ok and with a note of panic in his voice he responded "Yeah, fine, don't come in"  and then back to the noises. 

My growing concern and curiosity got the better of me, and when he came out, I started pestering him about what happened.  I knew the answer had to be spider, considering how concerned he was about protecting me from the truth.  But what sort of spider would affect him so much?

After a lot more harassing he said "I have never seen anything like it in a house... only in the bush"  and he immediately started searching his phone to find out what species it was... and exactly how much danger we were in.

The comments were not reassuring, lots of "oh no" and "ummmm"  then came an "oh.. ok that's not that bad"  then a far more concerned "ohhh".  The answer was Fishing Spider.

I recounted this horror story to people in the lunch room today.  Curiosity got the better of Tayla, and she too searched for photos on her phone.  Again, the comments consisted of things like "oh my"  and "that's.... uh...."  and then concerned glances my way.  Again... I had to have answers, but cant bring myself to look at a photo myself.  All she would tell me was that the photo that came up was this spider PREYING ON A FROG!  "but its just a tiny frog"  I immediately disposed of the rest of my lunch.

I still cant look at the search myself.  I might have to move out of my house, out of my town... and to an island with no spiders (is it New Zealand that doesn't have spiders?  That cant be right considering all the scary monsters in Australia)

2 years ago there was an ugly hairy spider crawled out of my car vents, nearly ran me off the road and had me considering fumigation of the car.  I wouldn't find moving out to be unreasonable at this point.  And what if it had babies?  Thousands of frog eating spiders could eat me alive!

And why is my cat not working?  Yes, she stares at bugs and alerts us to them, but only ever decides to eat it once it is a dead carcass as a result of a good Sarah or Lee stomp. Pampered princess.

Those cute barn kittens are really starting to appeal to me. 

I don't want to go home.