Horse Heaven

This weekend was one of the best ones in a long time.  We had fun last weekend camping, but this weekend was so relaxed and we got to spend it with our favorite 4 legged companions.  Mark Noel has introduced the bit to Abby, and like all things, she took it in stride.  He took her out in pastures to cut cows, and though she has NO cow sense, she didn't spook at them.  That's perfect in my book.  I don't want a cow horse.  I want a great trail horse.  And I think I've got her!

 Mark is very soft with his hands, not pulling in her mouth, and she responds so well to his gentle training.  She's very responsive and compliant.  She has some fire in her belly, and that's good.  I don't want a horse that's so laid back as they're boring.  I can't wait to ride her.  I could have on Sat, but I wasn't in the right attire (ahem--sundress and flip flops). 

 She picks up the lope and I could tell she was enjoying herself. 

 Look at that alert headset.  Just waiting for Mark's next cue.  That is the look of a happy horse!

After we visited Abby, we went to a yard sale down the road.  I bought a nice Hereford Yoakum western saddle for Shannon for a steal and a hay bag for future horse trips. 

 Our next trip trail riding was Sunday.  We met up with Kay and Joe (I did the endurance race with them 2 years ago) at Horse Heaven about 30 minutes from our little farm.  Shannon decided he wanted to come along.  He's never formally ridden on a ride, other than riding Anna bareback in the pasture with a halter and lead rope.  Kay brought Hank the Wonder Horse for Shannon.  They got along great.  Although Shannon said he felt sorry for Hank during the ride, because he had to put up with Shannon shifting his saddle and learning to ride a trot and canter on him.  I'm sure Hank didn't mind too badly. 

 Iney saw her buddies and wanted to be near them.  She was very anxious to go, and I had to really hold her back the first hour or so. 

 Midway through the ride, I took the camera from Shannon and tried taking pics while riding.  I'll apologize in advance for the blurry ones.  Kay takes MUCH better pics, and you can see them and her post on the ride at their family blog: http://4rranch.blogspot.com/2012/06/first-ride.html

 Shannon and Kay.  We did some trotting (we are conditioning for an endurance ride in Aug!) and Shannon held his own.  I was very proud of him and his willing attitude.  At one point, he wasn't sure if Pyper and Raegan would have siblings, but then he recovered and enjoyed the rest of the 8 mile loop.

Almost back to camp.  We took a side trail and went through the most relaxing and lovely trails at the end.  The Mountain Laurels were in bloom, moss on logs, birds singing, soft (then later, hard!) rain falling, creek crossings, and introspection made a great end to the ride.  Once back at the trailer, Iney had a bit of a horse tantrum and didn't want to stop.  She kept trying to get back on the road to the trails.  I think she could have gone another 8 miles with no problem.  I love trail riding.  Looking forward to more in the coming weeks and months.   We really enjoyed ourselves.  And Shannon's not very sore this morning!  Bonus!!!

Here We Go Again...

 Back in college I got into Endurance Racing.  We rode Arabians, and I broke my tail bone more times than not.  Those were some of my happiest times.  Since the days of my frivolous youth, I have transitioned into riding Quarter Horses.  The wonderful thing about Quarter Horses is that they are so gentle, sweet, and CALM.  Anna is the quintessential sweet QH, and then I have Iney.  Iney is an Appendix.  Which means she is 1/2 QH and 1/2 Thoroughbred.  Therefore, she's not AS calm as Anna.  Ha!  I joke that she has the body (and feet) of a Thoroughbred, but the mind of a QH.  I love this horse.  Her sire is a world champion show jumper, and that is one direction I hope to delve into in the future.  Two years ago, after talking with my friend Kay, she said she's interested in getting into endurance.  Kay is a wonderful horsewoman as well as a veterinarian.  I hadn't really thought about doing endurance again, as I no longer had an Arabian.  But, she said she had QH's and was planning on going really slow.  I signed up--thinking Iney would be perfect.  Iney had never been outside of a show barn, ridden outside of an arena, and NEVER on an endurance race.  Our conditioning was limited to riding in the pastures at our farm and neighboring pastures.  Looking back, I shake my head, because it was INSANE to take her on a 30 mile ride without ever being on a trail!  I just had/have such confidence on how well she was trained for 2 years under professional horsemen and women.

Here is Iney and I, 2 years ago at the Virginia Highland's Endurance Race.  It was literally 15 miles up Iron Mountain and 15 miles down Iron Mountain.  I still feel bad for being overly cautious with pushing Iney, because we came in on time, but Iney didn't cool down fast enough for us to have actually qualified as finishing on time.  So, Kay, here is my public apology!!!  I was just so scared of injuring my loved mare. 

We DID finish, and without injury, so I still consider it a success.  This year I know better.  I have 2 months of conditioning to do to get ready!  YIKES!

 Iney chilling out at the trailer.

 About 10 miles in or so.  Iney had really hit her stride, and was doing great.  I was so proud of her!

This was taken at the vet check.  She had all A's on her report card, and was calm.  The only disturbance on this ride was Iney's lack of enthusiasm to cross water.  She did ok at first and then decided it was much better to JUMP all water crossings.  Ultimately, she ended up kicking Kay's horse, Hank The Wonder Horse, and injuring his back hock.  Sorry Hank.  SO, this year, we are doing lots of trail riding, we are going to work on water crossing, and I WILL finish under time.  What's better?  I've encouraged my horsey friend, Grace, to join me!  She has a beautiful gray QH that she'll ride.  Fun times ahead!!! 

A Pain In The Butt...Part 2

As promised, here is the follow up post on Anna.  Back in November, I noticed that she was "off."  It looked like it was in her front right, and then would go away.  Figuring she had twisted it in the field running, I didn't worry too much when a day or two later, she was fine.  Then I noticed she was lame again.  I called Frances, and she suggested I give her some Bute, and see if that helped.  It did.  For a while.  She would still run and kick up her heals with the other girls,  but on and off throughout the winter, she would be lame.  In April, Pyper was DYING to ride, so I caught Anna, and lunged her.  I noticed she was REALLY lame, like head bobbing lame.  I again, called Frances, and she thought it may be the beginning stages of Navicular.  This is not something you want to hear.  It's a chronic case of "tendinitis" to simplify it.  Here is a good article I found on it.  http://extension.missouri.edu/p/G2743

Treating Navicular is controversial, some say one thing, some say another.  What I know is that Quarter Horses (Anna) are more prone to it due to small feet.  So, I thought I'd start with the most simple fix and work my way up from there.  Paul, our farrier, came over on Wednesday, the day Anna got her butt whooped, but we still decided to have him put shoes on Anna.  After Frances worked on her, she went to Paul.  Paul had come out last week and watched her in the pasture and he was on the fence as to whether or not it WAS navicular.  She has SOME of the signs and symptoms, but not all of them.  We decided we'd treat it as it was.  What could it hurt?  She was sedated, and stood really well.  He tried one pair of shiny shoes...

 But they didn't fit. 

 He tried another pair.  These fit.  You'll notice they have a bit of a "heel" on them.  I joked and told Anna she's had a pedicure and now will have high heels.  The heel on the shoe is to put more pressure on the toe (front part of the hoof) and alleviate the pressure on the navicular bone in the back.  We'll see if this helps.

 Here, she gets her hooves filed...

 Pyper takes advantage of Anna's sedation and thinks she's a big girl while holding her for Paul. 

Poor Anna.  I'll keep you posted as to if this remedy helps.  In the meantime, please pray for my sweet mare.  If God's eye is on the sparrow, then I know he watches out for mighty horses.  I love this horse.  She is so great with the kids.  She can be a handful (can't all women???) but has a heart of gold.  I don't want her to live in pain.  

Intro To Me

My husband, Shannon, and I have been married two years now. I often wonder, "How in the world did I end up in the mountains of rural Virginia?" Well, it's quite simple, really. He is a pharmacist and loved his job here in SW Va, and I was a program analyst in Northern Va and hated mine. So, naturally, I followed him to build our lives and buy our nameless farm. We had looked at what seemed like dozens of homes, and when we saw this old, but newly renovated Craftsman bungalow, none of the other houses had a chance. Needless to say, we fell in love with this home that was built in 1900. It was spring when we bought the house...if we only knew what was to come...

The house was perfect, or so we thought. It is perfect. Perfectly flawed, as only old homes can be. Our pipes froze in the winter, the baseboard heat didn't keep up with the demand of below freezing temperatures, and in January of last year, we got an electric bill of $968! That was our first winter in our home. Oh, and we had a newborn baby that we had to keep warm. Baseboard heat and 10 foot ceilings don't mix.

We have fared better this winter. We had a heat pump put in (thank God!), a gas fireplace put in the family room and a wood burning stove put in the basement in case of power outages. That, and the fact that this winter has been far milder than last year's, we haven't suffered too badly.

We have just under 10 acres, so for all intents and purposes, we will call it 10 acres. 10 acres of rolling hills of pasture, some very steep meadows, a creek, and a huge old barn that once housed sheep, cattle and various other farm critters. Now, the barn is home to Anna, my Paint/Quarter Horse mare, her filly, Abby, a solid black Paint yearling and Iney, a 16.1 hh Appendix mare. In May we are expecting our first chicks to be added to the barn and hopefully not to the dinner plates of resident hawks, owls and barn cats.

All of this happening on the beautiful "gentleman's farm" with no name. Shannon and I have been racking our brains for catchy names, family names, names that make people ask what it means, anything, but nothing sounds right. So, as of now, two years after buying this farm, we have the farm without a name. I keep thinking that one day, I'll hear something, the clouds will part, angels will sing, and I will have found the name for our nameless farm.

So, for those of your out there in never, never cyber land, I ask you, "What constitutes a respectable, catchy, farm name?" I may never have the answer, but while I'm waiting, I'll share with you all the situations I put my poor husband through, funny antidotes of my daughter's, the sad ignorance I portray daily in owning a farm, and my love for God, my family and animals.