That's A Big Sucker!

I have never in my life used a vacuum cleaner on a horse. And since I have started back into showing, here in MN, it hasn't been too bad to keep horses clean and coats healthy in the winter...until this year. It's been way too cold to do the normal routine. And I have been at my wits end trying to keep tails, manes and forelocks in conditioned shape, much less get a good brushing done on the kids.

So my poor ponies have the itchies. I decided to get the vacuum cleaner out today. Figured out what attachment to use and vacuumed two ponies. Smokie went first. Poor dude. Yesterday he had the girlie girlie foo foo stuff put in his hair first, so I thought we would continue the theme and start with him. Actually I really thought Cowboy would freak way too much if he went first. And I probably was right.

This is not a quiet vacuum. It roars horrendously, the sound kind of between a high pitched scream and ground up nuts and bolts. I forged ahead. (Sometimes I wonder about myself, either I am incredibly brave, or I am incredibly dubious. I choose to pick brave in these situations).

I vacuumed his backbone, the top of the tail and tail bone, and mane. Those are the trouble makers in our world. They make ponies rub and roll too much. The lose of hair seems to come out in patches. Then I did his face. He didn't like the face to much, but tolerated it.

I left him tied and decided to go try Cowboy. Okay so now I can agree with you, maybe this is the dubiousness side of bravery?????

Now, if you don't know Cowboy, he is waaaayyyy studly. He's the man, or so he thinks. Puffs up his chest, throws it out. Arches his neck, snorts, paws. His back is top lines to perfection and his rear seems to like to cha cha cha. But show him a pair of scissors, clippers-- and apparently vacuums, and he cowers in the corner like wet kitten. Of course, he watched with intense interest through the little slit between the stalls as Smokie was being vacuumed. Darn if it didn't come to his stall next! I am glad he did watch. It made my dubious decision move from a second guess to a yeah we'll go ahead and give this a whirl.

I started with his back, then his neck and mane base, then moved to his chest. Things got a bit interesting here. I didn't think he could bend his neck as tightly as he did, but he did! He did not appreciate that big sucking thing touching his chest. I finally talked him into getting his chest done. Then I did the top of his tail, which he ducked tightly into his arse, but we finally managed to get it done. I thought things were going fairly well, so I went to do his face. I could tell he just about had enough, so it took a good couple minutes to talk him into vaccuming his face. He finally relented and I just did above his eyes, his forehad. Not too bad! I am pretty proud of my boy!

Then I finished him off with a good brushing and he was pretty pleased as pie with himself. He puffed out his chest, arched his neck, straightened his topline and started doing the cha cha for me. Well - now if only they would allow the vaccum cleaner as an aide in the show ring, I would win everytime!

I decided to go one step further and went for an ear. Not with the vacuum, mind you, that would not have been a wise choice. Cowboy hates his ears touched. Dont' know why, but its always a constant battle. I thought, well if I can work on him now and if I had the chance to take him this summer, then I should work on his ears so he is of course, easier to work with. That was a good 5 minute session. Of course, guess who was looking through the slat divider? Yep - Smokie. What goes around comes around. He was laughing his butt off at Cowboy.

After I vacuumed the boys, I pulled the fillies in for their feed session. When they were in their stalls, I went and found Smokies training surcingle and bridle. BRRR! They were in the horse trailer. I had to carry the bit in my pocket for like 30 minutes for it to warm up enough to put in his mouth. So I put his tack on and let him circle his stall while I carried water to all the other pony stalls.

I am pretty proud of the boy, he did just fine. I had to go in and adjust twice, but he did fine. I will hook him up again tomorrow and then this weekend, if the weather permits, will start to drive him up and down the drive way.

I pulled some more training tack in, I am hoping I have enough to go the 2 year olds and the yearlings, so I don't have to do a ton of adjusting. But I need to start working ponies now, even if it is at the walk.

I called a trainer friend of mine today to talk about tail sets. I can't find any documentation and no one is too willing to share. But she said she would shoot me off a couple pics next week. I am thinking I need to be an expert at this. Not too many people left that know how to do tail sets the right way, so they look natural. I went and looked through our journal from 2005-2008 at the Congress pics and she's right, you can tell a bad hair day easily.

So I am starting to research wig making, all in the quest for the perfect look for a pony. Oh the Vanity!

Oh I finally figured out why Tulip has been acting out when haltering her. I replaced her outgrown hot pink halter with a plain black halter. She didn't like the plain black one-- obviously.

Girlie Girlie Foo Foo

I quickly cleaned up after letting the ponies out for the day. Put Smokie out for some sun and fun. The other three boys were in. Went off to coffee and had some nice family conversation. Talked to Dad. I have two mares paired up in a stall and the two babies are together in another stall. The ground work I was doing before we had our first hard freeze is still sitting there. I need at least 2 stalls up. The mares aren't fairing to well, both are pregnant and crabby right now. The babies are now on different feed rates. So I asked my Dad if we could try to thaw out the pile of class 5 sitting my way. He said we could try.

Well after much discussion about other things, I came home. Traded stallions out, so Cowboy went out for his session. Brought Smokie in. Realized it had been a week. So I thought I better get the gook out and re-do Smokie and Cowboy's mane and tails.

Now please realize, they are a 5 year old and a 2 year old. The 5 year old has pretty much settled into his role on the farm and is pretty happy. The 2 year old is his father's son, a pain in the pitukus-- he's just as smart as his Daddy. Has to be doing something all the time.

When I got all the gook put together, including a new brush, new cloth, new leave in conditioner, etc., it was time to switch Shiner out with Cowboy. And of course the game was on. Smokie and Cowboy think its fine to be next to each other right now. There's no competition for mares, only for my attention. So they freely play across the gates, through the divider, etc. It's like two men given the keys to Grave Digger and Bigfoot and a fresh pile of dirt on a football floor.

I started with Smokie, squirted his mane with conditioner, took out all the snarls and splashed his face with a little conditioner. I thought, 'hmmm, I sure would like to get his forelock and bridle path cleaned up better.' So I took out the clippers and sure enough, he let me do forelock and bridlepath without fuss. GO Smokie! Hmmm. On the other side of the fence is Cowboy watching, his head careened around the corner of the stall divider. Okay an audience, doesn't phase me. Then I pull out the new, leave in conditioner. It smells like girlie girlie foo foo flowers. The first thing Smokie did was a double take. I could just see it, 'What the--you wanna do what with that, smelly, swanky, girlie girlie foo foo-- stuff?!' I got the duck and run. well he couldn't go too far, he was tied.

Okay, so out of the corner of my eye I see Cowboy chuckling at my pure black pony who now smells like girlie girlie foo foo flowers. His head bobbing up and down, mane and forelock flying in syncopatic rhythm.

Aha! I thought, you are next.

I brush Smokie out and then do his tail. Of course, the last thing I put in is the girlie, girlie foo foo smelling stuff. So now I have a pure black pony who smells like pink foo foo flowers. Oh the drama of it all!

So, then my Dad shows up with his bobcat. We go into the area that I need to move the class 5. We get the first 5 foot pile picked up and he takes it outside. I think, hey, if we can move two more piles out of the way, I can steal clay and sand from the other holes and maybe get three stalls up. So I ask my Dad and he nods. We go back in and pick apart the next two piles. Then my Dad turns the bobcat around and we are talking. While we are, my black girlie girlie foo foo pony is dicussing with Cowboy the art of appearing studly while wearing girlie girlie foo foo gunk. And then I see Cowboy, slowly turn around and back up his butt to the front corner of his stall, where Smokie has stuck his head around. And then Cowboy slowly moves his butt back and forth and then looks straight at me. I don't know if it was a seriously tease to Smokie but I took it as, 'Hey - It can't be all that bad! I am a studly stud, bring some of that girlie girlie foo foo stuff over her and hit me with it!'

And so I did. When the smell hit him, he gave me the same look Smokie did. And now my studly studs smell great, both of them. And more importantly will look fantastic this next summer! So goes the girlie girlie foo foo quest, and many more applications of it.

The BIG Walk

Nice day out today. I was able to get the barn clean early and with no extra extra chores, I brought in the girls an hour before everyone else and let them have their grain.

Lady sucked her grain down like an industrial vacuum cleaner, but she was much more patient today in regards to everything else in the world. Cookie, it only took about 20 minutes tonight for pretty much everything to be scarfed down.

While they were eating their grain, I carried water to everyone's buckets, emptied the outside buckets and threw bales down from the loft. It was about 4:30 when I got done. So I decided, since Lady was done and I wasn't ready to bring in the other ponies, I better start the girls on their training program.

I took Lady out first. It was her first walk away from the barn, her bff, her mother and everything she knew to be consistent and comfortable in her life. I always call their first outing "THE BIG WALK". You never know what you are going to get the first time out. Stalled pony, rearing, bucking, kicking, biting, circles, speed.... you get the idea. Anything is fair game as far as the young ones go.

Lady was kinda of a mix. We got out the barn door fine. She only shied at a couple things, but not really bad. She was pretty curious to see what we were up to. A few steps out of the barn though I got the stall. I let her get her bearings and then nudged her with the stick ( I have a small stiff whip in which I nudge ponies hinnies). She didn't budge. So I let her sit another second or two. Then she walked a few good solid steps, looked around. Not a big deal.

About half way down the driveway, she stalled again. Only this time I couldn't figure out why. Then I saw it, Tucker had snuck up behind her. Well at least she didn't let loose on him. I just told him to move off, which he did. He kept a few paces farther back.

Things were going well, so I thought we would go out the gate and walk across to the neighbors yard. Well we stood in the middle of the road for along time. There was these yellow markings which she couldn't get a fix on (the middle of the road dividers). She didn't snort, hiss or anything. But she did look at it for a long time. I asked her to move over them and she finally did.

We touched the other side of the road and turned around in the neighbors driveway. Then we decided it was okay to be animated. I knew I had to get her back into our yard. So we hurried at a bit faster walk. We stalled slightly at the yellow markings again, but we didn' t jump over it, we just rushed over it.

We got into our driveway and I thought things were going fairly well, so I asked her to trot. It was a stiff guarded trot, not too bad I thought. I halted her half way up the drive way and asked her to square her back feet and stand. Well the squaring of the back feet went fine, but the standing - not so much. She should have been called jitterbug.

I finally got her to stand, but not square. Only once did I get a glimpse of her glory, back feet square, front feet parked out, back level and neck, well not quite stretched, but good enough for a glimpse. Sometimes that's all it takes to keep moving forward.

Finally we went back to the barn. Whew! We made it. No broken bones, no bruises, no loose pony, no nuthin!. I would call it successful.

I believe she will catch onto the game quite fast.

I looked at the sky and decided if Cookie was done with her grain, she should go on her first big walk too. Her walk was not as eventful. She willingly went with me, trotted, stopped and came back to the barn with a spark in her step. It's gonna be the stop, square and stand that will be the challenge. I didn't even get her to stop long enough to take one breath.

Huh, their first BIG WALK! All done. No we can only move forward in training from here.

On another note, the All Stars Lists came out. Smokie hit 3 of the lists, I am very pleased with that. Opal hit one list, but I expected that, she is a Classic and there are tons of classics that show, very tight competition. Ruffles hit 2 lists, which was a pleasant surprise. And Tulip, my Tulip made me proud. In only two shows, she hit the ASPR Mares All Star List. GO TULIP!!!!!

When I look at those lists, it tells me I am doing something right. All Star Points are different from the Amateur Awards. This is on the ponies themselves. And seeing as in 2008 we only made 2 local shows and Congress, that tells me my ponies are just as special as I have always thought. They did good!

Generally if you get a warmer day in the winter, you work your tail end off outside to get as much done as possible. SO goes today.

First the ponies stayed in until noon, the windchill was -14 around 11, but right around noon the wind stopped and the sun got a little intense. So I let everyone out.

Now mind you, ponies that have been cooped up for over a day have a high rate of energy bottled up. So everyone was kicking up their heels, or hooves in this case, as I let each pony or pair of ponies out. Even the mares were a little friskie today!

Tulip decided to be 2 year old recently, and today she was in full 2 year old mode. Granted, she isn't officially 2 until June, but it seems kids and ponies seem to hit the terrible twos at about 18 months. Trust me I know, my friend Boogie's 18 month old just entered her terrible twos.

Tulip doesn't wear a halter right now, she is special. I have one other 'special' pony in the barn who doesn't have to wear a halter 24/7, Cowboy. For Tulip it is the result of her cutting herself under her right eye about 3 weeks ago. Trust me, you don't want an open face wound in sub zero weather. The injury itself was a pain in the butt to fix because of the weather - we super glued it which is protocol since it was just a big skin tear. But the super glue, which is supposed to adhere to anything and rather quickly, did not want to adhere and did not want to dry. I believe it was way too cold, but we got it to work anyways.

Okay so I was trying to figure out if Tulip had gotten kicked, or what. I walked the pasture and found on the open gate (I took the dividing gate down between the mares and the fillies for the winter so they could share one water tank) and found on one of the hinges blood and hair. So it goes to say, she had an itch, was scratching it, but got hooked or something. So since she likes to scratch, her halter is now a deadly weapon and she can't have it on.

Cowboy has the same issue. Leave a halter on the boy for 5 minutes and he will have his face bloody.

Okay so back to Tulip. She decided she wanted to go out, but not with any aides, including her mommie. She didn't want to put her halter on. Maybe she thought she would merrily go her own way out the door, but something tells me we would have to visit every single stall before finding the barn door with help. Thus we have to have a halter and lead.

She ducked the first time I tried to put it on her. Then dove for the gate to her stall. She stood so close to the gate and stall wall, I couldn't even get in edgewise. Stinker.

I started to move to her head and she jumped back and turned her butt to me. Gave a little humpy hump. I thought 'Huh, lil spunky this am'. Somehow she thought since she got away with the humpy hump, a little kick would drive the point home. But out of the corner of her eye, she saw how annoyed I quickly became. She jumped to the back of the stall. I popped her side slightly. Not exactly the spanking I needed to deliver, but nonetheless, she got the point. She about faced and walked up to me. Stuck her nose out. I lifted the halter and she side swiped it and laid her head on my chest. Okay now I am wondering - did I teach her that?! I don't remember teaching her that! I do remember thinking if she got much taller she might be a pain in the tuckuss to halter, but I don't remember teaching her to lay her head against my chest!

I did take advantage of the situation, well kinda, and haltered her. Then led her to the barn door. Oh My OH my, we wanted to do aires above ground, but the lead and mommie were telling her she had to walk, nicely. And so we did, reservedly.

Opal wasn't much better - she bucked and kicked almost all the way to the barn door. I pulled her up short and popped the lead. She stopped and set up and the look on her face was priceless -'Who me?! What did I do?!

Everyone else filed out fairly well.

A nice show was put on by the babies, Cookie and Lady. Seems Cookie likes not having her training wheels on. She was cutting corners pretty wickedly and even took a few trips through the deep snow. I stood and watched for a few minutes. Lady and Cookie took turns running up to me to get kisses and 'ata girls' and then sped off again.

So on with the morning chores. I decided I needed to clean buckets, at least most of them. So I had to empty them all, but 3. Clean them and return them to their posts. I also did a full barn clean again. And finally, since there was no wind, burned the mount Everest of grain bags sitting in the doorway.

After a bit, I took an hour break and made some return calls and emails. Went back out, switched stallions so Cowboy was out, and turned Arnold loose while I finished stalls.

Arnold is my 'little boy'. He is the oldest of the stallions, but he stands a mere 20 inches. Don't let that fool you though, he thinks he is king. He has issues with his feet, so he can't do a lot of walking around outside in the snow, especially if there is ice underneath lurking to trip a pony up. The floor of my barn has 4 inches of sand, with hay on top. A nice playground for him to run and buck and kick it out in the winter. He visits with his buddy Shiner and has made a new friend in the junior stallion, Smokie. He makes the rounds of all the pens to smell good smells and look for lost treasures that have been mindlessly dropped by the other ponies. But his favorite thing-- is to roll in front of Shiner's pen and make Shiner all jealous that he can't just run loose in the barn.

While I was cleaning, I did notice a couple ponies let loose of some worms, so I might have to pop them again in a week. Just to make sure this variety has been taken care of. I run a pretty tight ship on the worming schedule. Once a month with a rotation schedule. Have to on such a small farm. Re-infestation is too easy.

I brought the babies in an hour ahead of schedule. I had thought that Cookie had been missing some of her grain. She shares her stall with her sister, Lady. Lady is twice the size of Cookie. Goes to show, Lady needs more grain, or so she thinks. So I am trying to bring them in ahead of the rest and put them in separate stalls, give Cookie time to eat what she wants. Tonight Lady plowed through her grain and was unhappy for the next 50 minutes. Cookie steadily ate with a nice look of contentment on her face. And she ate all her food! Go Cookie!

With all that and the cold weather, I didn't work on any manes or tails. I did find a leave in conditioner, but its water based, so I am thinking it will just freeze. Otherwise, I think it will be a good conditioner for the spring entering into the first part of May.

Tomorrow I have to grind up flax seed and get the ponies on their flax seed. It's been almost 10 days since I started on the soy oil, so they can have it added in now.

Let me tell you, this has saved me countless hours of elbow grease - this combination puts a shine on the ponies like nobody's business. I hardly use any product and they are slick. This year I am going to try to stay ahead of clipping, so all I need to do is a wash three days ahead and hopefully at shows, just put finished touches on. Instead of cold showers in the am!

Its Sunday and Oh my gosh the snow!

So we did wake up to about 6" of snow on the ground. And it was chilly. Even though the sun was out - it was below zero for windchill. So the ponies stayed in today.

I did take time to clean stalls, which plays into the whole training thing. Everyone needs a refresher course in tying and moving while stuff is flying around them and pitchforks are under their hooves, etc.

Tulip was fun, she didn't know what to think of being tied, nor did she think too much of my moving her "STUFF" around in her stall. Never thought a pony would be so protective of stuff. Stomp, stomp. Puff puff. Patty Pat Pat, stomp stomp, puff puff. I had to go look to make sure a train wasn't going by.

The amazing thing was each horse got a bit of attention today. Mizzie is going to be drop dead gorgeous. She hasn't been tied in over a year. So she was pretty pitter patter with her hooves as well. But she finally settled into a position that had her pretty stretched out. And boy when she hooked her neck, pretty fine looking there! Can't wait to get that winter coat off of her and get her into a bit better shape! If she gets her legs up a couple more inches and pulls her neck up into that notch on top - WATCH OUT world!

I did have a quandry - what if the local shows don't run the height divisions? I am going to have to have a handler for not only Tulip and Lady because they will compete against each other, but also for Mizzie and Honey as they are both 2 and would be in the same class. SHEESH! I'll cross that bridge when I get there I guess.

Okay, so as the day wore on, there is no way I could work with anyone's manes of tails, the gunk I use would have frozen and then might have broke hairs off. I don't know, but in my mind I see Mr. Freeze from that Batman movie, where he freezes something and it just falls right off. Not interested in that at all with the ponies.

I did a bit of research online, looking for tail extensions. I found a Hackney extension, initiated an email conversation with the person offering it and guess what!?- I had to send that person a link to their own website. I am wondering if the person really knows what they are selling! AND THEN - the person called it a cob tail. WELL - a cob tail is a tail that is cut off very short in a blunt cut, usually at the bottom of the tail bone. This pic was certainly not that. I am curious though because it might just be what I am looking for, so I sent an email back asking for more questions.

Other than that I have to call a couple trainers and ask how extensions are attached to ponies. Its way different than stock horses.

Other than that, I made sweet and sour chicken with basmati rice for supper and YUM!!! It was great!

Off to check ponies for the night.

Starting Over - No More Training wheels!

It was a long day. I had big dreams of having coffee this am and slowly settling into doing barn chores, horse stuff, etc. Well it was a quickly disseminating dream. Kind blew away with the wind that picked up this morning. The farrier showed up. How cool is that?! Today was the day set to take Cookie's training wheels off. Well okay not training wheels for real, but her 5 months of having acrylic shoes on her front feet. She put up a stink all the way through the work on her feet. But then when I let her take her first few steps without them--she didn't know how to step first off. Then I put her out in her pasture with her pasture mate Lady and by the time I brought them back in for feeding tonight, she was trotting up to me just fine. I didn't get a lot of time to watch to see if she tore around the pasture or not, but I do know she ate her feed. Had a bit of hay and then crashed and burned on the stall floor. I would say she might have done a bit outside today!

With impending 5-10 inches of snow tonight, which started coming down at 5 pm, I needed to clean all the stalls as thoroughly as I could. Which meant the weanlings needed a full cleaning. It took me about 4 hours today. One hour was spent helping my Dad move stuff from the garage floor to some shelves he put up. But hey, it was quality time.

Today was also worming day. Okay its supposed to be the 1st day of every month, but we had New Years this month now didn't we??? So that added an extra 30 minutes because each individual pony had to be brought in by themselves, instead of in pairs. Just think Tulip thought that was pretty funny!

And to continue with conditioning show ponies manes and tails - I worked with Honey tonight. OH MY GOSH - it took 2 hours. Its almost 10pm and I just walked in. She was so funny. She is always bugging the crap out of me to pay attention to her. She was having all sorts of fits because I went through her mane while she was tied. Then I did her forelock, if we reared once, we reared 20 times tonight. And then her tail--I am very tired! I got the "I think I am going to try to kick you" bit for the last 30 minutes. Each time I popped the comb on her tummy and reminded her it would get her nowhere! LOL! I took the time to run a regular stiff brush through her bod and then another, just because she was figiting so much.

Ahhh the hard work begins. You say it sounds like too much work? Well, it is, but while I am doing all this I am thinking about the pony and how great she will look in the show ring this summer. Keeps me going.

Day 3 After Day 2 After Day 1

I thought I would blog my schedule this year for my ponies journey to Congress. I didn't post the last two nights, thought about it, but went to bed instead.

Two nights ago it would have been New Year's Eve Eve. I worked with my yearling fillies. I hung a loud sounding clipper in their stall, against the steel wall, so it made a louder noise then usual. I worked through their manes. I haven't really messed with them for a bit because I wanted them to be fillies and have some freedom. And then I weaned them on December 10th. Which for Cookie, has gone well. For lady, it hasn't gone well, she is still slightly upset.

A little back drop - I have worked fairly closely with both fillies since the day they were born. I literally helped bring Cookie into the world, she got hung up on her mommie's hips a bit. And Lady, well lets just say I didn't see her hit the ground, but I was there right after helping mommy dry here.

Since, Cookie has had 3 major issues and I have had to spend countless hours working with here.

Lady on the other hand has thrived and been basically issue free since birth. But I still sat on the bucket in the stall for countless hours.

So now - I have let them be free for a bit and its time to wheel them in and get them ready for they journeys this summer. So I started with their manes. I got a comb through their thick, fine foal manes. I didn't touch their tails. LOL!

Then I worked the clippers up and down their necks and around their ears. They were pretty okay with it. Then I wanted to swipe their bridle paths, well that's not quite so okay. I got Cookies done. She pretty much figures after all the fusses this summer, she pretty much gives in after a few minutes. So a few more months of clipper training and I expect her to be good to go.

Now Lady on the other hand, well it was okay to play, but not to do an actual clip. So we will try again this weekend.

Okay so that was day 1.

Now Day 2. After the show season I let all the show ponies alone. Let them be ponies. Run. Play. Kick up their heels. You name it, they have done it.

So its been cold, but I trimmed a few of the older ponies and they have so much dead skin built up under their manes, forelocks and tails, I have to start using astringent and oil to get it under control, or they will ulitmately mutilate their manes and tails and to my horror, forelocks with a few quick rubs on wood, or steel or whatever they find.

Smokie was up first. It took me a long hour to painstakenly work through his mane. He had on very large snarl in the middle of his mane. I got him oiled, trimmed his forelock and bridlepath and then did his tail. Which thankfully is only a few inches away from the ground now. YIPPEE!

Tonight, I worked through Cowboy's mane, forelock and tail. His forelock and mane were easy. His mane on the other hand. I have never seen him with such snarls. He literally had half of it in such a twisted mess. It took me an hour and a half. But its done. Now to keep after it.

If by some miracle I have the money to upgrade the trailer and could haul the boys with me this summer, I will try to keep after their manes, tails and forelocks like they could be shown this summer. That's my resolve.

So 4 out of 15, just 11 more to go and then I can start over! LOL!

I literally am wet from head to toe, its a lot of work!


Thus ends days 2 and 3.