Bits of this and that

Whew - where did the last few weeks go? Just a few thoughts to bring this up to date:

Back on daytime turnout: With the shorter and cooler days, the boarded horses who were on nighttime turnout have been switched back to daytime turnout. After taking a week or so to adjust, Bestie seems good with the new routine. Although, when I arrive in the afternoon and take her out to graze, she does sometimes pull me toward her field - her friends are all field boarded, so are still out there, and she seems to be thinking, "Hey, wait a minute..."

All by her lonesome: With the change in turnout, I go later to the barn and don't see anyone. It was odd to get to the barn a few afternoons this week and discover that Bestie was the only horse in the main barn. Apparently they decided to keep the geldings out because the nights were pretty comfortable temperature-wise. The other horses who come in for the night are in the other barn, and with the doors closed to that wing, Bestie was pretty much flying solo. I found her alone two nights, and she seemed a little out of sorts. Tonight when I went, all the horses who typically are in for the night were in, and she seemed much more chill. I mentioned it to Sue, and she said that they could bring another horse in to keep her company if the geldings stay out again.

Newfound energy: Bestie is full of energy, and I'm guessing it's thanks to a combination of the cooler weather and the two Reiki/massage/stretching treatments that Marie did for her. Those treatments were definitely successful in alleviating whatever discomfort the farrier had noticed in her back end. During this most recent visit, farrier Monique remarked that Bestie was much better. Horace even mentioned that he saw her and Sweet Pea running around the field with their tails up in the air. Over the summer she was pretty complacent under saddle. In the last few weeks when I've ridden, her timer goes off sooner and she has started her old trick of speeding up. She's also been a bit obstinate when I've asked to go back to the barn one way and she wants to go another. Or when I've wanted to go around the field and she's apparently not feeling it. Part of that is if we have our ride before grain is served, she has one ear on the barn so she doesn't miss the all-important dinner hour, which means she isn't very focused on what we're doing. I asked Sue today if she has availability for a lesson. I think that every so often I need another set of eyes and brain power focused on our relationship and whatever the latest hiccup is. :)

Horse tale: There's a new horse in one of the fields, a fuzzy white gelding. Apparently he belongs to someone who lives down the road, but he decided on Thanksgiving Day to pay our barn a visit. He walked through his fence and strolled down the road. Amazing he arrived in one piece. His owner had bought him for trail riding, but he is older than she was led to believe and not sound enough for trail riding. So, he is hanging out until she finds him a retirement home. As I left the barn today I watched him ambling across his field, nibbling at the grass. He looks like he thinks his break-out was a pretty good decision.

Beautiful fall days deserve a few photos

This fall has been beautiful; warm and sunny for the most part and perfect for a few rides outside, more lawn mowing, and some hiking. The great weather sort of lulled me into a false sense of "this will go on forever," a sense that was abruptly shut down when the temperatures dropped from 70 to 40-something overnight early last week. We've since had a couple hard frosts. Ugh. So, at this point, I'm looking back wistfully at these shots from late October and earlier in November.

This was the fall decor at the corner of the road and the barn's driveway.

I took this photo on a quick run to the barn to give Bestie a good-bye kiss on our way to Tennessee for a weekend trip. It was hazy in the early morning, but the fall tree color was still beautiful, especially combined with the glassy silver pond and blue sky.

And last but not least, on another gorgeous day, I caught Bestie (on the right) hanging out with her pasture mate Sweet Pea. The brown specks on the grass in the background are Canadian geese who were aimlessly drifting around the pasture and irritating the mares with their crowding and lack of respect, ha ha. 

Feet and flexibility

Given the photographer error that produced the lopsided shots above, one might think I'm writing about the barn footing, but no, I'm actually writing about Bestie's feet. 24 days without rain led to dry hooves with little chunks missing along the edge, as seen in the top photo. She had started to get ouchy again on gravel. Farrier Monique worked her magic last week and Bestie's feet are back to smooth and healthy again; in fact, Monique said her foot has expanded and that her heels are better developed and not so short. That's the good news.

The bad news was that as Monique was trimming her, Bestie seemed to have trouble lifting and extending her left hind leg. Monique remarked that she seemed pretty stiff. So part 2 of this post is Bestie's appointment with Marie Corcoran, who offers Tune Up Therapeutics including Reiki and massage to ease the ailments of stiff horses.

The appointment was scheduled a week after the farrier visit. First, we took a walk in the driveway while Marie watched Bestie's stride - she wasn't tracking up.

Back in the barn, with Bestie on cross ties, Marie started at Bestie's head and worked her way toward her tail. Right away she noticed that Bestie's hyoid bone was not in correct placement, which can lead to TMJ. I had never heard of the bone before, and in fact, I wrote "highway bone" in my notes. :) To adjust it was a matter of getting Bestie to work her tongue to the left. A fix that took a few minutes.

Next Marie practiced Reiki for relaxation and healing along the bladder meridian, holding her hands just slightly above Bestie's coat from her neck and slowly moving along her spine to her tail and down her rear legs. It was interesting to watch Bestie relax and zone out. 

After the Reiki came massage. On Bestie's left side, her tricep was tight. Marie also discovered a lump in front of the girth, inside Bestie's left front leg (more on that below). Bestie reacted to pressure along her topline, showing a bit of discomfort along her top line, basically from the midpoint of the saddle point, to where the pad ends. She also was quite tight in her hamstrings. Marie described the muscles as feeling like "hard plates."

Her right side basically mirrored discomfort in the left side, although not to the same extent. On both sides, her tricep, deltoid and scapula area were very tight, compensating for the tight hamstrings.

The final treatment was a stretching session, one component of which is shown in the photo below. And ewww - that puddle on the floor below Bestie's head is all drool from the field clover.

It was great to see Bestie loosening up as the stretches were held and repeated, and at the end, when we walked again, she felt much more loose and looked more comfortable. Of course, toward the end of the session, her timer had gone off so she was READY to get back to her hay. But overall, during the appointment, she was very relaxed and occasionally turned her head to check out what Marie was doing. We have a follow up in two weeks.

So, the lump. There was some talk that it seemed like a fatty tumor, age related, but Joe happened to notice it a few days later, and he thought it was a hematoma. Connected to the swelling in her lower front right leg - who knows? She's the senior, or maybe I should say Auntie Bestie, in a field with the little girls now - the three youngsters - so it seems unlikely that there's been some altercation. Boo-boos are always such a mystery with horses. The good news is that the swelling has gone down. I gave her two days off after her treatment, and then rode a couple times later in the week, keeping our pace to a walk to give her leg swelling a little encouragement to reduce. We've had some nice relaxed rides, combining the indoor time with a loop around the fields.

Treating the creeping crud

For a few weeks I've been finding rough spots on Bestie's back legs below the fetlock joint on the front or side of her legs. Little dime-sized rough spots. Luckily, one day I happened to be scrubbing her in the wash stall while barn owner Joe was treating a horse in the wash stall across the aisle. He asked me what I was doing, and I admitted defeat - "I don't really know ... trying to clear mystery spots that I think may be the result of tick or other bug bites." He took a quick look and identified them as scratches.

Scratches as dime-sized circles? Who knew? A) Bestie has never had scratches before in her life. B) My familiarity with scratches was from Dude, who periodically got greyish/blackish crud spread/sprinkled like pepper on the back of his hind legs below the fetlock.

Joe swears by the MTG for treatment, so that's what I've been using. And it is pretty amazing. I scrub her legs with a cleanser, rub just a little dollop of MTB into the affected area, let it soften the spots, then pick off the rough crud, and the next day - the spot is gone, there's no noticeable hair loss, the skin feels smooth. Honestly, the most time consuming part of the entire process is washing the MTG's bacon-ish smell off my hands.

Today she had another little spot, but that didn't come as a surprise since I haven't used the MTG in a few days because she's been clear. Hopefully the spots clear for good once the weather cools. After a teaser week of fall weather, it's been horribly hot and humid. Seems like perfect weather for creeping crud.

Girls just wanna have fun

Thank you, Cyndi Lauper. :) 

Going back to my *many* hours of MTV video-watching with that title! 

It's true of riding, though - I just want to have fun, and assume that Bestie does, too. But sometimes I don't feel like trotting in circles, or doing serpentines, or figure 8s, or any of the other patterns Bestie and I typically do in the ring. That's when we take a leisurely walk around the perimeter of the fields.

We lucked out one day last week with something new and different. Seems the barn hosted some sort of training and left all the little features set up. The arena was filled with them. It was fun working our way over the ground poles and colorful pool noodles, through the barrels and the little cone path, and winding around the line of vertical poles. Day 2 was even more fun because a team of drywallers doing finishing work in the adjoining new addition had Latin music blaring (and they'd occasionally belt out a tune). That gave our ride a festive feel.

The only "feature" that Bestie took a second look at was the grouping of four plastic pink flamingos laid out to form the corners of a roughly 20 foot by 20 foot square in one corner of the arena. Kind of funny. We did one round of backing between them, but I was worried about horse hoof meeting plastic, so we didn't do too much in that area. 

Today I swung by the barn later than I typically do and found that she had already been turned out. I went out to feed her the apple I'd brought and spotted bot eggs on the inside of her legs and on her chest. After getting the safety scissors, I put her halter on her and scraped them off while she stood quietly, with her mare gang clustered around watching. At one point Bey Bey started lipping my hair while I was crouched down. Too funny! Bestie seems pretty patient with her, I guess because she's a youngster. Hoping to ride tomorrow.

Be gone, bot flies...

...and take all  your other fly friends with you. Seems like they all descend in fall for one last buzzing, biting frenzy. Bestie and I are Done With Them.

But - all these years with horses, and this was my first bot fly egg removal! 

I don't even remember an instance that my daughters had to do it when they were riding. Maybe not such a problem in Vermont? In general, based on daily spider web removal, stink bug seasonal invasions, and other bug appearances in my life, I'm finding Virginia to be a lot more buggy than VT.

Anyway, after I grazed Bestie today and put her on the cross ties to groom her, I noticed the little yellowy-white specks stuck to the insides of her knees. Maybe 25-35 on each leg. I knew enough to identify them and realize they needed to be scraped off. The photo below of the inside of her left knee was taken after I had been at it for several minutes; there were only a few eggs left.

Below, the tools of the trade ... well, sort of. For years, our bot knife has languished in a box of little used horsey stuff (location unknown after the move ... garage?), so until a kind person at the barn today lent me hers, I used the grooming scissors to scrape the eggs off. A bot fly egg removal hack, you might say. The little flashlight was indispensable as without it, I wouldn't have been able to make sure all the eggs were removed. Especially because I didn't have my glasses. But aside from that, in my experience, barn lighting is typically not the best for doing anything tightly focused - braiding, bug removal, inspection of boo boos. You need the big guns for that stuff - flashlights or small plug-in spotlights.

After getting home I did some random searching to see if there was anything else I should be doing or anything else I need to know about bot flies and their yucky practices. Found this great overview about bot flies (yikes, THREE kinds??) from Freedom Health LLC, which makes gastrointestinal support products for horses. 

How much can one horse drool?

The answer to that question? A LOT.

As gross as it is, in the photo below I was trying to capture the amazing amount of drool in Bestie's feed bucket, but she kept sticking her nose through the stall bars. So the drool puddle is just barely visible to the left of her nose.

The drool is due to a fungus on the clover in the field. Harmless; more on that here from equinews.com. We got some rain, and the clover has grown and reflowered, so the horses are drooling again. The clover growth of course has been sort of cyclical, dependent on rain and whether the field has been mowed; a while back one group of geldings was drooling, but the mares weren't because their field had been mowed.

Today Horace at the barn said the other mares aren't drooling nearly as much as Bestie, so he wondered if she has some secret stash of clover that she's hoarding. I wouldn't put it past her.

At least she's been fine to ride. The first bout of drooling caused her to cough at the trot, so we did a lot of walking those few days.

I've been watching her water consumption - all the drooling made me a bit concerned about dehydration, but she seems to be fine. Our usual routine of hand grazing while I groom her prior to riding has been shorter on the days that she's drooling as I don't think she needs any more clover than she's getting during her overnight turnout. We've had a couple good rides this week, both in the indoor and outdoor, with a stroll around the fields to finish off. The weather is still nice and warm but not so horribly humid as it was over the summer. I love fall riding!

Outdoor ring fun - the bridge

Bestie can be a bit unpredictable, calm and willing on some things, emphatically against others. Crossing the bridge shows her calm and willing side. Who knew?

The photo above really doesn't do the bridge justice; it looks a bit ho hum and almost rickety. But in reality the bridge is a sturdy little thing that's several feet long and just high enough to make crossing interesting. It's just one of many items that can be found in the outdoor and indoor rings that help familiarize horses and riders with trail-like features and that function as general confidence builders. We've mastered the mattress and the tire step-in - no biggie, says Bestie, but not the "gate" or the carousel-like spinner that the horse is supposed to push with its chest.

Crossing the bridge for the first time was sort of like our first time walking over the mattress - she just did it. Didn't balk at all, didn't look at the bridge, just calmly walked across. The only time she's had any hesitation with the bridge was one time recently at the end of our ride when I directed her toward it and she sidestepped right before putting her hoof on the bridge, but when redirected, walked across. I think that sidestep was her little way of telling me she was Done With The Ride.

We've had a few good rides recently. It has been fairly quiet at the barn, so easy to get in the indoor arena. We've been doing trotting patterns, mostly with my feet not in the stirrups so I can work on my seat and balance, followed by a little bit of time in the outdoor ring going over poles on the ground. Summer has definitely been a challenging season for finding riding time, with the hot and humid spells our area has experienced. I've tried to ride every chance I've had when both the heat and humidity have dropped. 

A few rides here and there

Thank you, Bestie, for posing in front of the new addition to the indoor. :)

In the photo, the little part that juts out from the main building is going to house a bathroom and a viewing room, both of which will be great additions to an already wonderful facility. The barn hosts quite a number of clinics as well as many people who trailer in for lessons, so the new portion will offload some of the traffic to the main barn as well as be much more convenient for visitors.

It's been amazing to watch the progress on it - much of the work was done in extremely hot and humid temperatures that didn't seem to put off the construction team. The exterior is now done and I guess there's still a bit of finishing work inside before it's officially completed.

I rode a couple times while they were working, which was generally fine. The only thing Bestie Did. Not. Like. was the nail gun. I think it was the randomness of it -- boom boom boom .... pause ... boom boom boom boom. She entered the indoor fine while they were using it, but once the pattern became irregular I could feel her tensing up. We stuck around for a bit but eventually moved to the outdoor ring.

Last weekend the temperature and the humidity dropped and the weather was super pleasant, so I rode both Saturday and Sunday. Just some serpentines and figure 8s at the trot and practice of our fast walk. :)

On Tuesday there were lessons going on in the indoor, so I rode her around the back paddocks, and inside the paddocks, which were empty. It wasn't a long ride, but it was nice to be outside, and she seemed to enjoy it too. We hadn't done the loop in a while and she was super curious about "stuff" - like the new automatic waterers in the fields, a plastic bag that had blown in, the mineral blocks in each field, and a black thing that looked like it may have fallen off the mower.

The girls' field is pretty overgrazed at this point in the summer. It greened up a bit when we got rain late last week, but it's been so dry that it's no surprise there's not much growing. I've been continuing to graze Bestie when I go, just for 10-15 minutes. She seems happy to get out of her stall at the midpoint between when she comes in and when she goes back out.

Her feed bucket has been licked clean every day; I guess the Cosequin is a hit.

A new supplement

Bestie has become a Cosequin girl. After trying unsuccessfully for weeks to get her to eat the senior formula for joint support that our old friends at HorseTech make -  even to the point of crushing peppermint candies into her grain - I threw in the towel. She's been fine with the Cosequin, which folks at the barn recommended. The only other supplement she is getting is HorseTech's Pro-Lactic DFM probiotic. I have to say it's a relief to go to the barn and see her grain dish licked clean (even without the yogurt, which we've stopped giving her now that her manure is back to normal. Yay!)

She has been on Cosequin for just over two weeks. They recommend a loading period of 2-4 weeks, one scoop twice a day. I just decided to go one more week with the loading dose, and then I plan to reassess again as to whether we should load for the fourth week or reduce down to the one scoop per day regular dosage. It's hard to note any change because it's been so hot. When I've ridden, we haven't done much due to the heat, mainly just worked at the walk. And because of the heat I only rode once last week and probably today will be my only ride for this week, because it looks like each day will be in the 90s. Some days have been so humid my shirt is plastered to my stomach after only grooming her and picking out the stall. Blah. Bestie doesn't seem too bummed when all we do is head out to hand graze and then I hose her in the wash stall with cool water.

On the farrier's recommendation, I've been painting Bestie's soles with venice turpentine to help with ouchiness on the gravel driveway around the barn, and it does seem to be helping.

Ups and downs - a down

War wounds.

What I thought was a little incident of mare mayhem occurred the night after our Wednesday lesson. When I arrived at the barn on Thursday I discovered a scrape down Bestie's back from teeth, a swollen raw spot on her belly, and a scrape on her hock - all on her right side. It was perplexing because the girls had all been getting along so well. Two mares who had been a bit confrontational had left, and the group that remained seemed pretty chill. The mystery was solved later that day. It seemed that someone had mistakenly turned out one of the geldings in the field and apparently that had upset the dynamics. 

The tooth scrape is in the area that would be covered (ie rubbed) by her right side saddle pad and saddle skirt, so I haven't ridden since the lesson. Yesterday, day 4, when I went to the barn, the area no longer looked raw and it seems to be healing up, as do the belly and hock spots, although that hock and the area around the belly spot are still a bit swollen. After cleaning all the areas and treating with 3-way ointment for a few days, I'm now putting vitamin E on them and continuing to dab the swollen areas with Sore No More liniment, as well as cold hosing her hock.

So with all of that, plus application of venice turpentine to assist with her ouchy soles (at the suggestion of the farrier), she gets quite the daily treatment. While I fuss around her, soaking and swabbing and doing whatever else is needed, she snoozes on the cross ties in the wash stall. With the box fan that's right overhead plugged in, it's quite the comfy spot to be on a hot summer day. :)

Ups and downs

Geez, Mom, can I have some privacy?

I couldn't help it, I had to take a picture. After probably about four weeks of loose manure, and a couple weeks of daily doses of yogurt for probiotic benefits, this firm poop was pretty darn exciting.

I think - I know - that Bestie has been gorging on grass. Since the grass came in, she hasn't been eating much hay at all, just grass and the small amount of grain she gets. I think it's been too much for her, and actually,she wasn't the only one - there were other horses at the barn with loose manure. A couple of weeks ago, it seemed to get better for a bit, but went back to cow patty-like. Today it was normal in consistency but still green as grass. Bestie's field was mowed and the mares have eaten it down, so those two factors may be helping, too. Fingers crossed we're back to normal for good.

Yesterday we had a lesson with Sue. I asked her to help me with Bestie's tendency to walk off as soon as I get up on the mounting block. Sue first took the saddle off to be sure there was no physical discomfort. It turned out that Bestie is a little tight in the back, but Sue didn't think that the saddle was causing it. More like she needs to get her core in shape (with you on that, girl). So we spent probably 15 minutes working through the walking off, and then practiced it again at the end. It will be interesting to see if she tries it when I ride again. Basically the drill is that I get ready to mount, tell her whoa and if she walks off, I get off the block, back her and try again.

The rest of the lesson was good. We worked on getting her to walk at a speedier but relaxed pace so that she actually works for a bit; more than she does at her usual mosey. Did a little walk and trot in a serpentine pattern. And posted. Yikes, I haven't posted in a while, so I pooped out quickly. Plus it was toward the end and I was feeling a little fried. As was Bestie too, I believe, because she kept speeding up and I had to keep asking her to slow down. Every time Sue called out, "It's a beautiful trot!" I felt it was too fast. :) I need to regain my confidence again.

So to recap, "ups" in the past two days were our lesson and a normal poop. And "downs"? Ugh, a field altercation during turnout last night ... more on that in next post.

Because she hasn't been eating her joint supplements (Senior ReitSport from HorseTech), on the barn's recommendation I'm trying her on Cosequin. First dose tonight with her grain. We'll do the loading dose of two scoops daily for a couple weeks and see how it goes. She has gotten really "clicky" in her leg joints, and the chiropractor had mentioned left hock arthritis, so hopefully the Cosequin will help increase her comfort level. A couple horses at the barn have responded well to it. I'm sad to be leaving HorseTech though; we've been with them a lonnnnnnng time and have been very happy, but despite my best efforts, I just can't get her to eat the senior supplement and it seemed like the one she had been on wasn't helping. I also bought a can of venice turpentine to treat her ouchy soles with on the farrier's recommendation. That will start tomorrow; ran out of time today.

Swelling, salt, and a side of yogurt with that grain, please

A bit dozy on a hot day.

When I returned to the barn on June 6, Bestie's legs remained stocked up. And there was a new and exciting development - she had a half-lemon sized lump on the lower edge of her neck about 4 inches down from her jaw. I definitely wanted another set of eyes on her, so I checked in with Joe, who owns the barn. The lump didn't seem to bother her, and we couldn't see any skin breakage, but he thought it might be either a kick or an insect bite. Really bizarre. As for her swollen legs, when I described to Joe how she'd been going to town on her salt brick, he suggested taking it out of her stall for a while (there is a mineral block in her field that she can find).

It took a couple days, but her legs returned to normal. Maybe she was retaining fluid due to overconsumption of her salt block. I've been offering it to her just while I'm at the barn, so she typically only gets it for a few minutes. The swelling in her legs hasn't returned.

However, the neck swelling has taken forever to go down. Each day I soaked the area with Sore No More liniment, and the swelling started to flatten out right away, but even today, almost a week later,  it is still slightly visible. 

I talked to Sue again about Bestie's poop, since it concerns me that it has stayed loose for so long (about a month now). Sue suggested trying her on yogurt, on the premise that maybe she needs a little extra probiotics to jumpstart her system back to normal. So Bestie's getting a spoonful of plain yogurt with her am and pm grain ... and acquiring a bit of a reputation as high maintenance. The first day she did not like it at all, but now she's licking her bucket clean. She's been on the yogurt regimen since Wednesday, June 14. Her manure today actually had some form to it. We'll see how it goes. 

We've had some nice rides and one more lesson. Still working on positioning for me and relaxing my hips. A lot of stretches and hip openers on the lunge line last week during my lesson, and during the week I rode on my own quite a bit without stirrups to lengthen and relax my legs and sit deep in the saddle. Tomorrow she'll get a trim from the farrier so I won't ride. Her feet have gotten quite long in the last six weeks.

The girls

This is Bestie's girl gang. Well, until today. I understand one more mare may have just gotten introduced. She's new to the barn and young, and hopefully will assimilate with no difficulty.

The dynamics seem to be that Bestie is the alpha, and when she's not out, the other 20+ year old mare moves to alpha. There are two young girls who defer - a heartfelt ear pinning by the older mares sends a clear message to them. And then there's Shirley. I'm not sure how old she is, but she likes to push buttons. She and Bestie seem to have moved into the detente period after a few skirmishes early on. They've agreed to disagree.

The field is very big, so they definitely don't need to get in each others' way. I think most of the run ins occur in the run in - the shed gets a bit small if they all crowd in there to escape rain or flies. Another dicey spot is at the gate when one of them is coming or going.

Things have been going pretty well with the group. My fingers are crossed that the new girl doesn't rock the boat.

I've had some good rides with Bestie recently, doing more trotting with some patterns and trying to get her - and me - back into shape. My last lesson with Sue was exhausting (for ME, anyway), as she put Bestie on the lungeline and we did a lot of positioning work. It was good though. Last week some of the obstacles were out and we actually rode across the mattress for the first time. Sometimes Bestie so surprises me - she walked right across the squishy thing without batting an eye.

Her poop has not been normal/firm for a couple of weeks. Folks at the barn think it's because we've gotten so much rain the horses are basically eating wet grass all the time. But we just had three days of sun and her manure firmed up a bit but not to normal. Maybe as a result of the loose manure, she's been going to town on her salt block recently. She does seem to be drinking normally. Today her lower legs above the fetlock were swollen. Not super swollen, but definitely noticeable. I walked her, then hosed her, and soaked the area in Sore No More. She wasn't lame. I plan to see how she looks tomorrow and then confer with someone at the barn as to what plan B should be if the swelling is still present. I have seen her back legs stocked up, usually due to too much standing, but never all four. I wonder if it's possible that all the salt block licking is causing her to swell in the legs? I dunno. Seems like horse ailments are always such a puzzle. I'm anxious to see how she is tomorrow.

Lunge, ride, graze and groom

Today was hot, 90s hot, so I left Bestie's door open to encourage the air to circulate while I was poking around the barn. She took the opportunity to lick up her neighbor's grain crumbs.

Then when he came over to check her out, she gave him the cold shoulder, but it was kind of a mixed message - one ear back, one ear forward. Her whole posture was saying, "I'm not looking at you. And I don't know who licked up your grain crumbs." So mare-ish.

She had just had a drink from the blue bucket; that's why there's water all over the floor. It's funny - that bucket is for the dogs, but whenever Bestie has access to it, she guzzles from it, even if she has water in the bucket in her stall. The grass is always greener...

Sunday when I got to the barn she was in major heat and pretty crazy, acting like she hadn't been out of her stall in FOREVER, and whinnying at the horses in the barn and in the fields. We went out to the indoor with the lunge line and I just let her run. She hasn't done that in a while, so maybe she needed to let off some steam. We had the place to ourselves. Afterwards, she wandered around the indoor checking out the poles, and muck buckets, and new waterers while I picked up poop.

On Monday she was a little calmer, but still kind of on edge, so I lunged her again.

I rode on Tuesday in the indoor. We did a lot at the walk, with some trotting. We've been doing a lot of serpentines. One curve would usually take us by the open door, so she got to gawk at the horses in the adjoining field, but she didn't try to head out there.

And now, with temps in the 90s for three days, I'm just going during the day to get her out for some mid-day hand grazing and to groom her. Today I scrubbed her back legs with Betadine; she's got a bit of the crud going on. I'm not  hand grazing her very long because she's had pretty loose manure for about a week since we got new hay. The hay looks great, it's dry and green, really fresh looking, but maybe the combination of that with the overnight turnout is giving her too much green. I took her off her supplements and just put her on the probiotic today, and we'll see how that goes. She's totally perky and eating and drinking normally, so everything seems ok, but I hope her poop firms up soon ... if only so that I don't have to inquire when I get to the barn, "How's her poop today?"

A gorgeous day for a little ride

So beautiful at the barn today! When I took the photo, the horses had their heads out, but because most of them are black, they're not visible. :) Bestie's is the second stall on the right after the center hallway.

All in all, this week has been gorgeous with sunny skies and really pleasant temperatures. I didn't ride on Monday because when I got to the barn, Bestie was in the line-up for a trim from the farrier. On Tuesday we spent some quality time doing serpentines in the indoor. She has been a little sluggish. I don't know if she's tired during the day from being out all night, or if she is just being a stinker (nahh, I don't really feel like trotting), or if something is bothering her. 

I had her chiropracted a couple of weeks ago - after my lesson - and he said she was in good shape for a horse of her age, and only pointed out a bit of arthritis in her left hock. She just turned 21 at the end of April, so I was pretty happy with his assessment. I put her on a senior supplement that has a bit more "joint juice" as well as Devil's Claw for discomfort. The problem is that she isn't eating it. I've tried to entice her - chopped up peppermint candies to mix with it, and Horace at the barn has doused it with corn oil. The oil seems to do the trick, so guess I'll be buying oil. 

With three days of rain beginning tomorrow in the forecast, I decided to ride again today. We went in the indoor for about 15 minutes, then strolled around the paddocks. No one was out, even next door - I think that the neighbor must also be doing evening turnout - but Bestie seemed fine with that. The walk around the paddocks offers a couple of little hills, so it's good work for her. After we were done she seemed to expect her grain and turnout, but it was a bit early. Her inner clock was off. I headed for home to mow more of the lawn before the rain comes. 

A lesson!

After a seven months-plus hiatus, Bestie and I had a lesson yesterday. I was really looking forward to it and definitely feeling like it was time to have another set of eyes on us. I rode the day prior to the lesson, and she was good.

There was a little mix up with the lesson time, which meant that we didn't get the full amount of time Sue typically allots. Which was ok. Because when we were done, I was done. It wasn't that Bestie was bad, but she was definitely a bit "up." She's in heat, and overnight became super attached to her new stall neighbor, as well as excessively interested in everyone's business. Her new stall neighbor happened to be having a lesson in the indoor while we were in the outdoor, so there was a lot of calling back and forth. And a lot of replying from the horses in the barn. Lots of conversations that were wayyy more interesting to her than what we were doing in the ring.

With her head way up in the air and super attentiveness to everything going on around her, I felt all my old nervousness coming back. We did just one circle at the trot, and spent the rest of the time at the walk working on encouraging Bestie to focus, and on addressing my old bad habits, which also had come back. Arms too stiff. Turning my hands palm up. Holding too tightly to the reins. It was good to have the feedback. Good to have someone remind me, "take a few deep breaths," and feel Bestie respond. She's been so laid back, it kind of threw me for a loop to have to deal with the lack of focus and "nah, I don't want to listen to you" stuff again. Good to have the lessons to keep us on track.

New house, new barn

It's been an odyssey, these months since our September move from Vermont. Thank goodness for the lovely interim home for Bestie at Laurie's in Marshall. After looking online for boarding near our new home in Culpeper, I found Joe London Training Center and in early February we were able to move (timed for just as we were settling into the house after our stuff arrived from VT). It was a bitterly cold day despite some sun; really, one of the few cold days we've had. Bestie loaded like a champ, but then we discovered that the halter clip was rusted, so she had to come off while Laurie found a new one. Then, after a few "no, I don't want to get back on" attempts, she loaded and off we went for a 45 minute ride south.

The photo above is from a few days after the move when the weather warmed and they opened the horses' half doors in the main barn. Let's just say that Bestie love love loves the half door - no surprise since she felt the same way about the half doors at Laurie's. It look out on the "front yard" of the barn, the driveway, a few of the paddocks, and the indoor. Lots to see.

It felt funny to get her there, unload, settle her into her stall, confer with the folks there about her feed and supplements, hang around for a bit, then leave. Reminiscent of when we took the girls to college and left them, feeling a little empty handed. Of course I drove back the next morning to check on her. It was a lovely sunny day and there was a free paddock, so she got out for a while. 

After a couple days she was introduced to the mares' field. I think there are five or six mares. I say "I think" because I have trouble keeping track of everyone. There are lots of field boarders, just a few full boarders, horses in for training, and horses that are there hanging out (oldsters, I believe). So there's a lot of coming and going. That was one thing that I think Bestie had trouble processing - why other horses were staying out when she was brought in. And a few times she would be the only one in the main barn, with the other full boarders in the side barn. So there's been some adjusting, particularly since at Laurie's, the group of four mares did everything together ... all out, all in, all eating.

But it's been good, overall. She seems happy and her care has been great. She had an altercation the second week that resulted in a swollen right hock and some gimpiness for a few days. Then last week it looked like she got kicked again, this time inside the left hock. Again, swelling, but no gimpiness this time. Of course it happened on a day I didn't go to the barn (like, really? I go almost EVERY DAY) so by the time I saw it, it was pretty crusty and yucky. It's healed up fairly well. I rode her today and she was fine.

The only other thing healthwise was some yellow nasal discharge for a couple days two weeks ago. I mentioned it to Sue at the barn and Joe took Bestie's temperature a few times - normal. The conclusion was that perhaps something in the hay or something coming out in the field had bothered her. It did clear up.

She's had her teeth done and her hooves trimmed once. She got wormed on April 3. We're still waiting on shots, which should happen soon.

We've been easing back into regular riding with some time in the indoor (nice to have one again!) and then a mosey around the paddocks. Last week as we came back toward the barn we rode under the gorgeous blooming cherry trees. Miss Unpredictable: right from the get go she walked out to go around the property's perimeter with no goofing around. I couldn't believe it, since it was always hard to get her past the paddocks at Maple Valley. Today we did about 20 minutes in the indoor, then rode around the paddocks, and she didn't even blink an eye at the gate swinging and squeaking in the wind, and the empty paddocks. My plan was to give us both some time to settle, and now I'm ready to get back into lessons, hopefully one every other week, and need to talk to Sue about that. Maybe we'll even be able to do one of their fun workshops at some point. And maybe, maybe, we'll be able to join someone on a trail ride and explore the fields beyond the barn's property. Big plans!

About time for a new home

Bestie so loves her front half door and back window, enabling her to keep an eye on things whenever she's in. This picture was from late last week. I brought her in to groom her, and she hung out in the front, a little snoozy-eyed, and watched Percy and Jazz, who were in the roadside field. The most amazing thing last week - actually, two amazing things - I arrived to see her and Mia nuzzling together in the field, and shortly thereafter Bestie actually took a little rest in the grass. NEVER have I seen her nuzzling with another horse or lying down in her field. Testimony to the relaxed vibe of Laurie's little slice of horsey heaven.

I'm hoping she settles in just as happily when we move to a barn and training facility much closer to our new house in Culpeper. That move happens this week, the end point of a long 5-6 months of transition to a new area. The barn's website first caught my eye, both for the amenities provided and the fun events they schedule. A visit confirmed the positive feel I had from poking around online, and amazingly, they had one stall available. So off we go on Thursday. I'm excited to have the use of an indoor arena again.

More on the yucky oozy spots. Laurie suggested that the spots might be tick bites, noting that Mia, Bestie's pasture mate, had a similar spot. Right now, knock on wood, Bestie seems pretty clear. Her hair is growing back in where the worst spots were on either side of the center hairiness, with some skin flakiness/dryness from my efforts to clean and sanitize.

I never have seen a tick on her since she arrived in Virginia. They don't seem to hang around like the few ticks I found on her in Vermont that stayed attached getting bigger and bigger. For the last few weeks I've spent extra time currying with the jelly curry and also using the hairbrush under her chin in hopes of dislodging any that might be crawling up to biting territory. So gross. Poor Bestie. 

I'm reading up on garlic supplements as a way of fighting ticks; some people seem to have had success with this treatment. But from the testimonials I've read, it seems that they only use the supplement part of the year, like spring through fall. Judging by our experience, in Virginia it might be needed year round. Not sure whether that's a good thing for the horse or not. More investigating needed....

A peek at spring

Oh boy was yesterday a gorgeous day! (I'm choosing to not focus on the weather icon for Saturday.)

When I arrived at the barn, the horses were sunbathing, standing in their fields and looking a bit dozey. Bestie whinnied when she saw me, but made no move to come over to the gate, so I walked through the field to put her halter on.

It was way too nice to brush her in her stall, so she grazed around the barn - mainly toward the front so that she wasn't too far from Percy and Jazz in the front field - while I curried and brushed her.

She was gleaming when I left.

A few hours later I received a text from Laurie about my brown horse. Seems Bestie wasn't into gleaming. Sometime after I left to drive home, she rolled and coated herself in mud. Not the first time and won't be the last, I'm sure. :)

Looked at a new barn this week; thoughts on that soon. While poking around the internet doing some research while trying to decide if I should transition Bestie's feed prior to or after arrival at the new place, I found these two sites - https://equinenutritionnerd.com/ and https://horsehippie.com/, by the same author. Fun and interesting reading on everything from winter feeding to horse/human chakra connection.

Hellooo 2017

Bestie and I had a little good bye to 2016 and hello to 2017 moment on New Year's Eve afternoon last weekend (that I am just getting around to posting). Things have been going well at the barn. She's happy there and hanging companionably with the other mares. I haven't ridden since early December due to a variety of reasons - weather, business, a cold, lack of initiative, forgetfulness about alerting the ring owner prior to a ride ... whatever. I usually walk her down the road on my visits, unless it's absolutely too blustery.

The inflamed follicle business has definitely slacked off, thank goodness, but she did have a big one on her face that I discovered last week. We'd had a nice laid back hour of grooming and hand grazing, and right as I was about to walk her back to the barn to pick out her feet, I spotted a bleeding spot on her jawline. Yikes, nothing like blood to get your heart pounding. A couple of days later, Laurie pointed out another small one on Bestie's jawline.

The photo below shows the two spots on her jaw; hard to actually see them clearly because her coat is so amazingly thick and long this year (much more so than during all those years in Vermont). The lower one was positively ugly. She had apparently rubbed it raw and it was about an inch long and a half inch in diameter. Conferring with Laurie and Amanda at the barn, I decided to keep it clean and treated with ointment for a few days to see if it would clear up. Laurie helped with cleaning and treatment on days I couldn't be there. The smaller spot was pretty typical, just oozing a little waxy oil, so I cleaned it and dabbed it with TriCare ointment. 

When I came back to the barn after two days, and two days of treat the spots, I was relieved to see that the big spot had crusted over. It is still kind of rough and raised, like a scab would be, so hopefully it heals over smoothly soon. And hopefully these will be the last spots. The poor thing. When I groomed her a couple days ago I took off my gloves and really ran my hands over every inch of her, looking for more spots. She probably feels like I'm always picking and rubbing at her, but she stands quietly and tolerates it. Such a good girl.