Tommy and Skippy's Past

I just found out some interesting news. I may be in contact with Tommy and Skippy's previous owners. Well, they would be the previous, previous owners. I guess the previous, previous owners talked with my coworker (who is related to the person that I got the ponies from). And this person stated that Tommy and Skippy were abused.

You would not know that when looking at them. They are such good boys. At first Tommy was a bit naughty while trying to catch him. But he's come along in just a short time. He doesn't move a muscle when I put the halter on him. Skippy on the other hand is a bit naughty.

When I lead them to their pony pasture, Tommy is so good. Skippy is a bit naughty. He likes to bump into me. But because he's only a bit more weight than I am, we have a tendancy to bounce off one another and body slam each other. It's a bit annoying but I guess its' better than the alternative. I'm just glad he's not 2000 lbs!

I am a bit worried about them today. I put them back in their pony pasture this morning and the mosquitoes were out. I hope they don't try and run through the one strand of electric holding them in. If Skippy gets out, he'll go straight for the alfalfa and I'll have on dead mini on my hands. I wish we had some type of cattle guard or gate in front of the driveway so no one could escape. And I also wish that I had all the alfalfa bales in the hay barn. I left the ones that were wet sitting out. I haven't checked them; I've been too sick over knowing they were baled wet.

But back to Tommy and Skippy. It really does go to show that they've had good handling by their previous owners. Even the farrier had mentioned that they were pretty well behaved. So if they were abused prior to the previous owners, than they have adjusted to their new environments quite well. I'm impressed.

They may be naughty ponies but they don't let their past get them down.

Happy 4th of July

It's been a pretty quiet 4th of July so far. We finally had the chance to sleep in. Skippy on the other hand let me know his displeasure in my once in a great while opportunity. When I went to halter him up and lead him to his pasture he decided to take a big bite out of my bum! Naughty little pony!

I'd put the mares in the barn last night because of the rain/wind. They were shivering like crazy so I figured they would enjoy a night in a dry, mosquito free environment. They were happy to get out of the barn.


I led Queen out first and put her in the pasture. The minute she realized the was free of me, she spun around and loped out to the pasture. You have to realize that for Queen to move quickly on her arthritic joints is pretty amazing and fun to watch. You could tell she was feeling good. I thought she was going to kick up her heels.


Then I ran back and pulled Babe out. She's not one to do anything more than a trot but she was more than ready to get out to graze. I sure do love those girls.



Other than standard morning chores, not much has happened today. We decided to stay home to enjoy the 4th. It's an unusual feeling to be home and not working on anything. It rained so much that I can't do too much outside. Oh I know there's always something to work on but I can't seem to muster up enough energy or motiviation to really start working hard. I guess I'll enjoya leasure 4th of July this year.

Hope everyone has a happy and safe 4th of July!

Soggy Day

It's a good thing I got my ride in first thing this morning. I originally had planned to haul King and Chaos up to Madison to go for a ride with Dad. I wanted Dad to try out King with his new shoes and pads and I wanted to start giving Chaos some exposure.

When I got up, there were dark clouds to the west. I hopped online to see what the weather was going to do and it looked like it would be long before we got rain showers. So instead I decided that I would ride Chaos around the dry lot. I haven't saddled him up and ridden him around since March. So I guess it's a good thing that I had a chance to ride him around the yard instead.

About the time I was finishing up riding Chaos it started to sprinkle. I still needed to move the pony pasture to the next spot. I scurried around to get everyone situated for the day. By the time I walked in the door about 9am it started to rain.

Surprisingly enough it's been a straight down rain ALL day! I don't know how much rain we've gotten but it's a lot. Straight down, but still alot. At times the skies just open up and it pours while other times it just sprinkles along.

I hope the rain will be done by tomorrow. It could make a soggy 4th of July.

When I went to do chores tonight Babe and Queen were shivering like crazy. I went ahead and fed them their grain mash and got the barn ready for them. I figure I have a barn I might as well use it! I got Queen settled in and then Babe. I think they were both happy to be in out of the rain.

I feel bad that Maverick cant' get out of the rain. He was shivering too but I figured with a bunch of hay, he'll be fine for the night. Otherwise he has to go into the box stall and I think he'd tear that apart.

Earlier in the day I ran to the vets to pick up two more cats. While I was there I bought some luster to help get rid of Maverick's lice. The fly spray is just not cutting it any more. There's another batch of eggs just waiting to hatch. I still am not totally convinced that I shouldn't just roach his mane to help get rid of the lice. Or at least this way I could keep a closer track of the eggs and smother them with the luster stuff. He has to be completely lice free before the end of hte month. At the end of the month I have to integrate him into the herd so that we can go on our yearly family vacation that I so desperatly need!

I think the couch is calling my name though. It's been a wet, soggy day and I'm ready to curl up and relax for a little while before tackling another day at Borderlands.

More Fencing

Last night after all the ruckus I decided that I would work with Maverick. I decided to switch his bridle/bit with Chaos's bridle/bit. It's the same one I started Rain out on and it seemed to work. So I switched and Maverick seemed to respond way better. He didn't chew on the bit near as much. But I think that's because I had the bit hanging down too far because the bridle didn't fit him.

I'll just have to remember to switch back and forth between Maverick and Chaos. I need to do a thorough cleaning of all the bridles and saddles. It's been so humid and I haven't been keeping the saddles in the tack room because of mice. So now everything is starting to grow mold. Makes me mad. But I guess I have an entire weekend to clean tack.

I putzed around on Maverick for awhile. I think I need some guidance on how to make him walk faster. The trainer taught him to constantly move when you bump him with your legs. But when I start to do that he slows down. If I leave him alone (aka. don't bump his sides with my legs and don't ask him to go in a particular direction) we go pretty well. So I am not sure if he's playing me or what. I'm guesisng I'm giving him incorrect cues. I need to do some major research on Clinton Anderson techniques.

While I was working with Maverick, Mike was down at the bottom of the hill pulling up the old barbed wire. I'm so excited. He was able to pull up two strands of barbed wire all the way across. I need to check to make sure there aren't any broken pieces laying out there but for the most part, Mike got the big portions taken out. So that leaves one more strand and the fence posts. We should be able to tackle that fence line without much problems.

We still need to cut down some tree branches. Mike called the neighbor who owns the land surrounding our place and he chatted about being able to get on his property to put fence posts in and to cut back branches so the farmer can plant a bit closer to the actual fence line. He's having to plant about three or four feet away from the actual fence line so he's losing precious farm land. I'm hoping some day he'll sell us a portion of the land surrounding our place so I can have some hay ground.

Nothing much else exciting going on last night after seeing Sunny off to her new pasture. I'm a bit apprehensive about where she's going but I guess I have to let some go and I only knew her for about five days. It's not like she was a part of the herd/family. Still makes me a bit nervous. Surprised and a bit shocked that the guy would want to buy Tommy. But I can't stand the thought of letting Tommy go. And if Tommy goes, Skippy has to follow and I know the gentleman didn't want two ponies. I think I'll enjoy my ponies and keep them.

Pictures

Since most of my recent blog entries have been down in the dumps I thought I would show off some of the herd.

Rain

Sam

Chaos and Dude

Dude

Sunny is Gone

Good bye Sunlight Siouxdana. She just headed off to another new adventure. I feel pretty rotten for not making a better try at it. But she really couldn't be with the other mares and I don't have anything permanent yet for the ponies. Still feel bad.

I do think it's funny. The gentleman that came to pick up Sunny wanted to buy Tommy. I've only had offers on horses twice before. Once for Rain (the trainer), and once for Chaos (my farrier but he was joking). Surprised that without even knowing Tommy he wanted him. But I think letting one horse go is hard enough. I'm not letting Tommy go too.

Bye Sunny, which we could have worked something out.

Farrier Visit

The farrier came out last night to take care of King. Unfortunately my brain was completely shut off so the best I could do was hang on to the lead rope. Luckily I was able to catch King without any problems and got him settled into the barn while we waited.

I can definitely tell King hasn’t been ridden in awhile. He was absolutely a terror for the farrier. He wouldn’t stand still and kept taking his foot away. That would be fine if he was just getting a trim. But he was getting his shoes reset and new pads. The farrier wanted to see how he would do with pads to help lift him up to the correct angle.

I’m hoping it’ll speed King’s pace up just a little bit. I want to try riding King tonight to see if the new shoes and pads help him with a quicker breakover. When I trotted him in hand he seemed to take quicker steps and not lag behind. If the pads help, then we’ll go with pads from now on!

King’s shoes and pads took quite awhile. But I don’t mind. My farrier is slow and methodical. I’d rather have that than in impatient farrier that ends up upsetting the horse and myself and winds up doing a poor job. I’ve been to a few that have too hot of a temper to be working with horses.

After King, I caught Queen. She was in desperate need of a trim. She should have been trimmed months ago but I couldn’t figure out the most cost effect of way of getting her home, trimmed, and then back to her “winter” home. So instead we waited until today. She’d already chipped out a large section.

I wish I could have snuck Babe in too for a trim. She’s past due for a trim too. I’m figuring on calling the farrier right after the 4th of July to get the big boys trimmed. Then maybe I can sneak Babe in too.

Queen really surprised me. The last time I had her trimmed, she was a holy terror. Of course, I think the last time was the first time I’d ever had her trimmed by my farrier. I’m guessing she hadn’t been trimmed in a few years by that time. She’s actually pretty good at breaking off the long stuff and going short.

This time I warned the farrier that she might be a pill. I’m not sure if it was her age setting in, she knew she was going to get a pedicure, or it was too hot out. But she behaved. I think she only moved around this time because her joints started to hurt. The farrier did her front feet without much fuss and then tackled her back feet. I told him he didn’t have to but he wanted to see how she would do. He used a rope around her neck that would hold up her back foot (and to avoid kicking him). I think that helped some. She has arthritis in her back end so I think the rope trick helped.

Although by the second back hoof you could tell she was struggling. Her poor front legs were starting to shake. I felt terrible. I didn’t know she was that out of shape. But I was thoroughly impressed by Queen. She behaved better than King. I’d warned my farrier that Queen would probably be worse than King and Mike said you could just see the look on his face. I had to laugh. Good thing Queen behaved much better.

I’m not sure my farrier will come back if I continue to make him work on naughty horses. Next time I’ll work King over a bit before we do anything with his feet. I need to do the same thing with Sam. I don’t want him to cause any problems. Sam is a bit naughty when it comes to feet trimming. But I blame that on his Amish training.

So all in all, the farrier visit went very well. I need to make an appointment soon for Bob, Sam, and Babe.