I can admit my mistakes..

So I had the vet, the farrier, the previous owner, everyone I could think of panicked that there was something horribly wrong with my horse. I go out to the barn on Wednesday afternoon, and check her feet again. Duh, I'm an idiot. There is NOTHING wrong with her hoof. The frog was shedding, a perfectly normal event, and the extra piece was sideways. Boy did I feel dumb calling the vet back.

The kids rode their lease pony on Wednesday, sadly for the last time. She's been sold. I let Skye canter a bit on a longe line. It was her first time cantering and she just loved it! I wish I had a picture of her face, but I couldn't manage the camera and the pony. She was one very happy little girl.

Before the kids and I left the barn, we went out in the pasture to say bye to Lola. She came right up to us, and put her head down for scratches. She is so good with the kids! She put her head down, and didn't move when they were hugging her. They were pulling on her neck, hugging around her chest, Lukey was grabbing at her legs, and all she did was sniff at them and ask for more pats. She's a really sweet animal.

Yesterday - take some sunshine, some 65 degree weather, blue skies, and a pretty paint filly, add in a babysitter, and you (well I) had an amazing afternoon.

Went to the barn and started with a really good grooming for Miss Lola. She is shedding like crazy. I'm finding it really interesting that her black and white hairs are very different. Right now, her black parts aren't shedding much any more. The hair is silky and shiny. The white parts are much courser and are shedding like crazy. Any way, spent a lot of time rubbing her all over, picking up her feet, giving her scratches and pats. It amazes me that I can groom her standing in a stall without being tied, picking out her feet and all. She's such a good girl.

Put her halter on her and took for a little walk down in the woods. The dogs were making her really nervous because they were running behind her and all the dry leaves were crackling. I could tell she wasn't relaxed, but she wasn't doing anything bad. We didn't do the whole little circle trail in Sarah's yard, just walked a little bit of it, but it was fun. I made her step over a couple of small logs.

Up to the indoor for a little walk around in there. Did a bit of friendly game again, and some yields. I walked her over some ground poles.

On to the outdoor ring for lots more friendly game, and a bunch of porcupine game. She is yielding her hind end beautifully. Her front end still needs some work. She is yielding backwards from pressure on her chest and on her nose. She has started lowering her head for me. She still does not like having her nose and mouth touched, so I'm working on that. I was able to worm her with no problem at all. We did some yo-yo game and she is starting to figure it out. There were times when I didn't have to get to Phase 4 to get her back. She always comes right back to me without any trouble at all. Tried the circle game a little bit. She is getting the idea to move forward, but once I relax, she stops. I need to do more reading to remember how to encourage her to keep going. I walked her over some poles, then a small cross rail, and then a small vertical. She's a bit of a klutz. She hit the poles every time we walked over them and they were off the ground.

I took her for a walk on the street, and she was a bit nervous about the cars. She pranced a little and spun around once, but that was about the worst of it. I made her stand at the end of the driveway and watch a couple of cars go by.

More grooming, fed her some carrots, making her reach around to each side and down between her front legs to get them. She seemed to like that game. Turned her out and heading home until next time.

Quick Visit, Progress & Worries

Stopped by the barn for a quick visit on Friday afternoon before I headed out of town on Saturday. The kids were with me and not feeling like being at the barn, so I did a quick grooming, played friendly game with her a little bit, and played with her legs a bit. She was being really good about having me touch her legs, so I decided to try and give her feet a good cleaning.

The good news is she was great about it. The bad news is that the frog on her right hind foot doesn't look right. I'm not sure how to explain it, but her frog looks kind of side ways. It's a weird thing. I've been stressing about it all weekend. The farrier was supposed to trim her on Saturday, but of course he didn't have time. I talked to the vet tonight, and he thinks he should come out to take a look at it. Ugh. Here goes all kinds of money on vet bills already. I've got to call in the morning and make an appointment.

I'm really worried this frog this is going to end up being a MAJOR problem. I'm kind of keeping the thought in the back of my mind that I may have to sell her. I'm not going to keep a horse with a big potential problem if that is what this looks like it is going to be.

Quick update

Yesterday, I got lucky and the weather was absolutely perfect. I hope Spring is finally here. Went and spent a couple of hours at the barn. I love that Lola came trotting over when I got there. She always seems so happy to see me. It’s great! I brought Lola into a stall, fed her some treats, and put her new rope halter on her. The Parelli warmblood halter seems to fit her well. I guess I’m going to need a new bridle one of these days. She’s got a big head already. I’m sure I’m going to have to buy a new saddle too. Ugh. I left her loose in the stall and groomed her. Lots of currying and shedding blade. It’s so strange that her white parts are fuzzier and courser than her black parts. The black hair seems much finer than the white. I don’t know if it is just the way she is shedding or if they hair is really that different. It will be interesting to see as she sheds more and gets her summer coat.

I probably spent 45 minutes in her stall with her, grooming her, rubbing her legs, rubbing her belly, ears, even in her mouth. I was trying to get a feel for spots that she didn’t like touched. Her back legs are a bit of an issue. She is OK with me lifting her tail, but she isn’t totally relaxed about it. She’s not really happy about me messing with her mouth either. Over all, I think she is doing great for a horse with so little handling. I discovered that she really likes to have her butt scratched!

I led her up to the outdoor ring, and just walked her around a bit and let her get used to all the new smells and sounds. She stopped a couple of times, but nothing horrible. I walked her over a ground pole, tried bending her to smell her tail. She didn’t like that game very much. Backing her by her nose is pretty impossible at this point. She did back pretty well from her chest. I did a little bit of the porcupine game with her and got some yields from both her front and back ends in both directions. She did great with the Yo Yo game for her first time doing it. She’s got a VERY short attention span. She was looking all around and very distracted. I’m sure some of that is her age and some of it is her new surroundings. She also isn’t used to being worked with at all.

I was surprised that she was very resistant to being led from the off side. I really like a horse that isn’t one sided, so I worked on leading her from the “wrong” side for a bit. She looked at me like she was very confused and she didn’t want to move forward. That's something we'll keep working on.

She’s very sensitive to my cues overall. Moving her hindquarters in both directions took very little pressure. Front end took a bit more, but I’m not totally sure she knew what I wanted.

I walked her down the hill and into the indoor. She walked in no problem. Walked around, stopped about half way in and froze, and then with a pat, walked on again. Very calm for what was probably her first time in an indoor arena.

Brought her back to her stall, groomed her a little more, worked on cleaning out her feet. She wasn’t too bad with her front feet, but she didn’t want me messing with her back feet. That is going to take some work. I can’t have her misbehaving for the farrier or vet.

I definitely need to brush up on my skills. I was going to do the circle game, but I had a really hard time trying to remember all the little parts of where I’m supposed to look, etc. I hope I can do this!

I hung out for a little bit, just enjoying the nice weather and watching the horses play. Gracie, a young thoroughbred at the barn was picking on everyone. She was trotting around just looking for trouble. I saw her chase Lola, and Laya (the pony) back behind the barn, and the next thing I knew Lola and Laya came running up the hill, out of the fence! Ugh! I called to the barn owner, she started working on fixing the electric fence where the horses had run through it, and I went to catch Lola and Laya. Thankfully both horse and pony had found a little grass and were quite content not to take off. I put them each in a stall and helped fix the fence. I'm hoping that Lola won't continue to test the electric fence.

Quick stop at the barn today and the horses were calm and happy. It's a great barn for a baby horse. She has access to pasture and stall 24/7 and friends to play with. She seems very content. I groomed her quickly, cleaned her feet, fed her lots of treats, and headed home. She was MUCH better about having her feet cleaned and worked with today. I can't believe I won't get to see her again until Wednesday! I hope she is a good girl. The farrier is supposed to be coming to do the other horses at the barn tomorrow, so they are going to try and do Lola's feet. I hope she is a good girl for him. Fingers crossed!

It's been about five years since I was a horse owner, and I'm so glad to be one again! Dave had the idea of me keeping a blog of my horsey stuff and I thought it was an amazing idea. I kept a training journal when I trained Woody, my baby thoroughbred, and I'm actually looking forward to reading back to that as I progress with the new horse.

Since we moved to NH, I've been leasing a couple of different horses, leasing a pony for the kids, and desperately wanting to really get back into the horse world.

I guess the story of Chenoa/Lola (we still aren't sure what we are going to call her) begins about a month ago. I was reading www.nhequestrians.com as I do all the time. There were two pictures of a black and white paint filly, a "baby" picture and a more current picture, and I just couldn't get her out of my mind. I was obsessed with the pictures and kept going back to look at the ad again. I decided I had to go see her.

Here's the text from the ad:
Chenoa is a striking 2004 PerchXPaint filly, coming two years old. She’s black & white, flashy, and not too drafty – will be great for riding or driving . Very sweet and easy to work with. Great home only. Listed 2/21/06

I went to see her, and I just couldn't believe how sweet and gentle she was. Here's a horse, less than two years old, that has had minimal training, and she just obviously loves people. Dave and I talked it over and decided it just wasn't the right time for me to own a horse.

Emailed the seller and told her that I loved the horse, but just couldn't make a purchase right now. She emails me back and tells me she'll take $500 off the price, will that help? Of course I went to see her again. I couldn't stop thinking about this horse for some reason. Dave and I talked some more, and I wrote the seller back and told her the good news.

Last Thursday, I had a pre-purchase exam done, and all went well. The vet made a comment about how he was sure the filly and I were going to be a good team that we already seemed bonded. I just love that horse!

I had planned to leave her with the seller until after this next weekend because I've got to go away for a few days, but the seller was anxious to get her off her property. The seller didn't really want to sell her, but had a lot of horses and needed to thin things out a little bit. She said that having Chenoa at her house was hard because she kept looking at her and knowing that she wasn't hers any more. It was a bit crazy, but we managed to get the Coggins and Vet certificate on time, and we moved Chenoa on Sunday.

She trailered well and is settling in to her new home very well. She's living with 24 hour pasture access and 24 hour stall access. She lives with a 4 yr old Thoroughbred mare, an 11 year old Belgian Draft mare, a 25 yr old pony mare, and a mini gelding. For some reason she hates the mini. She pins her ears and chases him off. Thankfully, the mares have all been really good together. No one is being aggressive and they are getting along well.

I've been to visit a couple of times, but haven't had a chance to work with her much yet. Tomorrow is my big day! I've got a babysitter in the afternoon, and I'll have a couple of hours to spend with my new baby. I'm very excited! I've groomed her a bit, and fed her lots of treats, but tomorrow will be the first day I really get a chance to start working her.

My current plan is a Natural Horsemanship focus. I really like Pat Parelli's stuff, but I have read some John Lyons, and many others and plan to use my own little training program, but all with a Natural focus. I would love to be in a position to feel comfortable starting her very lightly under saddle this Fall, giving her the winter off from under saddle work, and then really starting her under saddle in the spring. It is going to be really interesting to see how I manage my kids, husband, part time job, dogs, house, and training a baby horse. I think I'm going to need a way to make more hours in a day.

Tomorrow's plan is lots of grooming, lots of leading around, lots of touching, patting, working with her hooves, and starting some basic yield from pressure stuff. I can't wait!