Royal and Coco Go To The Doctor

I'm still recovering (I hope) from the Plague, albeit infuriatingly slowly. I even lost my voice for a few days. It didn't get to this point,

 But it was close.

Obviously I haven't done much with Royal lately, due to feeling like death warmed over. But last Saturday, he and Coco pony went to the vet to get their teeth done. Mother Nature was feeling particularly grumpy and sent us a snowstorm of light, fluffy snow the day before, which caused me to get stuck in the driveway and it took me and my sister two hours to get my car out.

The next day, we got Royal and Coco all loaded up without a problem and down the office 2-3 miles away (So convenient, I love it!). I had warned the vet ahead of time that Royal has a history of being able to hold his liquor well. He's always been the equivalent of the skinny guy who can drink all the big burly bikers under the table. He seemed a little antsy at first, but Coco handled the whole thing with his usual aplomb and Royal (thankfully) followed his lead. Coco went first, and he had a case of Old Horse Mouth. Dr. K thought he was about 30, and he's starting to lose his teeth. One even fell out during the procedure. He also had a wave, a couple hooks and sharp points, which was surprising to us. He didn't seem to have any problems eating or keeping weight on until the cold snap, so we didn't think he had any issues. Dr. K worked her magic, and while he still doesn't have the greatest mouth, he should have a lot less trouble now.

Next it was Royal's turn.

"I'll just make myself invisible."

First we had to get some photos for his Coggins and then we decided to try the normal amount of sedation, as he's stood around so well for Coco's. And whadda know, 1 cc of dorm and 2cc's of Ace and he was in LaLa Land. That has never happened. Ever. He's always had double to start with and frequently needed more, just to get him to the point where he seemed safe to work on. Nope, not this time. We theorized that it was probably because of the environment. At the old barn, everyone had their teeth 'n sheath done on the same day, which meant that horse were going in and out and here and there and whinnying and carrying on, and it was always tenuously controlled chaos. Here, it was just him and Coco (who was snoring for quite a while) in a completely non-changing environment. So, nothing to get upset about, and by the time the power tools were busted out, he was too out of it to care.

His mouth was relatively good. He had some points, a slight wave, and a small hook in the back, but otherwise looked fine. He got a little bothered when Dr. K worked on his premolars, but his only reaction was to raise his head and lean back a bit. Other than that, no issues.

Seriously. I've never seen him like this. He was so sleepy that the vet cleaned his sheath in the stocks, and has still a little unsteady afterwards. I even had to walk him around the clinic driveway to get him awake enough to travel home. We got home safely... and the rig got stuck in the snow by the driveway. The thing about fluffy snow that when it packs, it packs hard and slippery and offers no traction. So after much effort, where there was an SUV hooked up to the back of the trailer trying to pull it and the truck out of the fluff, we got the rig out, but the trailer ended up having to stay on the side of the driveway for the night. It got moved the next day back to it's usually spot where it will stay until winter leaves and take its snow with it.

After their adventure, Royal and Coco seem a lot better, especially Coco. Now we know we'll have to watch him like a hawk for any weight loss or eating issues, but he's doing pretty well for an old guy. Royal still dribbles his grain a bit, but not as much. I haven't tried a bit at all, but it'll be interesting to see if he feels different.

I still can't get over how sleepy he got. Environment is huge with these sensitive horses.

Notes From The Infirmary

I'd like to say the recent lack of posts was due to many awesome adventures in places that are not cold and being crushed beneath mounds of snow. But in reality, I've been sick with the flu and now the Cold From Hell.

It all started last Thursday, when I got the fevers and muscle aches. In some ways, it was good that I have no beau or paramour as I would have been all

Needless to say, I haven't done much with Royal lately. It's also been pretty cold lately, so that also puts a damper on any plans. But we had some nice rides, and lots of undemanding time.

Still, I will be very happy when I can breathe properly again.

We Are So Not Going To Sochi

At least not in ice skating.

This past week was interesting. It's been snowing on and off all week, so I (foolishly) hoped that the snow would provide a nice cover for the glare ice and give us a nice space to ride. And I was sort of right. Tuesday we rode in the front, and Royal was full of beans. He held it together pretty well at the walk as we steadily tramped out a "trail/rail" about the size of a small dressage arena, but as soon as we started to trot, I could feel his life come up and I just let him canter. He was light on his feet and balanced as we scooted around, and still held on to his brain pretty well. We cantered for a while before he dropped back down to the trot, snorting and sighing. Same thing the other way, only he didn't canter as long. He seemed pretty happy for the opportunity to boogie.

Thursday was a different story. I decided to try riding down to the Demonic Barn again, and at first he did very well. There was a truck that seemed very lost as it went up and down the road veeeeeeeeeery ssssssllllllloooooooooowwwwwwwllllllllyyyyyyyyy. Royal is fine with vehicles as long as they behave like normal vehicles, either going normal speed or stopped. The truck creeping past us 3 or 4 times was not normal, and he started to get a bit worried. He snorted a bit at the Demonic Barn and the Sheep of Death, but otherwise behaved himself. However, it was very cold and windy and by the time we got home, Royal was both very cold and cranky and spooky. There was something going on in the neighbor's yard that he did NOT approve of, and he wasn't very interested in eating. I wondered he still had some ticklish feet.

Friday I resolved help him get all his excess energy out. I played with him OnLine, and he was a bit more cautious than usual. I tried playing with him out in the back, but there was still too much ice, so we moved up to the front. The Bloks I had set up in a Weave pattern were still frozen into place, so I ask Royal to do a figure-8 around two of them. It was going fine, until both of Royal hind legs slid out the right in a spectacular fashion and he landed on his butt. He popped right back up and didn't seem any worse for wear, but the session pretty much ended there, apart from asking him to trot around so I could see if he was limping. He wasn't, but I gave him a couple of grams of bute just to be sure.

Yesterday, I rode again and he seemed okay, if stiff. I let him walk for a long time until I could feel him loosen up and start swinging through his back. Trotting also helped quite a bit, but when I asked him to stretch, he was crooked to the left when we went either direction. I just played the Game of Contact and slowly took the contact on the left until he took it. It took some repetition, but by the end, he stretched down evenly on both reins. But this confirms my suspicion that he's due for a chiropractic adjustment. It'll probably have to wait until March or April after he gets his teeth done, but I figured his hips were troubling him this winter when he started resting his right hind a lot. I'll have to get some names from the vet, but we'll get Royal all fixed up.

This Will Probably Be Interpretted As An Anti-Helmet Post

"Self," I said to myself, "it's been a while since we've written a helmet rant, hasn't it?"

Self considered this and agreed. "It has been a while. Why is that?"

"Well, we've been busy. And we haven't felt like it."

"Do we feel like it now?" ask Self.

"I suppose so." I said.

***

So Lendon Gray posted this on her Facebook page:

and then there is the official Parelli opinion on helmets:"Personally speaking we feel very uncomfortable wearing helmets because it affects our balance and perceptiveness." In listing the "torture" equipment seen in stallion sheds, "equipped with chains, whips, hobbles, helmets and flak jackets." And from a letter posted onlinefrom[sic] the Parelli team, "The reason you do not see our people wearing helmets is because we try to teach people that rather than be brave because they are wearing a helmet to protect them, they would be better off not riding until their horse is behaving safely.
People have called us brave for not wearing helmets, but we say they are a lot braver than we are. We would not get on their horse until we had addressed the issues that cause it to behave in unsafe ways." And no comment that I have seen at least after Linda Parelli was knocked unconscious when her own horse fell on her.
HOWEVER you can buy an extra special Parelli helmet cover from their website, for those of you brave enough to ride your unsafe horses.

I struggle with how to respond to this. I could start out by pointing out that in no place in any of the quotes above does it say that helmets are bad. Or that people shouldn't wear them. Or that people who wear helmets are bad rider solely because they wear helmets. I could point out that it merely says that they would prefer that helmets not be the first defense, so to speak, in terms of protecting yourself from injury. That your helmet won't save you from everything. That if your horse seems to think there are ninjas hiding in the corner, it may be best to not ride that day. I could point out that there are a number of Parelli Professionals who wear helmets regularly and have not had their star ranking pulled or downgraded. I could point out that I have ridden with multiple Parelli Professionals, while wearing a helmet, and nary an anti-helmet comment was said. I could point out that people have taken lessons from Pat or Linda Parelli, while wearing a helmet, and everything was fine. Copacetic. Peachy keen even.

I could point that that, until recently, you did not have to wear a helmet in pure dressage or the dressage phase of USEF recognized eventing competitions. That you still do not have wear helmets in any dressage competition at the FEI levels. I could point out that it took until 2006 for approved helmets to be mandatory for showing over fences. I could point out that you don't have to wear a helmet in pretty much any breed or western discipline if you are over 18. I could also point out that nobody has (to my knowledge) accused the USEF or FEI of being anti-helmet.

I could point out that being anti-helmet and anti-mandatory-helmet are two completely separate positions. I could point out that not being a helmet evangelist does not necessarily mean one is anti-helmet. I could point out that it is possible to be committed to wearing a helmet and still not think that helmets should be made mandatory (I myself happen to hold both positions). I could point out that nobody, least of all the Parellis, has advocated banning helmets from competition. I could point out that nobody, least of all the Parellis, has advocated banning the sale of helmets. I could point out that everyone is free to wear a helmet whenever they want (even in competitions where they are not required (because those still exist (how anti-helmet!))), and no one, least of all the Parellis, has said that they should not be free to do so. I could point that there is a fundamental difference between "I don't think X should be compulsory" and "I think X is a bad thing and anyone who does X is a bad person."

 Or I could simply post some pictures of Linda Parelli in a helmet.

 

From Linda Parelli - Fan Page

From Linda Parelli - Fan Page

From Linda Parelli - Fan Page

From Linda Parelli - Fan Page

I know! How anti-helmet! Won't someone think of the children?

Tickle In The Feet

"Sometimes, when I have had less exercise than usual, I have felt so full of life and spring that when John has taken me out to exercise I really could not keep quiet; do what I would, it seemed as if I must jump, or dance, or prance, and many a good shake I know I must have given him, especially at the first; but he was always good and patient.
"Steady, steady, my boy," he would say; "wait a bit, and we will have a good swing, and soon get the tickle out of your feet." Then as soon as we were out of the village, he would give me a few miles at a spanking trot, and then bring me back as fresh as before, only clear of the fidgets, as he called them. Spirited horses, when not enough exercised, are often called skittish, when it is only play; and some grooms will punish them, but our John did not; he knew it was only high spirits."
-Black Beauty, Anna Sewell

The Cold Week took its toll on everyone. The horses were cranky and crabby, as was everyone else. I discovered a nifty way to unfreeze the spigot: it took some trial and error, but I balanced it between the spigot and a pipe with the nozzle pointing at the spigot. Left it there for a couple of minutes, and when I came back, no spigot-sicle!

Obviously I didn't do much with Royal. Neither of us a particularly fond of cold, and it can be dangerous to do to much physical activity in freezing cold. It did fluctuate from negatives to single digits to teens. I couldn't feel much of a difference, to be honest. Once it gets past a certain point (mid-teens for me), it's just cold. Maybe I could feel the difference from 0 to -50, but not to the extent I could feel the difference between 0 to 50.

The first day I could do anything with Royal was Saturday, but on Friday he got the "tickle-in-the-feet" syndrome, and could not eat his grain normally. He'd take a bite, then spook at the hay bales, a bird, a horse-eating-invisible-squirrel, anything. Moving him around a bit helped, but not enough. So Saturday, we went out to the front to let him boogie for a bit and burn off some energy.

It helped. We played a bit with the figure-8 and hopping over some trees. He ate his grain like a normal horse and was no longer worried about the horse-eating-invisible-squirrel. He looks fabulous, weight wise. His ribs are still somewhat visible when he does a big theatrical sigh, but otherwise he looks great.

Coco the pony had some trouble, though. The cold was not kind to him, he's starting to have some teeth troubles, and he doesn't like to fight for a spot at the hay bales. There's plenty of space around the hay, but since everyone was so crabby, he just didn't eat enough and dropped quite a bit of weight. So now he has his own little paddock (which I can't upload pictures of, for some reason) with as much hay as he wants and a bit of SeniorGlo every day. He and Royal will visit the Tooth Fairy soon, so hopefully we'll get the tooth situation straightened out. So far, he's been pretty happy. He's been eating his hay well, and knows when it's grain time and practically bounces up and down when he sees it coming. He's on the mend.

It's been fairly warm the past few day. We got some snow on Sunday, which I hoped would provide a nice cushion over the glare ice. Unfortunately, it didn't and the back paddock and big field were as slippery as ever, but the front is still nice. We carved out a little ring close which is mostly ice free. I'm getting a little more particular about posture and not letting him bounce around shaped like a llama. He's getting batter about it, but old habits are hard to break.

Today we went for a walk on the road. As usual, we try to make it to the Sheep of Death farm, and at first it went well. However, as we approached the Sheep of Death, he lost his mind over the nondescript light gray barn and equally nondescript light gray mailbox in front of it. He just completely shut down and refused to move in any way, snorting and blowing at the barn he walked past all summer and fall long without incident. Why? I don't know. Maybe the gray looked weird against the snow. Maybe he saw something in the woods beyond the barn. Maybe Satan and his demons were having a rave in there. Whatever the reason, I ended up having to get off and play with him on the ground, trying to help him rediscover his brain. We eventually got past the Sheep of Death (he was fine with them, by the way), and after I got back on, slowly inched our way back and forth towards the Demonic Barn. There was a lot of circling and pooping and chewing on the bit and frenetic stretching, and I'm sure the sheep and their people thought we were absolutely nuts, but after about a half an hour, I got him to walk semi-calmly past the Demonic Barn, if a little quickly. We made it home without further incident, and I let him mosey around the front ring to clear his mind. There was a lot of sighing and snorting.

I'll try to get us back to the Evil Area soon, but it's going really cold again, with a few days in the single and negative digits again. So, it may be a while. We have to survive the next cold snap and dream of warmer days in the future. Soon, but not soon enough for me.

Geez, It's Cold! GEEZ!

Times like these are when I start to question my sanity. When I start wondering why anyone settled in this place, and chose to stay here. Why I'm staying here.

Last week was a challenge. Days of above-freezing temps led to lots of snow melting, and eventually the temperatures dipped below freezing. Which meant glare ice everywhere. The "arena" Royal and I had tracked out? The lower half is pretty solid ice, with the top part not being much better. We got a bit of snow, which helped slightly, but you don't have to go too far before hitting ice. The road is slightly better, but we still have the same problem as before: close to home is fine, but you run into more glare ice as you go up the hill. The good news is that the front field is a bit higher, so not a lot of ice there, and the parts that are ice are easily avoidable. Royal and I played a bit up there on Saturday.

We can create a pretty good track from walk/trot stuff that has reasonable traction. I prefer to use that area for jumping normally, but the snow has made it a nice flatwork area. Which we will hopefully be able to use eventually, because on Sunday, it got cold. Like bone-crunching cold.

The projected highs have either been in the single positive digits or the negative. Combine that with lots of wind and I'm ready to pack it in and move south. Or west. Anywhere but here.

And it doesn't help when things go wrong. Yesterday it never got out of the negatives, but I went up to see Royal anyway and wanted to give him and the other horses lots of Pity Cookies to help keep their spirits up. Imagine my shock when I go to give Royal his grain in the morning (when it was -8 without factoring in wind chill) and see both gate hooks (the fences are two lines of electrical wire/rope) lying on the ground. The top one was still attached to the line, which was completely slack as far as I could see down the line, and the bottom line was no longer attached to the hook. Which was not good. At all. We do have problems with the lines stretching in the wind, but sometimes it looks like a wild animal hit the line, got shocked, panicked, and broke through. I'm not sure what broke the top line, but it must have happened overnight, and I'm guessing one of the horses saw the top line was down and stepped on the bottom and broke it. Luckily all five were in the paddock when I arrived and looked okay.

I had brought Royal's food with me and hoped I could just let him eat while I fixed the fence. I restrung and tightened what I could of the top line, but Coco wanted to come with, so he stepped under it and followed us. I had to grab my spare 12 foot and put him back, but Gabby decided to join the fun and she got out too. So I chased her back in (and Coco away from the gate), retied the bottom line, and put that back in place. I then started tramping around the fence line to see where the break was. It was pretty far down, but it broke hard, taking a lot of the insulator hooks with it (which makes me think it was a wild animal, because those had been holding the line fine). I had to keep going to find the other half of the break, and bring it back, wrapping it around some of the insulators. I eventually made it back and retied the line with a quadruple knot just to be safe. Now, I had unplugged the fence so I could handle it, and Coco figured that out. I looked back at the horses just in time to see him squeeze between the lines to get to Royal's grain. I ran across the field yelling "COCO! NO! BAD PONY!" which was a stupid thing to do, considering how icy it was. Coco managed to get a mouthful or two before going back through the lines. Royal decided to follow him and broke through the top line, separating it from the hook. So I had to retie the line to the hook, plug the fence back in, get Royal, bring him back to his grain, and baby-sit him until he finished. And then I had to do the task I had originally planned on do, which was chipping off the ice layer a few inches above the water that is formed by rapidly heating and cooling air that passes above the heater. By the end of it, I was cold and coughing up a storm from breathing all the cold air, so no one got any Pity Cookies then.

After warming up inside the house, I went back out to recheck the water, and saw that I hadn't replugged the fence all the way. The same cord is also connected to the heater, so it wasn't operating at full capacity and a thin layer of ice had formed on the water. I plugged everything in fully, broke up the ice, and when back inside because I was coughing so much. I came out again later, finally gave everyone the Pity Cookies, and chucked all the ice chunks out so the heater wouldn't have to work so hard to warm up the water. That seemed to help a lot when I checked it one last time before I left, because it had reached a nice temperature then.

Coco say he's sorry about the whole escaping thing, and he would really like a cookie.

I would really like for winter to be over now.

Returning To The Land Of The Living

Well, 2013 got off to a terrible start didn't it?

I'm moving on as best I can for now. I'm not entirely sure if I'll try applying for vet school again this year or not. There's a very teeny-tiny chance that Wisconsin could come through for me, but I highly doubt it. In the meantime, I'm making plans for the coming year and trying to get back to normal.

It's been a nice week, weather wise. Mid-to-high thirties all week, so Royal and I have been out doing stuff.

Playing and riding in the snow has been good for him, I think. Instead of schlepping around like he normally wants to do, he has to pick up his feet and start using some different muscles than he's used to. I've tried to be very careful in how we're going about this; given that he had so much time off, I'm trying to slowly increase our time spent in the snow, other than when he decides to go running around on his own time. So far we're up to about 15 minutes walking and 5 minutes trotting at a time. We've also gone for walks on the dirt road, which is exciting and hair-raising. The road close to the house is fine, but turns into glare ice when we start to go up the hill, so we have to stick really close to the side and occasionally go tramping through the snow in the shoulder. I imagine that's what a passage feels like.

But Royal would often act cold on our rides, so I went down to Dover Saddlery on Tuesday and got a light blue quarter sheet. It was a hit with the cats.

Royal also seemed to like it too, after I go it all figured out. At first it was really moving around, and being blown around by the wind, but the best configuration appears to be having it between my legs and the saddle (holding the front in place) and having the tail cord under the tail (holding the back in place). 

Sorry about the crappy quality. One day I will have a cell phone that takes good video.

Anyway, he apparently felt so good about the sheet that he turned into Philosopher Royal. Philosopher Royal likes to stop and stare into the distance for no reason, but is happy to be gently nudged on again. Except for the time he took off briefly, but he was easy to stop and we resumed our walk.

Now of course, it's cold again, so I may not be able to do stuff with Royal for a while until it warms up later in the week. 2+ months to go until spring.

Rejected. Again

What the rejection e-mail says:

What the rejectee reads:

Crap.

Happy 2013!

We made it! The world is still here (Take THAT, people-who-don't-understand-how-calanders-work-and-think-ancient-people-were-magic), and it's still winter. I survived the holiday craziness despite have the cold from hell, and would really like to please start doing stuff with my horse again if the weather can find it in its metaphorical heart to cooperate. I know this weekend is supposed to be nice, but if that could last for the rest of winter, that would be super fantastic.

Anyway, 2013! The odometer has kicked over and it's time to assess last years *New Year's Resolutions(tm)* and tentatively consider new ones.

For myself are:
-Cook at least 1 meal per week, something that involves mixing, or stirring, or grilling, or baking. I absolutely hate cooking and find it much easier to get something on the way home or stick something in the microwave, but I'll try some new stuff this year. Sorta-kinda successful. It went really well for a while, but after a string of failures in the spring (I may have succeeded in turning chicken into rubber), I kinda gave up for a while. I've been trying again, but I think I'll always be "cooking challenged." <sigh>
-Begin running in the spring/summer. I tried this last year and between the bizarre spring and horrid summer, never got the energy up for it. And I can't afford a gym membership or treadmill, so it's outside or nothing. Hopefully this year the weather cooperates. Complete failure. I tried, but the weather went absolutely insane again this year, and I was never able to go beyond a couple of days. I really want to run as a habit, but I just can't seem to get beyond the first week.

For me and Royal
-Compete in the Starter division at the spring Otter Creek Horse Trials, and finish with a score. Nope. Too close to finals, and was able to go to other local schooling shows instead. Not a complete failure.
-Compete in the Beginner Novice division at the Roebke's Run Horse Trials and at Steepleview Horse Trials, and finish both with a score. Fail on the former, complete and total success on the other! I didn't have the finances for Roebke's Run, but was able to get it together for Steepleview and we not only finished with a score, we brought home our very ribbon from a recognized HT!
-Take at least one cross-country jumping lesson. Sorta-kinda fail. We was able to do some xc schooling in Bayfield, but no one was yelling at me about my leg or hand positions. I would have loved to have gone to the Schooling Days, but it fell on the same weekend as the Tour Stop. So, maybe this year.
-Go trail riding more! Success! We forayed up and down the dirt road and to a local park, and even faced down the Sheep of Death more than once. I wasn't able to get to the park as much as I wanted, since extensive work on the bridge that runs through started mid-summer and didn't end until recently, but I want to get there more and trailer to the local state park a few times this year.
-Compete in at least 2 schooling shows. Success and then some! We made it four (Pipe Opener, Carriage House, schooling HT, and Hunt Cup). None ended in complete disaster and we had a good time at the PO, CH, and HC.
-Self-assess to Level 3 in On-Line, Freestyle, and Liberty and be well into Level 4 by the end of the year. Almost there. I would say we're solid L3 Online and Freestyle, and I'm not sure about Liberty. We keep progressing, but I've stopped putting level labels on them. We've just having fun.

So, a mixed bag. Honestly, I'm a little disappointed. I really wanted to make it to Otter Creek and Roebke's Run, and I'll do everything I can to make sure we get there this year. But what else do I want to do this year?

For me:
-Take up running. No, really. For real this time. I hope.
-Figure out how to use an "exotic" piece of cooking equipment. Crockpot/Slow Cooker? Panini Press? Wok? Who knows? I'll figure something out, even if it involves writing the names of various types of cooking equipment on slips of paper and throwing darts at them.
-Finish my crochet hat, start and finish the earband, and make something challenging, like socks or mittens.

For me and Royal:
-Go to Otter Creek's Spring HT in either the Starter or Beginner Novice division and finish with a score.
-Go to Roebke's Run Summer HT in the BN division and finish with a score.
-Go to Otter Creek's Summer HT in the BN division and finish with a score.
-Go to Steepleview's HT in the BN division and finish with a score.
-Keep road riding and trailer to the local state park at least four times
-Take a proper xc lesson
-Swim in Lake Superior again!

All in all, I hope I have a more successful year in 2013. I lost so many core institutions after May/June when I graduated from college and had to take an involuntary leave of absence from the job I'd held since I was sixteen (not due to anything I did; there's a majorly annoying and pointless contract dispute with a different group that means no one in my department is working now), and I felt lost and directionless for a while. Now my life is slowly getting on track again and I feel a lot better. I feel this could be a better year for me.

Speaking of which, long time readers may remember that I got rejected from vet school almost exactly a year ago. I did a file review and made most of the suggested improvements (at least the ones I could) over the summer/fall. Still, the applicant pool changes every year, and I'm so scared to get my hopes up. I'm somewhat embarrassed to report that my heart races every time I check my e-mail and there's a new message.

It's mostly spam/unimportant stuff, though. :/

I would like to stop freaking out about it. I worry about getting the big "R" letter again, although they do try to soften the blow.

Happy 2013 everyone!

Our Pens Have Turned Into Inksicles! Our Assets Are Frozen!

Water freezes. It's supposed to when conditions are right. Sometimes this causes problems, as the conditions are right but the situation is not.

Early this week, I noticed the water in the trough was low. No problem, I thought as I fetched the hose from the garage. This had been the home of the hose, as the garage is attached to the house. Ergo, the garage is kept at an above-freezing temperature and the water in the hose remains in liquid form. Not that cold and fateful day. Apparently, the temperature of the garage was just cold enough to create a hose-sicle, from which no water would flow. I tried using a hair dryer to warm up the hose, but to no avail. Eventually I gave up, and we decided to store the hose inside the house for a while to melt our hose-sicle, and I carted buckets of water to the trough. The hose-sicle was especially stubborn, and refused to thaw until the next morning.

That should have been the end of it. We should have been able to simply hook our former hose-sicle to the spigot and filled up the trough. But no. Now the spigot decided to become a spigot-sicle, despite my sister aiming the blow-dryer at it for a good five minutes.

Early afternoon, I decided to try to persuade the spigot-sicle to thaw. Armed with the hair dryer and warming ambient temperatures, I turned the handle of the spigot-sicle as far as it would go. Nothing. The hair dryer was turned to high, and I waited. After a little bit, water started to drip, and that drip turned turned into a trickle. I yelped with joy and bolted back into the house, grabbed the hose, and dragged it out to the spigot as fast as I could. I was pleased to discover that water was physically able to flow through the hose, and unraveled in the direction of the trough. I triumphantly watched it fill up.

The horse, however, had been watching the whole time, and all of the gave me a look that clearly said, "You humans are so weird." And went back to eating their hay.

Can winter be over now?

The Lakehorse Day 2 and A New Kitten

In the complete opposite vein as the last post...

My sister found the pictures she took of day 2 of our swim in Lake Superior; the day we actually went swimming (instead of wading). It was still fairly wavy but we were still able to swim and confuse some kayakers.

The second to last photo is of us actually swimming! Keep in mind, this was after we'd had one of the best x-c schools ever, so I was really on Cloud 9 that day. Royal seemed pretty proud of himself too.

And, yesterday, we got a kitten for Christmas!

He was a stray at the Animal Humane Society in St. Paul, so we had to wait for him to go off his holding period and get neutered before we could bring him home yesterday. So far he's one of the most friendly and snuggly kittens ever, and we have tentatively dubbed him Patches. Our cat Jitterbug still isn't too sure about our new addition, but so far there haven't been any fireworks.

Kitty!

Now for my favorite Christmas song.

When It Snows, Ain't It Thrillin'

No, not really.

Last weekend's snowstorm left 16 inches of snow on the ground when all was said and done. Which brought up a series of Winter Problems. Such as:

1. Shoveling a path to the trailer
2. Shoveling a path to the water tank
3. Shoveling a path to the water spigot.
4. Making sure the water heater is working
5. Making sure the horses have their blankets on and they are dry underneath
Etc.

I made the mistake of wearing my winter paddock boots the day after the storm and got some very soaked jeans for my foolishness. Now it's tall winter boots or bust. I also have upgraded to some very nice winter gloves and so far they've been worth the expense, because it was very cold for a couple of days.

Monday

Tuesday. That's a minus sign in front of the 2

 Between the weather and my work schedule, I didn't play with Royal much. I'm not sure how well my light will work in the snow and I was too cold to find out. Of course it got warmer mid-week so a good portion of the snow melted, so it might work then. The other option is to plow a little ring in the back paddock and use a headlamp at night. Or dig out the trailer and trailer to an indoor arena for an hour or so. The winter is young and we have plenty of time to figure things out.

Meanwhile Royal continues to do pretty well. He and the rest of the herd have figured out the big haynets and eat from them without much fuss. Occasionally there's a bit of ear-pinning and face-making, but usually there's peace. And Operation Reverse Weight Watchers is very successful! Tonight I couldn't see and could barely feel Royal's ribs, and his topline is slowly filling in. I would say we've got around 50 lbs. to go before he's at his ideal winter weight and then we can start backing off the Cool Calories a bit and just see how he does on the Senior Glo. Or, keep the Cool Calories and switch him to a grain with fewer calories but more vitamins and minerals. At this point I'm reluctant to change anything too drastically, but all our hard work is paying off.

He still likes his blanket. Everytime I take it off to groom him/check for rubs, he looks at me like "Stop that. Put it back." The horse wants what he wants.

And, for no reason, here's an Animaniacs Christmas song, Enjoy!

 

Let There Be Light/Snow

It's been another quiet/uneventful week for me and Royal, with one exception.

The poor-girl version of an indoor arena. I went to a hardware store a couple of weeks ago and got a tripod halogen light so I can play with Royal at night. My brother-in-law got it sent up and, 200 feet of extension cords later, we have light. And it's pretty bright too.

When I have them adjusted right, they can light up pretty much the whole back pasture. There's a good amount of glare, but if I make the tripod as tall as possible and turn the lights outward, it's not bad. I was only able to get them set up before I got too cold, so I haven't had a chance to do stuff with Royal with them, but he ate his grain in tripod light and didn't seem too bothered.

So I was unable to get up there the rest of last week until yesterday, and we had a pretty lively session OnLine. His hind legs were stocked up again, and he was full of energy. I'm working more on his responsiveness, and he keeps getting better. I'm hoping to really work on our Freestyle riding this winter and the weather looks to be helping me out. We got more snow today in a blizzard than if feels like we got all last year. Witness poor Sweetie.

We might actually get a real winter! I'm excited and scared.

Winter Blechs

It's been a while since I've written about Royals' and my hijinks, but in the meantime, my hours at my jobs have sharply increased. It'll be good for my wallet (Hello Smart Pad/trailer repairs/2013 season!), but I've had a lot less time with Royal lately. And the weather has had more personalities than usual. While my attitude towards the summer heat was

My attitude towards the descent into winter is more

Wake me up when it's over.

Royal and I have had some good sessions, though. He was a star in our Contact session, taking the contact and even offering to canter. We've also continued playing with one-rein ground driving and the Weave pattern. But honestly, it's hard to accomplish much. I have to make sure he doesn't get too overheated and sweaty, otherwise it takes him forever to dry off. It may be a good idea for me invest in a nice fleece cooler, but right now my main strategy is to keep our sessions under 30 minutes and repetitively easy. I'm still trying to teach him new things, but right now the next steps in our progression involve the 45-foot line or bridleless riding, neither of which are very do-able in our circumstances. I'll do what I can, but I wish the weather would just pick a season and get it over with.  It may be a very quiet winter.