Yesterday was bad. It was a cold day and I knew it was only getting colder. I was dreading doing chores. On my way to the barn I got a phone call that the horses had been brought inside already so I didn’t have to worry about that.


When I got to the barn I figured it wasn’t really THAT cold once I was in the barn and opted to not put on my carhartt overalls. I figured that I had leggings on under my jeans, and about 4 pairs of socks, and 3 pairs of gloves, AND a sweater AND a fleece AND my carhartt jacket AND a hat I would be fine. Well it was still a bit chilly but it wasn’t that bad. As I was walking through the barn I noticed the first thing that made me mad

Piney’s blanket is ripped to shreds. I’m pissed. I know it’s his fault for letting a horse do that to him but still. I loved that blanket and now it’s pretty much ruined and I don’t really have money laying around to buy a new one. Especially since we are looking at houses (more about that later!) but then I looked down and saw this.

I have no idea how he did that but it made me even more mad. In the almost 2 years I’ve had him he’s never once had a scrape or cut. I’m blaming that stupid little red horse he’s pastured with but I’m probably just pointing fingers. I sent the picture to the barn owner and asked what to do since it’s so freakishly cold I can’t really hose it off. She told me to smear some yellow goo on it and she’d take a look when she got home. When I worked at the race track and a  horse had a cut or scratch on his body, they used to tell me "it's a long way from his heart" to which i'd reply "but it's close to mine!" totally the case here, I almost started crying (but mostly because I'm pissed about the blanket).
 He wasn’t sore and he wasn’t swollen anywhere. And he let me touch it without kicking my head off like he usually does when I touch his legs. I then spent some much needed quality Piney time and just walked him around the arena and spent a few minutes talking to him. I know they don’t understand a word I say but it makes me feel better.

This was the temperature when I left the barn. Hard to read but it says -20. Yes MINUS TWENTY. With the windchill it was -30. Today is colder with a windchill of -35 and maybe even -45. If the windchill was -45 and the temperature rose 100 degrees we’d only be 55 degrees. We were in vegas for our honeymoon last week and I almost punched a guy waiting in line behind us that was complain how cold it was in Vegas this time of year it was 45 that day…if he only knew how bad it could be. Plus the million inches of snow we’ve gotten this year and we are getting two more inches today…AWESOME….that was sarcasam…

But all those bad things happened and made me mad but this face is what made it all worthwhile. He was a snuggle bear yesterday. And he knows how to pull on the heart strings. When I put him back in his stall he turned around to watch me leave, then he continued to watch me. when I got to the end of the barn he called out to me. he’s a sweetie.

And I did get an award from Wolfie over at  what was I thinking.....? I just need to sit down and write it out! Thank you so much for thinking of me!!

I hate horses that are jerks

Any one have any tips to keep a horse from eating another horses blanket?


Seems that Piney’s awesome winter blanket isn’t able to hold up to the notorious fence/blanket/life ruiner that he’s now sharing a paddock with.

Earlier this week the barn owner came up to me and said “I hope you won’t kill me but I put Piney in with Rue and Daiski”. E’ffin great I thought. Rue and Diaiski are the bad boys of the barn.

Daiski is your classic ruined show horse. He went to the AQHA world show a few times. His body is shot and he just went crazy from the stress of being at that level of competition all the time. He doesn’t know how to be a normal horse and interact with them he also acts like a stud most of the time. He can be a douche bag to other horses. He is fun to ride though. Very smooth and well behaved…except out on the trail…he tends to become a bit nervous.

Rue was abandoned by his owners so he became property of the barn owner. He was young and un broke. He is still green and is ridden occasionally but he’s a pain in the ass. He is very playful and doesn’t understand that he plays way to rough for most horses. So he’s in the bad boy paddock. He understands to stay the hell away from Daiski since they’ve been together long enough. But he has a new playmate to torment. Piney…

Piney slowly works his way up the pecking order. When he first got to the barn he was in the paddock with the barn owners geldings. He did well there, until he started tormenting the owners favorite horse and the boss of the herd. Piney wasn’t letting him eat or drink water. So he got moved to a pen with a few of the boarders geldings. He did well there and quickly moved up to the boss of the herd and there weren’t any problems. He liked to keep his herd exercised so he free lunged them a few times a day. He never made them work very hard, he just liked to keep them walking in circles around him. I liked to think of him as the professional athlete turned fitness instructor. Well turns out he wasn’t letting one of his paddock buddies drink enough water and he coliced. That horse colic’s over anything but Piney got blamed...not that I wouldn’t do the same.

So he got downgraded to the bad boys pen. I hope he starts sticking up for himself soon. I go out there and always seem to find Rue biting on the butt of Piney’s blanket shaking it up and down. And now I have two small tears on both sides. That horse can destroy a tank if left alone with it long enough. He goes through fences so their pen is now majorly wired up with hot rope. I just want to know if there is anything I can put on piney’s blanket to keep that monster from eating it.

I started throwing chunks of snow at Rue when he would grab the blanket. I’m sure that isn’t the right way to do it. But I figured it wouldn’t hurt him. Just give him a bit of a “tap”. It’s not like I was using a sling shot and smashing ice chunks into him. I’m just frustrated that Piney is stuck with those creeps. He’s just run out of options of who he can be turned out with.

So if anyone that reads this has any tips or tricks to keep horses from eating other horses blankets I’d LOVE the input!

depression...

I’ve really been slacking on my posting. And heres the reason. I’ve been dealing with some depression issues that have kept me from almost everything I enjoy. I no longer enjoyed something I LOVE…Horses. It got to the point where I had Piney’s for sale ad written up and ready to be posted online. I decided it was time to get some help and that’s what I plan to do.


Its not something recent, it’s something I’ve been dealing with for a really long time. I’ve become so good at hiding it that I forgot what happy feels like. Horses were becoming a burden on me. I looked at them and they made me angry. Not angry enough to cause harm to them but I was angry because I was devoting so much time, money and effort into them and felt as though I wasn’t getting anything back. I don’t have time to ride so why am I killing myself over them?

Then I rode my horse and it felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I felt good inside. The barn owner/my riding instructor (she’s guiding me to people she knows who can help me deal with my depression) knew what was going on and encouraged me to just go for a quick ride last week. I tried to pull out an excuse. “I have to finish chores” I said. So She said “T will finish them for you! Go get your horse!” (T is teenaged helper at the barn). Then I said “I STILL haven’t changed my gullet in my saddle and he’s gotten fatter” so My riding instructor said “ride bareback”. And ride bareback I did. He did awesome and I felt good for the first time in a long time. Piney was great, a little lazy, but great. I love that when I’m up there I feel like he is taking care of me. Everything I’m worried about just goes down the drain and all I can think about is how awesome he is and how lucky I am to have found him. Even though he really did find me.

I rode for about 20 minutes, we did a lot of trotting. He is smooth and floaty. My riding instructor can’t believe how good he looks even when he is being lazy. She says that even when he is doing a slow “dog” trot he is over tracking more than any horse in the barn. I love his trot, I love that he doesn’t try to go faster than I ask him and I never have to pull him down and then fight to keep him at a slower pace. He’s just a good boy. And he is the best horse I could have ever asked for. I’m really glad I didn’t pull the trigger and post his ad. Not like horses are selling like crazy right now, but with my luck he would have been sold and gone.

I’m glad i’m going to start getting help and fixing myself…I've felt crappy for so long.