New blog.

Not sure if anyone of you are interested...But I have started a new blog with what has been consuming my life for the past few months.
We bought a house at auction that we are having moved to our farm! So I decided to start a blog to help me remember the good, the bad, and the ugly moments of this process. I'm playing catch up in the posts...but hopefully everything will be written down in time.


here is the link.

http://moveitonupmoveitonout.blogspot.com/

super dumb title...I honestly was at a loss of what to call it.

AND the layout is super boring. I will make a header soon enough and spruce it up a bit...

It's worth a shot.

My old man horse, Pistol has heaves. Usually changes in the season trigger his episodes and it is heartbreaking to be able to hear him breathing from across the yard. The first nice day of the year I got out of my pickup and I could just hear his wheezing breaths and it about made me cry. He is probably the best trained, and most reliable horse in our pasture so it sucks to see him suffering. So it is back to his medicine in his grain. I had called the vet and he said that if it ever gets really bad, he will give us some steroids to try.
In addition to the weather actually being nice, we had put out a new bale to the ponies and it didn't really seem that bad, but it also may have had an affect on Pistol's breathing. 9 times out of 10 he has his face buried in the middle of the bale, and that really isn't' the best thing for his breathing.

 So I started reading up on Cinch Net Slow Feeders by Cinch Chix. From what I read it sounded like exactly what I needed. Not only does it help with horses with heaves, it helps with these issues

• horses that a prone to colic
• hard keepers
• senior horses
• ulcers
• herd aggression



Super easy to put on!

• reducing waste

  
Yes Please. I've got a few of these going on in my pasture. There have been studies done by the University of Minnesota that said these slow feed nets, help drastically reduce wasted hay, which helps save money, which means more money for more horse things.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't cringe when paying for the net. But after receiving it, and how easy it was to put on, I am happy with my decision to buy it.






At first the horses weren't really sure what to do. Well mostly Duke was unsure of things. He was concerned with what the hell was going on to his all you can eat buffet. So he chased around the other two because that is what you do in unfamiliar situations.

But in no time, everyone settled down and realized that the hay was just fine, the net wasn't going to eat them, and it was just a bit trickier to get at their food. But I haven't noticed them struggling one bit to get at the hay. A friend of mine did say that she had trouble with her horses losing weight after she started using hers, but so far, so good with my boys. Pistol was the first to dive in, unsurprisingly, and then George joined in and then finally Duke. 

Less than 24 hours later they had all put a pretty nice dent into the bale. I was actually surprised at how much they got accomplished in such a short time. The net is obviously holding up wonderfully too. I am always kind of skeptical about things like this, but so far I am VERY happy with the purchase. Any post purchase anxiety is gone too. Especially since right around the bale feeder, there isn't wasted money   hay scattered around. 

And finally I decided to include this image of the most beautiful horse in the entire world. Please don't all jump at once and throw cash offers to me... 

i'm jumping on the bandwagon.

Well why not copy this from a few people?

1) What discipline do you ride?  This is an interesting question. I’m really not pinned down to one specific discipline. I divide my time between riding both English and western.

2) If you had to switch your discipline which one would you choose?  I would love to try different things before I HAD to commit to switching to one specific thing.

3) Who is your equestrian idol?  Ian Miller I guess. Don’t really follow a ton of equestrians, but I always loved watching him ride when I was a kid.

4) Who is your least favorite equestrian? Anyone that is a douche.

5) Describe your dream horse (breed, color, markings…)  Big gray dappled thoroughbred gelding OR a palomino AQHA gelding with white stockings and a blaze, but I am VERY particular on the blaze. It can’t be too wide or two narrow.

Charlie Yellow was the perfect palamino

6) Post a picture of the horse you ride

Horse #1

Horse #2

7) What would you do if you were forced to stop riding? I would still have horses. I enjoy having them around. Their sounds and smells make me happy, as silly as that sounds. I’d also maybe look into learning to drive them. Maybe have a team of Shetland ponies to drag me around.

8) What was your best score at a show? Reserve high point champion for a dressage test I did with Piney. He went from getting last place in his tests in our first show, to kicking ass and taking names in our last show 2 months later.

My haul from my last show. I rode a couple horses I think.

9) What is your favorite horse blog? I can’t pick favorites. I enjoy a lot of blogs.

10) Group lesson or private? I enjoy private lessons, but I do like group lessons so I can show off ;-)

11) How high do you jump? Highest I’ve ever jumped was 2’6” and it. Was. Awesome.

12) What level dressage do you do? I was doing first level and everything before that.

13) What level eventing do you do?  I WISH I was doing eventing!

14) Cross country colors? What are they?  I don’t even know what I would pick!

15) What colors look good on your horse? George looks smashing in bright, royal blue. Pistol looks great in green. And Duke usually rocks black.

16) Opinions on Rolkur?  I don’t like it. which seems to be how everyone feels about it.

17) Last time you rode? Was it great?  YES! It was a very quick jaunt down the road on my boy George. It was the first time I had ridden him in my western saddle and he was more relaxed than usual. But Duke being a big old pain in the ass, decided he couldn’t go past the fenceline and was a big drama queen once he got past it. So it was a very quick ride because of his antics.

18) If you could spend a day with any equestrian who would it be? I’m not really sure. Maybe one of my blogger ‘friends’.

19) Helmet or no helmet? Opinions?  Welllllllllllllllll…… Every single time I ride George I strap on my helmet and crash vest. I still don’t know him all that well and I’m not 100% confident that I completely trust him yet. But when I ride Pistol I usually don’t wear a helmet. I know, I know. Accidents can happen to anyone and on any horse.

20) Who was/ is your first horse? My first horse was a palomino AQHA gelding named Good Time To Review aka Charlie Yellow. He was an awesome first horse, and I will always have a soft spot for quarter horses... but I appreciate the heart and try of a thoroughbred more. My quarter horses have been a bit more of a handful than my ottbs. 

Stuff.

The weather was absolutely beautiful today...

It was wonderful being able to work outside and in the barn and not have the air making my face hurt. I know it was a hard winter for a lot of you...but our winter was so bitterly cold. More so than normal. I think we may have broken a record for how many days we had that there was a windchill advisory. But weather like that makes us North Dakotans appreciate warm weather when we get it!

With the warm weather comes spring cleaning. I spent a lot of time in the barn the last two days.  

We scraped out all the manure and started cleaning up the pasture. It's now all piled up until more snow melts and we can move it back some more. I hate dealing with crap. Once more snow melts we will drag the pasture and breakup more of the crap. 3 horses can make a lot of it.

The last two days I have also spent a lot of time with George. I finally think he is starting to trust me. While he doesn't have the same snugly personality that Piney had, he has been more interested in hanging out with me... Probably because I have been bribing him to like me with treats... But still he has come a long way since I got him! He isn't so grouchy when I touch him. To be brutally honest here, I wasn't even so sure I even liked him  a few months ago. He was just so pissy all the time. But he has really come around the last few days. 

He is actually a pretty cool horse. Obviously he isn't the horse for everyone...mostly because he is an ass... But I am really happy that I have him. His friends from the his training barn told me that once he figures out that you are his person, he will love you and do whatever you want him to do. He just takes a while to figure out. Today when I was in the barn cleaning, he hung out with me and not once did he pin his ears... That in itself is huge. 

Also, his condition looks great. Obviously there is room for improvement, but from what he was, he looks at least 10 times better. Hubby mentioned that all of the horses could use a little work on their top lines, and that George could benefit from some  small work outs everyday so that he gains more muscle. So hopefully when it starts to dry up a bit more I can start riding or even just lunging that big gray monster.  I think that once he gets in shape he will look real nice. 

Now hurry up snow and melt!

P.s. This yeti needs to meet the furmanator... Like seriously, he has no problem growing a winter coat...and this was what grew under his winter blanket...

Spring might be here.

It is FINALLY going to be above freezing for more than one day! It's been a really long cold winter, I'm ready for warmer weather.

The horses all got trimmed today. I Went out a few hours before the farrier was due to stop so that I could put halters on the two red horses. Last time out farrier was out, we had to skip Pistol because he wouldn't let us catch him. It is super embarrassing when your best trained horse is an absolute ass infront of someone. When you have him on a halter and when you are riding him, he is amazing....but you have to catch him. That is the tricky part. He was so good last summer, so I  thinking it might be his teeth again. If he wasn't such an awesome ride, we probably would get rid of him. 

Pistol was perfect for the farrier. He always is. Duke, danced around a little bit, he always does. But his feet were the best of the bunch. George was up next and he was almost perfect. Our farrier is also a certified equine massage therapist and was rubbing him a bit afterwards, it must have been a tight spot she rubbed because he looked like he was going to bite me, but he stopped himself. It's funny that he always acts like he wants to bite me and almost does, but then it's like a little light bulb goes off and he stops, and then basically punishes himself. It hasn't stopped him from biting other people, but he hasn't bitten me.

Pony was last. And she was the worst. She usually is the worst one. She actually kicked the farrier this time. I can't imagine how frustrating it would be to work on those little devils.

I've been doing spring cleaning in the barn. Urgh. The worst. So I went over to our trailer because I remembered I forgot to clean it out last time we hauled pony in it. When I went to the dressing room to get the broom the smell of all our tack in there made me want to load up and take the horses trail riding somewhere... Might be a bit too soon for that though...