No words.

My little brother passed away last night. I have no words.

That's my boy.

Fancy pants ex-racehorse has been very sweet and almost cuddly lately.  After I blanketed Pistol the other night, George came up and put his head into my arms. Something he never does. He usually keeps his distance. He will let you pet him for about 5 seconds, but then he is on his way once he realizes you didn't come to catch him, and put him to work. He stood there letting me love up on him for a while. Not sure what is happening to him.

This morning I went to feed the horses their breakfast and take Pistol’s blanket off. I’ve been putting a blanket on the old man because I don’t want him burning all his energy to stay warm instead of keeping weight on.  The other two are naked, and will more than likely stay that way because they grow warm thick winter coats. George came up to me again and stood there while I scratched his head. Umm who are you and what have you done to my horse? I then asked him “are you a good horse or a bad horse?” He pinned his ears. I think he may have answered the question for me.

you win some, you lose some.

I am not really sure what is going on with my horse. And I’m not sure if I should be scared or thrilled. Yesterday, the hubby and I decided to go for a quick ride down the road. I have really wanted to ride George, but at the same time, I’ve been dreading it. We treated him for ulcers and his attitude got increasingly worse after we did that. And then he had his abscess, and then the weather sucked, and then I had a million other excuses as to why I couldn’t ride him. So I finally decided that now was as good as time as ever to try him out again.

The weather in North Dakota is a changin’. It’s getting colder but, thank the lord we don’t have any snow yet. So I suited up in my insulated riding breeches (amazing) and then my Mountain Horse Frost Rider boots (AMAZING! Go buy a pair today!!) and then some Under Armor, and some sweatshirts, and my Tipperary vest, and then a down filled North Face vest.  It was only about 34 degrees outside so it wasn’t THAT cold, but the wind in ND SUCKS since most of the corn has been harvested now.  And then I tromped outside warm as could be.

I got George and then at the last minute decided to ride in my western saddle. He hasn’t been ridden in a western saddle ever, but I figured now was as good as time as any.  I then hopped onto the struggle bus and tried to put my saddle up on his back in one graceful movement like you see the people in the movies doing. Nope. Fail. George is a big horse. But you know what? He is a patient horse. He stood there as I struggled to get the saddle on him, and then continued to struggle as I adjusted the girth. As I was tightening the girth, I expected him to take a chunk out of me. Nope, first time he just let it happen. His bridle went on without any drama, but then again, he has always been fantastic about bridling. I mean it isn’t his first rodeo.

I walked him around a bit. I don’t know why but I figured there would be some fireworks when he realized that the saddle he was wearing was like no other saddle he’d ever experienced before in his life. But no, he was fine. And then it was time to climb up. You know I’ve always wanted to just put my foot into the stirrup and then gracefully swing up. But there has never been anything gracefully about me getting in the saddle. Ever. I was still on the struggle bus, and realized that George must have grown a foot taller since I put the saddle on. I pulled myself into the saddle, and he just stood there and let it happen. He doesn’t walk off when you mount, which is great. I’d always heard horror stories about ottbs who walk off the moment they feel you in the stirrup. Not the ones I’ve ever ridden. I do like to tell people I trained them not to do that. But that is a bold faced lie.

George was a perfect gentleman the whole ride. well he DID have one moment where he was certain he couldn’t do something. We were trying to go up the ditch onto the road, and he was certain the tall grass was filled with horse eating snakes. He stood his ground, and kicked out his back right foot. Which is what he does when he is upset about doing something. I said forget it, and moved on to something else and then he was fine. With George you need to let him think he is in charge, and that he makes the decisions. If he encounters something he doesn’t want to do, move on to something else and then come back to what he didn’t want to do later. We came back to the scary ditch later, and he had no problems with it. Is this a good training mentality for all horses? No, I’m sure it isn’t. But if George gets it in his head that he ‘can’t’ he is just going to get stressed out, and then get increasingly more distressed until he reaches his breaking point and it is dangerous for all around. When he started kicking out I knew we needed to move on to something different. The rest of the ride was fantastic. He is pretty lazy, and has a nice walk to him. We actually walked home on an extremely loose rein. He wasn’t trying to rush home which was nice.

I am really impressed with George. To be honest, I was a little nervous about him this summer. The attitude he gave me, and the biting. It wasn’t cool. I wasn't sure he was going to be the horse for me. But he is really turning out to be a really great horse. (HA I say that after riding him like 5 times.) I love that he can sit for long periods of time and not be a nightmare to get on. I am lucky that all of our horses can sit around for long periods of time and then are just the same as the last time you rode them.

Speaking of horses… The new horse didn’t work out. We brought him back today. I hate that we had to bring him back, but he started bolting once you got off of him.  He was a fun little horse, but he just wasn’t going to work for us. He needs to do his job, and sitting around at our house, wasn’t going to do well for him. It’s pretty sad because he was starting to grow on me. But that’s the way it goes in the horse world right? If we had gotten him in the spring we may have been able to work out his problems. But seeing as how it’s dark 23 hours a day here, and it’s only getting colder and darker, the time we have to work with him is limited. And we wanted a finished horse, not a project horse. He was going to be a bit more of a project then we wanted. I am sad, but that’s the way it goes.

Don't get attached!!!

Okay so, I've put off posting this because well, I just kind of lost track of time. And now here it is, almost a week later and I still haven't posted.
If you are following me on Instagram you may have spotted this creature...

But I will talk about him a bit later... I like keeping you in suspense....

anywho...
Last Saturday we trailered up two red horses and went out to the sand hills, which is in the Sheyenne national grasslands state park. I LOVE riding there. In fact it's where I first fell in love with my very first horse Yellow. They had finished the 4 mile loop that they were working on earlier this year and it was awesome. A really nice little ride that took a little over an hour.
The red horses were fantastic. The weather was absolutely perfect. But I kind of wish I had brought the big gray horse of mine. I think he would have benefited form being out there. NEXT time for sure! I need to remember that even thought he was a racehorse, he is actually extremely well trained. I've heard from more than one person that the barn he trained at is very highly regarded for having highly sought after horses once they retire. Yes, George is a nutcase most times, but he is well behaved under saddle. I need to start using him more!!

Onwards we go to...
Picture time!



My favorite sign



Am I holding the reins correctly? Probably not...



I always ride the slowest horse.

When Pistol saw these cows, he perked up, and then zeroed in on them. I think he might have some cow experience in his past.



THESE EARS! and tiny forelock!!

I love this picture, my hair looks awesome.

Riding here is so beautiful!

 So anyways, I bet you are wondering about that bay horse with the funny white markings. Well here is his story. We saw him at the auction a few weeks ago. He belongs to a person my husband knows. He had gone through the ring, but was no saled, because the horse market sucks, and he was worth way more than what people were offering. So we tried him out at the auction. I rode him bareback down the aisles and he seemed like a pretty nice little horse. I say little because he is. I think he is about 14.2hh. George is 16.2hh. This horse is like a pony compared to George. The little bay gelding is a working horse with Peppy San Badger breeding. He was used on cattle, and in feedlots down in Texas. He has been given a job, and he is good at it. My husband has been looking for a horse that can be worked on a ranch so that he can go to brandings and ropings and other things like that (don't ask me what the proper terms are, because I really don't know what all goes on at ranches!!) This horse seemed to fit the bill. So we made some phone calls, and then arranged to pick him up, in Grand Forks at a gas station.

 

The horse seller just riding around at the gas station.
 

The next day, North Dakota, being North Dakota, decided to have 30+ MPH winds. So our plans to go back to the sand hills were crushed. We waited all day for the wind to die down before going out to play with the new horse. Well turns out the horse is a bit more "up" than we'd thought. He didn't buck, or rear, or do anything dangerous. But he was a pain to catch. The winds were probably not helping or the fact he hadn't quite settled in yet. We also had trouble finding tack to fit him. But we were able to tack him up, and ride him around a bit. He is a very forward horse. Again it could have been the winds. But he is a very responsive horse. You ask him, and he does it. Moves off leg pressure, neck reins, and has really nice breaks. But he was a bit crow hoppy in a few places.

The reason I said to not get attached is because we weren't sure if we are going to keep him. He might be better off going to a home that will use him and give him a job. But we will try him again and see if he settles down a bit more. He's already warmed up to us a bit more. (I've been feeding him cookies and I'm totally not supposed to because that's how you spoil horses according to everyone...)

 

shhhh don't tell anyone!

I wasn't really impressed with his looks at the auction...but he is pretty cute.

He is little, but I don't feel like a giant on him. (p.s. I have like 3 shirts, my crash vest, and then a down filled vest on so I look larger than normal up top) The stirrups were WAY too long for me too...

So we are making the decision this weekend/week if we are going to keep him around. Hubby rode him bareback last night and said he was great. I will let you know if he stays or goes...

Okay so If I didn't lose you in one of the last posts...I'm sure this one will...

Friday night was the fall horse auction. It’s the same auction place where we bought Pistol a few years ago. Before I went I had caught wind of 4 pregnant thoroughbred mares that were set to be sold loose. They were posted on Facebook as being in the “kill pen”. Which is a bit of an understatement, not everything sold loose goes to Canada or Mexico to be processed into food for human consumption.  Some people buy loose horses and turn them into riding horses, and often times the horses are traded.

I went to the auction with intentions of helping the hubby find a new horse. He wants a roping/ranch horse and auctions can be great places to find horses for a bargain.  I mean we bought Pistol for next to nothing, and he’s been worth every penny! I ran into a couple friends who were there with intentions of helping buy the pregnant mares as well as a little fjord horse that was set to sell loose.  There had been money raised at a thoroughbred rescue in MN as well as the owner of the ranch that Piney and George were from donated money to save two of the mares. I think it is so fantastic that Thoroughbred lovers will step up and save them when they are in bad situations.

But where are the people stepping up to save the registered quarter horses? Or the registered paint horses that sell for $10 a piece? I am a thoroughbred lover. It is blatantly obvious that I am. But why are their supporters there, saving them and people who love other breeds not stepping in and saving their favorite breed? It’s because there are so many. You can’t’ save them all. Skinny horses were sold for next to nothing, because no one can afford to feed them. No one is buying them outside of auctions. What do we do with all of these horses? Sell them to be processed or let them starve to death in a pasture?

Auctions are heartbreaking.  Watching sad skinny horses, one after another go through the auction ring and the ‘kill buyer’ swooping them all up. Why are these horses there? This sounds awful, but why were they even born? People are breeding crappy horses to other crappy horses. Or letting their stud run with a band of mares. Why? Why is that crappy stud still a stud? Geld him. The offspring produced is more often than not, unbroke and will remain that way until they end up at the auction. There were hundreds of horses that went through. Here is where I am going to get told I am going to burn in hell… Auctions, and horses going to be processed into food is a necessary evil. I hate it. I hate thinking of these beautiful creatures being eaten. But what is worse? Letting them die slowly and painfully due to lack of food? We need processing plants in the states. Where there are regulations, and health checks, and humane methods of euthanizing the animal. Temple Grandin has created humane methods for setting up processing plants for horses and obviously cattle. Horses and cattle cannot be processed the same. They are different animals. But what happens is that these unwanted horses are now being stuffed into trailers and shipped long stressful distances to be processed when we could make it a bit less stressful by doing it here. We have such an emotional attachment to the horse so it’s hard for us to imagine them being turned into steaks. But it is a necessary evil. The market went into the crapper, when they shut down the processing plants in the US.

The 4 pregnant mares, actually turned out to be 5 pregnant mares. They were run through one at a time, and the meat buyer bought the first one, but the owners no saled them and said they would need $500 a piece for them. My friends talked to the owners before they went through and agreed to buy them for $100 a piece. The kill buyer had bought the first one for $250 so the owners lost money because they wanted their horses to go to good homes. They couldn’t afford to feed them anymore. No one would buy them when they tried selling them other ways. So they brought them to auction. Same story that is told all over the country. No one is buying horses. Well, we are… but you know what I mean. How many of you can afford to have 15 horses? How many of you can afford to have more than one horse? I know a lot of people board so sometimes having more than one would put too much financial strain on you. When I was boarding I was spending over $500 a month for one horse, not including the gas in my pickup to get out there. (this was when gas was SUPER high!) And these mares are all pregnant. So that is 10 horses that will need to be cared for!

And then there was an accident that happened when one of the mares was going into the sale pen. She wanted to stick with her buddy, but the gate got slammed on her face. This is an accident that could happen anywhere. And it’s an accident I’ve seen more than once. She ripped a 6 inch gash down the front of her face, exposing bone. She also fractured her skull in the process. (I’ve never seen that before though). It was an accident. The picture was posted on the local news channels facebook pages and now everyone that has seen it is out for blood of the person who did it to her. “slam the person’s head in a gate!” is one comment I’ve seen. People have been calling the auction house and demanding that they pay the vet bill of this horse. It was an accident. The owners of the horse got insurance money from the auction. How many of you have seen a horse get into a sketchy situation where they gotten into a bloody mess? I would hate that the people who are demanding the auction workers head on a stake to come out to my house and see George limping around when he had an abscess. They would probably want to burn me on the stake for animal cruelty! Obviously we took care of it and hauled him to the vet. But I have just noticed that emotions run so high when it comes to pets and horses. Most of the time it’s people who have no experience with horses who are the most passionate about helping them. And you know what, helping them is great! I’m so glad people donate to rescues! But Please realize that sometimes accidents happen. Horses can get into some pretty sketch situations. Pistol has scars all over his face and body where it looks like he tangled with some wire fencing on more than one occasion. My old palamino had a big scar across his butt where it had been stiched up. They get into accidents, just like people do. We can’t bubble wrap them, as much as we want to. Was it hard to look at the mare’s ripped up face? Yes, it was. It was heart breaking. But it was an accident. The mare got scared, and used her survival instincts and she got hurt. I hope anyone still reading this doesn’t think I am a heartless bitch. But I understand that accidents happen. And as much as we’d like to prevent them, they are going to happen.  I feel so sorry that the mare had to go through that. I feel so sorry that any horse has to go through the auction ring. But what are we going to do with all of them? Please realize I do have a heart. It’s a big bleeding heart that feels sad when I kill spiders. And I hate spiders. I hate killing anything. I once accidentally ran over a prairie dog, and I cried for 3 days.

The news caught wind of the pregnant mares and two stations contacted me. I honestly didn’t want to be involved in this on the news. Mostly because I would be put on trial by the area because of my opinions about the matter. They really made the auction look like the bad guys. And they tried to make sensational news by pulling on heart strings. 5 thoroughbred mares were saved which is so awesome, but why weren’t people saving well bred quarter horses? Why were these horses so skinny in the first place? Why did the news say that the horses were going to the glue factory? Do people still use horses to make glue? So many questions, and so many things were said in the two news stories that made me so mad. If I had been in the news story they would have cut out everything I said because what I have to say makes me sound like a heartless bitch who understands how the world works.
so that is that. I am sorry for losing the remainder of my follwers with this post. I am just frustrated with how the events turned out. I’m upset that the animal lovers out there are ready to burn down the auction center. People who have enver once been to an auction. People who don’t ask questions, just demand payback for things they don’t even understand.  It is so easy to balme the auction house and point fingers. It’s not the auction’s falt the horses are skinny. Hay is expensive and no one can afford it.
Okay I am hopping off my soap box now. I just needed to vent. Sorry.

locked up.

Happy Birthday to me! Last night I got home and was going to try on a bazillion blankets that I have in the barn to decide which ones stay, and which ones get posted online for sale. I mean as much as I’d love to keep a size 70 stable sheet, chances are pretty good I’ll never have a horse that small. I mean I’ve never had a horse that small! I would like to trade in a bunch of small blankets and get a Baker blanket. I won’t ever happen. But I girl can dream can’t she?
Well I didn’t get ANY blankets tried on. I had George’s halter out and he came up and dropped his nose into it, and then I fumbled with putting it on, because somehow the crown piece was smaller than normal. Weird. So as I was fumbling, he decided that the window of opportunity to put it on had closed, and he walked away. Then my heart sank as he walked away. He was dragging his toe, and then his leg would POP and then he would be fine for about 10 strides before it would happen again. CRAP! Really horse? REALLY?! You are not helping my case to keep having OTTB’s around, you old lemon! Actually I was more panicked at first. I was certain he had broken his leg, and it was going to be an expensive vet bill, and he would have to move into the house with us so I could care for him. But I watched him for a bit, he wasn’t in pain. He was being a crab ass. But that is normal for George. I’m beginning to wonder if everyone who knew George as a race horse and has told me “Oh George! He is quirky!” really means “Oh Geroge! He is an old crabby bastard!”  Because seriously he can be a pill when he feels like it! When riding he is a boat load of fun though! I wouldn’t trade him for anything. I say that like I’ve ridden him extensively. I haven’t. But the times I did ride him he was fun! He keeps me on my toes!

Anyways back to my old lemon horse. I looked it up the symptoms, watched YouTube videos and diagnosed him as having a locking stifle. So then I sent messages to all my blogger horsey friends, (which, by the way I am so thankful to have!) and they all gave me awesome advice. And FYI you will be seeing a few of us competing at Rolex in 2015. Mark that in your calendars!  A phone call to my vet who I personally think is one of the best in the country and am so lucky to have her so nearby, confirmed my suspicions that it was a locking stifle. She said that as long as he was able to get it unlocked on his own, I can get busy trying to strengthen his hind end. She laughed and said “lots of hill work”. Its funny because I live in North Dakota, there are no hills on the east part where I reside. I can maybe find some off ramps on the interstate… So while George’s locking stifles may not be in my favor to have another OTTB someday…It might be in favor of my hubby wanting to move out west to a place with more hills…hmmm.  Definitely something to consider. You need to pick your battles right?

So that is that. George is out of shape. I knew that. This is just now blaring in my face, that he needs to get back to work. I’m so glad it happened right before winter, when it’s cold. BUT I mean I’d rather ride when it’s cooler out than when it was 10,000 degrees with a million bugs! So as long as the snow doesn’t fly, I should be able to get back in the saddle.
Problem is when I ride I always feel so guilty because I know there is a million other things I NEED to be doing instead. But look what happens.  I don’t ride and then I get punished. I can’t win. I seriously can’t win. I need a clone. Actually I need a few clones. That would be amazing. I could send one to work, one could stay home and clean all day, one could ride horses all day, one could have a social life. It would be fantastic!
Another excuse I ALWAYS use for why I can’t ride. “It takes too long to get ready.” That is the biggest cop out ever. I’ve always used that one. Seriously, how long does it take to tack up? What 5 minutes? 3 minutes? It’s not like I have to drive to the barn that is 20 miles away. The horses are in my back yard. I can tack up and be riding in under 20 minutes. I think this excuse is directly tied to the guilt that I should be doing other things rather than doing something I enjoy.

In other news I turned 32 today. It is scary to think about it. I remember when I was 15 my best friend and I were freaking out that now that we were 15 we were halfway to 30 and that ment our lives were half over. I would smack those two girls if I saw them today...

 

But I took this selfie last night. I look like I've aged gracefully...

And then I took this picture this morning. I don't feel real different on my birthday... but some how I feel a bit different....

 

 

I need some guidance and or help...

So it occurred to me today that maybe this blog needs some updating. My banner is a picture of Piney and the blog title is “Good Time To Review” which was the name of my first horse.  Both of which are no longer with me.  The thing is, I’m not super creative. I’m one of those people that needs someone to guide me in the correct path, or toss some ideas out to me and I can mold them into my own concept.  So this is why I am stuck. I need help with creating a new banner/header/name/everything.

So basically. Help. I need some creative input on a new header and/or blog title. Obviously this blog isn’t about the world’s laziest thoroughbred anymore. I mean George is pretty lazy, but he is a lot of other things first. And I would hate to leave out the two red horses in my life, especially since I ride Pistol more often than I ride George.  And I mean there is Dolly, the tiny paint pony who seems to be left out of everything all the time. So If you have any wonderful ideas I’d LOVE to hear them. I’m stuck with where to go.

1….2…..3…. BRAINSTORM!