Games

Games make learning fun, and work less boring. I try to think of games or other fun ways to train the horses or to keep riding interesting so I don't get stale and the horses don't get bored with a winter in the indoor arena. Today's game for Tango was a new invention that I shall call "Flair Attack". The game involved turning Flair loose in the arena while I ride Tango. Tango and Flair are friends, and as Flair can't go outside for a while, it is a good opportunity to get her out of her stall yet under supervision.

Phase one of the game involves riding Tango while Flair tried to cut us off, or stops dead on the track because something catches her attention. What is really interesting is how much faster Flair can trot vs Tango!

Phase two of the game is tricky...once Flair tires of cutting us off, I have to be on the watch for her attempting to roll...she is not allowed to roll until her eye is more healed, but the tube going into her eye is getting itchy, so she really wants to roll...so at the first site of her going down to roll, Tango and I have to race over to distract and discourage her...at which point she swishes her tail at us to show her displeasure. Tango is better at racing away rather than towards something...so this is a good game to get her more alert and ready to go.

Perhaps all dressage riders should ride with a loose horse in the arena...there would be a lot less staring down or at the back of their horse's head if that was the case!

For non-barn/horse entertainment to fight my brain turning to mush over winter is :http://www.lumosity.com Very addictive. I like the word games. The Penguin game is painful for me...I am NOT good at it and my poor penguin keeps finding himself being rammed head first into the walls....

Have fun this winter!

Karen

Important information for cat owners.

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/kitty_pet

Karen

Did the dvd fairy visit your house too?

I went out to the barn to feed last night, and found the dvd fairy had visited, leaving a video on how to get your %!&@(^ horse into the trailer...well, that is not the actual title....I think it is something like "Get'em in the Trailer", but I like my title better. I wonder if the fairy left it for Laureen...curious.

I wonder when the Chocolate Fairy is due to come? Or the New Laces for my Boots Fairy?
....
I went to visit little Morgan mare at the vet clinic yesterday. She seems quite happy despite now having a tube sewn into her head. The tube was inserted so that eye drops could be administered more easily, with less risk of accidentally poking the eye. Her eye looks good and isn't goopy. Hopefully she is able to leave the vet clinic on Monday. She will have to be in the barn for a while though to keep the eye safe and warm.

Karen

Experiments that just aren't worth it...

You may not want to read this if you are squeamish..

You remember when you were young, kids would dare each other to lick a metal pole? The metal in the pole would conduct its cold to the tongue and cause insta freeze of tongue to pole...and unless the victim was patient enough to wait for someone to pour warm water on the tongue, then a portion of tongue is left on the pole.

That is bad enough...now imagine it was your eye and not your tongue stuck to the pole. And it is -30 out.

That is what we speculate happened to the poor little Morgan I am training. Found chunks of ice stuck to her face when I fed, so had Natalie bring her in to clear her up...but we couldn't seem to get all the puss/gunk out and it just didn't look like a case of hay stuck in the eye so we called Delaney Vet to come out. Meagan was also expecting a mere eye infection. Instead she found that the remaining white stuff pooled in her bottom eye lid was not in fact puss, but rather rolled up cornea. She had peeled the front half of her cornea, with just a 1/4 thickness left to hold her eye in. That is gross.

No noticeable tears or damage to any other part of her eye, so it doesn't look like it was hit...it was as if (in Meagan's words) someone just peeled it off. Our best speculation is that she somehow hit her open eye to something very cold and metal. And the cornea stuck. Fortunately enough was left so that the eye innards didn't fall out.

So, the poor mare is in the barn for a while. She is on multiple eye drops 4 times a day and pain medication. The vet will be in touch and will come back out for further treatment once we know how much of the cornea is still alive...the dead part will be removed.

And I hate the idea of even putting contact lenses in...

Poor little girl.

Karen

Welcome Perseus

Nicole's new horse arrived safe and sound yesterday and proved himself to be sane for his first ride today. Percy is a tall black gelding who is being kept with Coda and Chris for a while so we can pile hay into him...he is a tad on the thin side. He is also a tad on the obnoxious side. Reminds me a LOT of Jerry, not only in look, but also in how obnoxious he is in the barn! Nicole has her work cut out for her in that respect.

karen

The benefits of aging

Despite what young people think there truly are benefits to getting older.

I think a benefit of being truly old (as in people look at you and can see your days are numbered) is that you have the freedom to speak your mind. The withered old lady can get away with commenting on your weight, unmarriedness, or bad hair cut and somehow get away with it. Age gives the freedom to abandon the internal filter of political correctness.

I myself find that I am firmly entrenched in middle age. And with the arrival of middle age comes a certain freedom...the freedom to be comfortable rather than fashionable. Warm rather than "cool". And it is good.

When I was a kid I remember that the "cool" winter boots were either Moon Boots or these tan insulated hiking boots. Everyone in my family had the hiking boots. I wanted the hiking boots, but alas neither they nor the moon boots would fit my deformedly narrow feet and ankles. So what would fit? Ladies dress boots. These were not cool. So instead of wearing the dress boots I wore runners in the winter. Frozen feet were better than wearing uncool boots on the way to and from school...

Now that I am accepting of my middle agedness, I want warm feet, and I don't care what is on my feet to get it....but I still have to deal with my chicken feet. So this weekend I was thrilled to find some insulated rubber boots at Welshes that actually fit my feet and legs. The fact that they are brown, with off-white, rust, green, and yellow swirly patters (aka ugly) matters not. They fit and are warm. And to top of off, I wear them with my pant legs TUCKED IN! Good thing I don't have kids; they would be mortified.

I also would never wear a toque as a kid...it would lead to staticy hair and I couldn't have that. Frozen ears were preferred. Now I am ok going out in public in my goofy looking Mennonite fuzzy ear flap hat. I want warm ears, and I figure the static in my hair will help keep the hay in place.

Yes, I am quite a catch...Rob is one lucky man...

Karen

I think Peter Pan and Rocket are related...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWd_r2sOPhs

Karen

So I know it is cold, and driving is likely not much fun....but isn't it pretty out?

The snow makes it seem so much brighter and cleaner and the early mornings don't seem so dark and dreary with the coating of white.

Now the frozen nasal drippings as I feed hay I could do without...

The horses seem to be enjoying themselves in the snow though. Well...other than Lily who didn't know what to think when the barn door opened to reveal a ledge of snow out the barn door yesterday! She is not entirely sure what she did to deserve being brought here from California...

Stay warm and drive carefully!

Karen

Well it seems winter is here. A skiff of snow was on the ground when I woke up and it has continued to snow since. Good think one of the new training horses is hard to catch...I would hate for it to be warm and sunny while I coerce him to come in to the barn.

Horses seem ok other than being a little miffed that their hay would blow away.

I guess the cold and snow was bound to come sooner or later. It was just the wind I could do without.

Karen

Road Trip!

I have been needing a vacation for a while now. A change of scene to refresh my mind. Rob and I talked about getting away this fall, but with his new work project, Mike's illness, and Coregel's stall rest, it just wasn't to be. So when Rob suggested a road trip to see his project in Hardisty, it sounded like it might be the closest thing to a vacation I might get! I planned to go on Saturday as Nat looks after barns and lessons, so I could leave right after hauling over a new training horse...I figured I could leave by 10 at the latest.

But the fates continued to be against my ever leaving the area; Natalie had the flu and wouldn't be able to work. I was not willing to give up so easily though, so I got up extra early to do barns, rebooked her lessons, picked up the new training horse (cute little arab named Embers...looks like Zander crossed with a Marshmallow), cleaned up quickly, loaded stuff to take (including Ginger) and was off before 11 am. Later than I thought, but I was determined to go!

We arrived at 1pm, which was perfect timing it seems, as Rob was able to take me on site to view the work while the men broke for lunch. It is an impressively large project. As far as I can tell they are building alien landing pads. (you can just barely make out round landing pads in this photo)

Some great toboggan hills around there too (poor Rob was showing me all the work they are doing and that was my comment...)

Ginger was both excited and confused to find Rob at the end of our drive!

We then went to lunch at a small town diner, complete with 5 old farts that look like they spend all day there nursing the same cup of coffee. My tomato noodle soup had carrots, onions and potatoes in it...but no noticeable noodles. I had to pick the potatoes out...I didn't think to ask if tomato noodle soup would have potatoes...now I know to ask...

Time was running out as I had to head home to do afternoon chores, but I got to see where Rob lives when away (not a bad place), and we checked out a touristy looking log general store...which offers things like Tarot Card reading, Rainshower massage, and Resonance Rebalancing.

I would have liked to have had time to take Ginger for a walk down by the lake, but it was time to head home.

So that was my vacation...go me.

Karen

2011 already?

Amberlea already has their 2011 show schedule up!

http://www.amberleameadows.com/Horse%20Shows.htm

Karen

New Training Horses

Two new horses came in for training yesterday. They came a bit later than expected and arrived under the cover of darkness while I was teaching, so this morning is the first time I really got a good look at them. The big black/bay one is Coda; he is a very tall Quarter Horse. The pretty bay is Chris. Chris is a Trakhener and is also a good size. They are both for sale if anyone is looking for a young, good sized prospect!

Chris doesn't seem to understand what Crunchies are...that will be his first lesson.

I brought Coda in to the arena today, and he is a very curious fellow...rather than just stand by the outgate, he wandered around looking at the jumps and even walked over a vertical all on his own just as his owners came to see him!

They also brought Chris' dad for us to try out; nice horse but not quite what we are looking for, for Nicole, but may make someone a very nice hunter/jumper if they are willing to work through some greeness.Very nice to ride on the flat, and quite soft/light in the mouth.

Karen

I used to like the "Fall Back" daylight savings time...but my brain is so used to getting up at the same time everyday, that it just means I am up an hour earlier and so have that hour less of sleep! Maybe I need to live in Saskatchewan where daylights savings time never changes.

Is anyone going to the rodeo? Rob and I went to Farm Fair on the weekend. It isn't like it used to be; not nearly the farming stuff, and no big equipment. Must have been too expensive to rent the space needed. This year there is one room for kid orientated stuff (including a "what we get from horses section that shocked me...do kids really want to hear that horses are used to make violin strings and are eaten in France?). There did seem to be a lot of kids in there learning how to grow herbs, and rope a fake cow...or clean a stall.

The next room was "Buy Local" where local producers sold a variety of things. We spent a fair bit in that room! Lots of samples and really good stuff. The silly berry man didn't bring any berries to sell though...he didn't think anyone would want to cart around 10lbs of frozen berries....as I stood there with a 10 lbs box of other stuff.

Then there was the main trade show stuff. Stopped at the orthodics booth, but $399 for a shoe insert? I am too cheap for that...plus not sure of the theory comparing the ball of my foot to a horse's frog, leading to the theory that more pressure on the ball of my foot would help me overall. We did by a fancy shower head though. And a book. Tried on winter muck boots, and looked at fancy horse trailers.

Might not be a bad place to do some Christmas shopping I suppose.

We also looked at all the cute little Quarter Horses getting ready for the sale. There were some cuties! Small though...but obviously well fed and groomed. Rob and I were looking at one sad looking yearling whose stall was wet as he had tipped his water over...so as we are standing there looking at him, his owner comes over and says "tipped his water over again? Dumb ass"

Yes...that is how you sell a horse.

I wonder what the prices were?

Karen

Remember it is daylight savings tonight! This is the good one where you get to sleep in an hour...with the downside being it is a prelude to the dark cold winter months...

Hey, Michelle, just for you: videos of Warrior:

Oct 15

November

Karen

So apparently the flu is making the rounds. Great. Who wants to be sick during what is likely the last nice days of the year? I prefer to only be sick when it is -30 and I wouldn't want to be outside anyway.

A reminder too, that it is daylight savings time this weekend! So if you have a lesson on Sunday, be sure that you changed your clock and hour back so you don't show up an hour early!

Karen

If you are like me and check out the horse ads on Kijiji, it is plain to see the horse industry is in a bad state even in Alberta, where the economy didn't full out tank. The ads are flooded with both very young and quite old equines, mostly of the QH or Paint variety. Many of the ads are familiar to me as they have been refreshed and redone over and over. What is even sadder is to read the market reports from the local horse auctions:
Westlock Auction
Tofield Auction

Note how many stock breeds there are, and what percentage of those went to the dealers. How many untrained, but adult horses. Also note how high some of those meat horses went for...I have no idea what the per pound value of horse meat is, but it is apparently higher than I thought for those prices to make sense. Now I know the dealers don't drive around to check out horses advertised on Kijiji, but it does make me worry about the horses for sale for under $600, and makes me wonder about the ads for people wanting horses for super cheap (I would like a potential jumper for under $350 please, or a pony that is rateable for under $200). How many of those ads are honest? I have been around enough to know that people will use kids to get sellers to sell them a horse for cheap...that is then sent off to slaughter for a quick buck.

Now I am not against slaughter, I just wish it was much more humane, and that people truly understood when they bred their random QH mare, that this was going to be the fate of the baby.

Seems very sad that there are so many unwanted horses, and it makes it very difficult to find good homes for less than perfect horses. On the flip side though, there are not that many good quality jumping prospects out there for sale...just a flood of 14.3 hand stock breed horses.

So why so many homebred unwanted stock breed horses? I am sure part of it is because it is just so easy...lots of mares to be bought cheaply, and lots of people with stallions that will pasture breed a mare for a few hundred...no worries about ultrasounds and breeding exams in that world.

And further, there is incentive to breed...as a riding stable, you get a lower tax rate if you breed horses...so paying a few hundred to breed a couple mares may be financially worth it even if they only sell for a hundred dollars each at auction as weanlings. Perhaps the county should rethink this for the sake of the horse industry.

On a more postive note, our little pity buy Carma is going well. Wonderfully easy to get to the jumps, although still pretty green on the flat. Would love to find her some worth junior rider to take her to the show ring. I feel a tad on the big side on her, but plan to show her next spring if she is not sold. I would like to find her a new home so we can help another horse get a good start at a riding career!

If you want to do something to help horses in need, Bar NK rescue is holding a silent auction on their webpage/forum. Nicole Krill of Bar NK rescue helps take in and rehab a small number of horses, but on a larger scale she helps TB and Standardbred breeders find suitable homes for their race track failures; interviewing and screening potential buyers to make sure it is a good match. You can check out the Silent Action at: http://excoboard.com/barnkrescueandplacement/144263

Karen