new feet - new horse

When I told you about moving the horses I also told you about our farrier problems and their aftermaths concerning Heart. Well I am happy to say, that Heart seems to have made a full recovery. The difference it made in this horse is amazing. Where I used to have to push him he is now full of energy.

Yesterday we did a couple of small jumps for the first time in a long time and he really seemed to enjoy it. No stopping or hesitating or trying to outrun the jumps. Instead he pulled toward anything he thought we might be heading for, even if that something was a four foot jump, which we certainly will not be going for within the next couple of days;)

Heart gives you the most incredible feeling during the jump. He is one of those Horses who really make it easy on the rider. I have to force myself to stop again once we start jumping *g*

starting Bella

Starting Bella is such fun. This little girl is pure joy. She's pretty to look at - moving or not- and even though she does not yet have any idea what I am asking of her when riding she tries her best. I'm sure she will advance quickly. She has a good natural balance which helps a lot. I'm excited how she will jump once we get there.

A new home

Last Monday Heart and Bella moved to their new barn! I'm not sure what the horses thought but for me the move made me happy and sad all at once. I'm happy to be at a barn with all the facilities I need to properly train the two. It's a gorgeous barn. We have a little stall tract all to ourselves. There's an outdoor dressage arena with mirrors, a big outdoor jumping stadium, an indoor arena with mirrors and huge fans, a round pen and a cross country field. The horses have nice stalls and a big field to be turned out. What more could we ask for?

But at the same time the move did make me sad too, because I had come to love our little private barn. It was nice to have the horses almost in my back yard and with Bella and Heart being the only horses there it was almost like having a barn of my own. Our barn owners did so much for us, which I am still very thankful for. All in all I enjoyed being there very much and I believe the horses did so too. I guess there's pros and cons to everything.

So Now we will enjoy all the pros that come with this move. Heart definitely likes having sand underneath his feet when training. He seems thankful for the softer underground, which is much kinder to this 17 hand horses sensitive little feet. I hope it will help him on the road to recovery from the damage caused by an unreliable farrier. Don't get me wrong. I liked this farrier a lot until he decided not to show up anymore and not return calls either. By the time I managed to organize another farrier Hearts feet were beyond bad and I was freaking out. A couple more days and I'm sure I would have lost this horse (fortunately Bellas feet held up better). So I am more than thankful to our new farrier Sloan who pitched in as soon as I called and did an amazing job at getting Heart moving sound again within a couple of weeks. Sloan had quite a job to do with poor Heart who was in a lot of pain when he first met him. I've never seen Heart rear before or ever since, but only pulling of the old shoes was quit a job that time. I don't want to even start about how hard it was to get the new shoes on with only the minimum amount of nails to keep them on for at least a while. I was pretty impressed by the before-after transformation of the hoofs. But my two favorite things about this farrier are his patients with the horses even if they really act up like Heart that first day and most important that he is absolutely reliable! He will always call back and drive by as soon as possible if a horse pulls a shoe (which Heart has discovered he loves doing :( ).

No pictures of our new home yet, but I will do my best to get some within the next couple of days. For now here's the link to their website: http://www.cottonmeadowsfarm.com/

tooth by tooth

Last week I discovered that one of Hearts permanent incisors wasn't growing correctly due to the baby tooth not wanting to let go. So today we had the dentist visit us to pull the baby tooth and do anything else that needed to be done. He floated Hearts teeth and shortened his canines so he wouldn't have any problems with the bit. The top left canine still hadn't broken through the flesh and was causing some pain. So with a tool that worked no different to a whole puncher he helped that tooth to get out by punching a whole in the flesh covering it. Now this sound brutal, but it does make sense. The whole is smaller than the tooth, so when the tooth pushes trough it stretches the skin and seals it at the same time. You could see Heart actually pushing against the "whole puncher". Our dentist, Ron, explained this, that by helping the tooth out it was taking the pressure of, hence lessening the pain. It's comparable with us having a big throbbing blister. If you poke it and empty it, the throbbing and the pain will stop.

Bella also had an appointment with the dentist. One of her molar caps that should have come of when she was 2 1/2 was still stuck. She had managed to break of half of it, but the other half would not come of. So Ron pulled that and floated her teeth at the same time.

Both horses were sedated while Ron worked on them... and I got a lesson on how to give a shot into the vein of a horse. After a thorough instruction, several dry runs and with Ron watching every move closely and helping a bit, I got to give Bella her shot. It's a strange feeling and I don't intend to do it by myself anytime. But it does feel good to know how to do it. Just in case there should ever be an emergency that requires it.

Gosh I learned so much today in such a short time. I feel my head is on overload. It's so interesting and everything makes such sense! There's some things I now know that really makes me rethink things people do. Things that up until now just were normal to me. I didn't even think about right or wrong because it's something everybody does, I grew up and was taught that way. But more to that in a following post...

Here are some pictures of the pulled teeth (caps). The big one is one of  Bellas top molars and the small one is Hearts bottom right incisor. It's the last cap Heart had to loos. He now has a full set of permanent teeth! You can see how long overdue Bellas molar was. She tried so hard to get rid of it, she broke half of it of and rubbed a hole into the other half...

top of molar. tip of incisor is pointing down.

top of molar. rubbed of side of incisor

bottom view of both teeth

learning to fly

Today Debi Hornbaker and Sable picked us up to join in on a jumping lesson at Debi Crowleys Place. Except for trotting over our cavalettis Heart had never had a jumping lesson, so I was pretty excited about everything - what my big baby would think about the colorful poles and if he would get his feet sorted out.

Heart was great! He was full of energy. I think he likes this way more than the dull dressage arena ;) He did look at everything twice and and the first few crosses he almost came to a stop before jumping them and it will be some work until we go over the jumps smoothly, but for a first time lesson he was absolute fantastic! He's such a good boy and tries really hard to do everything right.

Debi gave us a very good lesson and I'm really looking forward to our next one... even though it is something to get used to having lessons at 96 Farenheit (35.5 Celsius)... maybe I should be glad we didn't have the lesson yesterday at a 100 Fahrenheit (37.7 Celsius) LOL. I also hope to find a jumping saddle that fits Heart soon, so I don't have to go on jumping in our dressage saddle.

getting ready. Heart was fidgeting bad. Never seen him with hat much energy :D

Hearts ride - my friend Debi's truck and trailer

Our instructor Debi (the other Debi LOL)

Debi and Debi... and Sable

look at that nice rear end!

first time approaching a cross. He wasn't sure what to make of it at all

first ever jump I

first ever jump II

help, mum, what's this? Is it going to jump at me? :D

ok, I'll try...

look at him fly!!! ;)

first ever Oxer

mum, this just isn't challenging at all. My front feet are down before my rear end leaves the ground LOL

water is fun!

Last Wednesday Heart went on his first out trail ride. 

Kay, who lives down the road from our barn invited us to go trail riding with her. She took us to a gorgeous place called Sulfur Creek Trails. It is gorgeous! There's a bit of everything - flat, hills and water. 

Kay wanted to show the waterfall on the trails, but we just couldn't find it. We still got to play in the water. 

Heart wasn't very fond of water up until that day. So on the way back to the truck I made him walk through a puddle to get him used to it. He's always first on the trails, except when it comes to water. He will stop and let another horse walk through first. So this time I made him go through first. It took some time, but finally he gave in. When we came to the stream that we had to pass to get back he walked in first without much of a battle... Once in he discovered that water can be very much fun. Especially on hot days like that one. He stood in it for quite some time, splashing away with his front legs. It was so cute and Kay made a video of it! I don't have it yet, put once I get it I will try posting it here!

So, the video unfortunately got lost in the www, but here are some pictures:

Heart was paddling with his front leg like mad. I just tried to get my feet out of the way of the water and was fiddling with my cell at the same time to take some pictures of Kaye and her horse playing in the water.

Kaye and her sweet girl Envy playing in the water

unresistable - first time up on Bellas back

I had planed to ride Bella for the first time this weekend. if I were lucky enough to have somebody help me. But with my friend, that had offered to help. sick and Basti occupied otherwise I was out of luck. So as the days before I tacked her up and longed her. She has become so good at it. She doesn't argue with me anymore. No rearing and switching directions or bucking anymore. Instead she accepts the side reins nicely and reacts to my commands in a split of a second. I've never had a horse listen to me that perfectly. Especially not in such a short time! She halts, walks, trotts and canters... she will do everything. Ok, the canter still needs a bit of work. The right lead is great, but she tends to slightly race of on the left lead. Also she will still run into the canter, but that has gotten really good. So no worry there, that she will soon be transitioning from trott to canter perfectly too!

She was sooo good again yesteday, that I just really, really needed to get up and ride. Well actually I thought I'd just get her used to standing next to the cavaletti I use to get up and maybe lie over her back. With nobody there to hold on to her I would be able to jump of quickly again incase she got any silly ideas. Her behavior when I started longing her was still stuck in my mind and worried me a bit. I just didn't feel like sitting on a bucking and rearing horse with nobody there to help. But then she hadn't shown that behavior in a while and and been so good instead.

I led her up to the cavaletti, took of the longing girth and loosened the stirrups. I got up on the cavaletti and pulled left and right at the saddle. Bella stood there and turned her head looking at me... I put myself over the saddle like a sack of corn and she still stood there... She was making it really hard for me to resist to get on. 

So I gave in to temptation... I put my foot in the stirup and got on.... and Bella just stood there and turned her head again. She looked at me kind of like she was asking "So what now, mum?" It was so cute! I took up the rains and gave the comand "walk" ... nothing happend. I slightly put my legs to her side and said "walk" ... nothing happend.... so the charm is three, right? I tried again and she started walking. She got on the bit at once and just walked. It did feel a bit unsure of everything. But then I guess I'm the heaviest she's ever had on her and she hasn't been ridden in a while either.

I we rode around the arena once in each direction and then I gave the command "halt"... guess what... nothing happend. Same thing as before.. three is the charm. Third time I gave the command, she halted and I got off...

Have I told you I love this girl??? :)

Hearts first time out

On May 20th I took Heart to his first clinic. A small dressage clinic about 5 minutes drive from our barn. Our former barn mate Debi boards at that barn and invited us to join. She also picked Heart and me up, since we don't have a trailer. Thanks again so many times Debi. We had so much fun!!!

Heart did very well. I am very proud of him! He didn't get upset or anything in the new place. With all our setbacks we still have a very long way to go and are working on the very basics right now. One of them teaching him to listen to the outside rein and staying lined up instead of letting that outside shoulder run away to the outside...making me feel like I'm sitting on a twisting snake :D So please don't judge us on these pictures. We're no pros yet ;)

isn't he pretty my boy? I'm so in love!

My new lawn mowing tarp

Not a lot to say about this... see for your self. I started working Heart the Guy McLean way and it's really paying of! These are some photos from our encounter with the big blue tarp :)

still sleepy, ears hanging at the side like a donkey, but all dressed up and ready to work...

Bella's in her position too... Basti calls it her first row seat with popcorn while watching Heart work :D

being windy the tarp blew all over the place, but Heart didn't care at all as long as he could dig into the jummy grass in the arena, that he doesn't usually get to :D

my I present the newest edition - my very own lawn mowing tarp. Very efficient and Eco-friendly ;)

enjoying lunch after work

mum my tubs empty! Somebody must have stolen my lunch!

Bella my hover... she makes sure there's not one grain wasted in any tub

Lazy days :)

where are my horses? :D

itchy nose

hey, what are you two doing there? I want to be part of it too!

two sleep drunk beauties :D

itchy, but to lazy to get up *g*

Do I really have to get up to follow you?

No, just give me another minute... it's so good to stretch out in the grass!

lazy bones :D

ok, ok we're coming...

stop hurriing I'm on my

I took these pictures the other day with my cell phone camera. So they are not the best, but I just had to document my lazy beasts :D ... When I arrived at the barn Bella was flat out and Heart was also lying down. It took them quit some time to get up... I actually sat down next to Heart and had a good cuddle, which seemed to make Bella jealous since she got up and walked over to us. Only causing Heart to totally flop out and enjoy the sun. However they did eventually follow me back to the barn. Even though I think you can still see the sleep in their faces LOL