Fatty Phat Fatties

Tiny, yet annoying/maddening/sad update on the pones and their ailments. I hopped on both today for a jiff just to analyze said ongoing possible minor or major issues. Prognosis: still not sure.

Bacardi was a WILD FUCKING CHILD and would. not. simmer. down. I've never had a ride like that on him. In fact, I just blogged the other day about how chill he usually is; eating my words right meow. At first I took it as a positive sign that he was feeling good, but then I just got irritated at the ensuing shenanigans. Along with getting eaten alive by mosquitos, I could only handle about 15 minutes of his childish fuckery. Think, jigging, head tossing and outright friviloty. Should've known when he refused to be caught in the field. Still debating if these are all signs of pain, or him just trying to avoid doing things in every horsey way he knows how. I think I'm overanalyzing, but can you be too careful when dealing with lameness?? Not sure.

Anyways, he was only slightly, barely, mildly off today. I almost blamed it on the muddy footing because he felt pretty good despite the insanity, but my worrisome horse mommy-ness refuses to let it go. Leaving me to believe his lameness was a result of pasture fuckery and not anything else. I will try again Friday!

Yankee was pretty obvious in his front hoof pain. Unwillingness to move forward with any energy at all. I don't know why I am surprised considering the weekend activities and the deep mud we have. I'm still keeping up with the terpentine, but I'm too poor ATM to afford boots. My farrier already wants to slap shoes on him again and I'm like, isn't that being hasty and a little counterproductive to what we are trying to accomplish??

That being said, I took their confo shots this weekend as well. I've been keeping up with Bacardi religiously but didn't even think to include Yankee in on it. I did this time though!

Months 1, 3 & 4

Month 1-month 4

All I have to say is you can definitely tell they are eating like Kings, holy hell.

I have never seen Yankee that deliciously fat since I've owned him. I'm not even mad about it. And B has made leaps and bounds in the grocery department.

For comparison:

5 years ago, 8 yrs old

That fat belly literally makes his back look shorter in comparison. Thats crazy to me. Granted he's lost some muscle tone in the ass, making the hunters bump more prominent but I still think he's very smexy. Such fat. Many dapples. And that mane...it does what it wants. I have NEVER made it try to stand up like that.

Bacardi too has made some incredible improvements, but not as noticeable as from month 1 to month 3 unless you really study the pics. He's still gaining weight, but has definitely plateaued a bit. I think he will always be ribby sadly. Unless he follows the Yankee plan and becomes less of princess and is super fat after reaching double digits.

His muscle too, is changing, even in a months time. His neck is thicker still, and his haunches filling in ever so slowly. His haunches loss definition (look at the line in month 3 compared to 4) but IMO is still filling out. The difference in his neck too, from 1-4 blows me away. Little pencil neck to hulk. The biggest change I see though is his muscling in his withers/topline. They're ACTUALLY filling in. Didn't know that was possible. Maybe one day we can get dat ass to twerk, but I'm pretty gucci with a topline for now.

I'm glad all that money invested in feed stuffs is going SOMEwhere at least.

We Are All Mad Here

Last week, equestrian wise, was extremely unproductive. I did a lot of grown people things, like commute, work in my adorable cubicle prison, joined a gym (I'm now a douchey crossfitter), did things, and made a huge pot of chili. Did not ride once. Mostly due to the weather, half due to Yankee being footsore, and the other half just plain laziness/extreme sleepiness.

In addition, I have been battling it out with Blogger and this is as good as its gonna get for now. I THINK the problem is you can't copy and paste. If you do, it gives the words a lovely white aura, or won't show up at all.

 I've been systematically screaming and pulling my hair out after switching templates, fussing with code, retyping on a different computer and switching browsers.

Wence the weekend came, I planned to ride all 3 days but the ponies had different ideas. All of them were absolutely, 100%, clinically insane. I wish their brains had literally fallen out of their skulls because then they would have been medically excused from the fuckery. Lilly was way off base from her normal chill self. Bacardi, I’m pretty sure was faking extreme lameness, and Yankee forgot how be an adult horse.

I attempted to ride the thoroughbreds Saturday. Attempted being the key word.

 Bacardi was looking exceptional, and I was excited to finally do work with him after 6 days off. Normal warm-up routine, walking around for 10 min, stretching, changing directions. I asked for the trot and instantly felt him feel just ever so off. It went away when I changed direction so I shrugged it off.  Hadn’t been worked in a while and it was chilly out. Then I changed direction again. Yep. There was the mysterious, 3 legged lameness. 

Even The Boy could tell he was off. Where though, was the QOD. I had him video to help pinpoint mystery lameness, but to no avail. After watching the video over and over I honestly could not pinpoint ANYTHING. Palpated all lower extremities, ass and back. Nothing. Wasn’t lame to the left, or the walk. WTF Bacardi.

No issues to the left in particular

So what does any white girl do? Take a poll on social media. I hit up the insta world asking if anyone could pinpoint the issue after watching a short 15 sec clip.. Most agreed with me that while it initially seemed like LF, when he switched directions it was obviously RH or hip hitch.

Conclusion, not sure. But I have a feeling he was being a motherfaker about it all because I definitely saw him frolicking in the pasture yesterday. Complete with galloping, vivacious trotting and massive bucking leaps.

At least he makes pretty pictures

Yankee was not much better than the last time I rode him, either. If anything he just stayed steady on his nonsensical route to making me hate him. Last time he forgot how to canter, and trot and be normal in every way. Saturday was essentially the same, just with more sideways fuckery and head tossing. I don’t even. After fighting with him for over 15 minutes I gave up when we got a clean and mostly relaxed walk to trot transition. Ridiculous. Yankee, YOU ARE ALMOST A TEENAGER.

Basically pulling my arms out

I feel like the horses are plotting against my eventual mental breakdown by trading off playing lame and acting a fool.

Switching gears and trying to forget that insanity we planned to ride Sunday. The Boy and I headed out to trail ride again since the weather was a wonderful combination of sunny and chilly.

The day started off with a bang and with a mild heart palpation. When we loaded up, Lilly followed The Boy through the escape door of the trailer. Mind you, that is for HUMANS, and not equids. I still don’t understand WHY she followed him and HOW she didn’t get mangled. She has one small cut on her ankle, but that’s it. 

I don’t think I will recover from watching her hulk/fall her way through that small door and thinking, “Well, my boyfriend is gonna die because this horse, that ISNT MINE is going to squash him and I’m going to have to call his mom and tell her her son died by horse and call her owner and tell him that his horse bled to death falling out of a trailer and murdering someone. Cool”.

That was a bit intense & uncalled for.

NO RAGRATS HOOMIN GIRL

It did not end there though. Lilly had a stick up her ass the whole day and spent most of the time trying to bolt, or falling over. Apparently rebelling against me and the direction I wanted her to go was more compelling than staying upright and on all four feet. She would lock her neck and jaw and refuse to go where I asked and would then sideways run the complete opposite direction and then fall, literally fall, into the thorny scrub brush. Generally regarding mud and water patches; where before she would lackadaisically amble through mud and water. It was really fun for me.

Luckily, Yankee was an angel with The Boy and I had no worries in that department. Complete opposite from last Sunday (Yankee was a jerk and Lilly was perfect).  Its like they switched personalities. The Boy even half galloped up a really steep hill with The Pants and seemed to enjoy it! Minus Lilly being an asshole, it WAS a really fine day out, and I always enjoy rides, no matter how rude the horses are.

And at least they make for an adorable couple, especially if their humans are wearing matching plaid.

So here I am, on Tuesday night, exhausted already from the weeks activities (Will I ever adjust. How do people do this in real life. Are you all robots.), having not ridden AGAIN since Sunday, wondering if my horse(s) will be sound and unbroken tomorrow.

I might have a sliver of time before the sun goes to bed to ride one of the two and I am dying to know if B's lameness was a fluke from a pasture romp or back soreness due to all the long an low stuff.

(Sorry if some of the words are missing in various places, blogger ate them because it hates me)

Stay tuned.

Seriously Why

Blogger has gone mad.

I typed a huge long post, complete with GIFs and pics, about my weekend and the words won't even show up. They're just big white bars (like a text box, but full of nothing). Before that (last week), I had to write in code. I also cant see my side bars (blogroll, pics, web links, etc) and I dont know if anyone else can either.

WHAT IN THE ACTUAL IS GOING ON.

If anyone knows, it would be really helpful because I am sure you all miss my ridiculous and informative ramblings.

Swoll AF

Adjusting to working life is difficult and I am juggling extreme hatred, extreme exhaustion, extreme sadness and feeling like the smartest, dumbest and most organized person on earth all at once...but mostly I just admit defeat everyday and crawl into bed at 8PM like an old person after maybe riding and definitely not working out.

I have to know all the things about Medicare and its impossible. I thought I knew the ins and outs already but nah. Its been harder than any class I took in college and just when I feel like I am getting it, another nougat of info rears its ugly head and I am thrown for a loop again. Its exhausting and relentless and my brain is full.

I have no idea how to balance everything (sleep, riding, gym, sleep, work, chores) yet and my poor boys got almost another full week off. I rode B twice and we possibly could've had our first fight as a couple. I shrugged it off knowing he has barely been worked and was feeling his oats with the crazy drop in temp. Where's my Pumpkin latte and leggings?

No joke, I had 8 cups of coffee last Thursday & didn't even die

The good news is that even with the cold weather crazies we had a mildly productive ride last time despite my GLARING equitation issues & OTTB moments. Please ignore whatever the hell it is my body is doing in the following photos. #deargod

Now that his toes aren't sore, he's stopped sucking back, but has progressed into what I call the "awkward muscley stage" of OTTB retraining.

All the muscle oh my god

Now that he's swoll like a boulder he doesn't quite know how to move that muscle around in a graceful manner and as most greenies tend to do when imbalanced or nervous, he giraffe's the fuck out of his frame or falls on his face; as noted in the next 2 pictures.

Oh B, you are still beautiful #giraffe

ALL THE RIPPLING MUSCLES #face

Honestly, I would be more upset if this weren't part of the process of retraining a racehorse. They need extra time to figure out their bodies AND change gears in their mind and it can be overwhelming if you push them too hard! All youngsters have "that" phase and as long as he keeps trying to do what I ask I don't get too disconcerted with our semi-lack of progress. Plus he's so damn sexy.

You may now pause and gasp at my horrendous eq for 3 seconds.

Proceeding.

Like I said a few posts back though, even though he IS an OTTB and a BABY, he is the hardest working, smartest babe I've ever ridden. In the almost 4 months I've been riding him we've had MAYBE one ride where we regress, & a few "discussions" about barrels and ditches. Even then its not horrible and doesn't make me want to cry and give up on life. He gives me little moments where I still am riding high (har har) despite a few setbacks (awful transitions, loss of balance, sky high head).

For example.

wet noodle bendy body

Forward and round

Even more forward and round

ass ass ass ass

Can't even...FAV of the day

 Seriously blown away by this trot. Granted, it isn't consistent yet, but DAMN. When he's on he's on.

So shiny

I cannot get over the sinewy, muscley, swoll shoulders and cut, thicksolidtight haunches this baby is developing with such inconsistent work. (4 days on 4 days off..ish). Can only imagine what a hulk he would be with 6 days work. Guess thats what a good diet and turnout will do for you?

Lol at my position though for real. But claps for B.

And yes, I unintentionally intentionally matched boots and tank top. Once I realized my bell boots and shirt matched I dug out the blue polos because WHY NOT.

I guess where I am going with this meandering and gawking post is that while training is not always consistent and we have bad rides, there is ALWAYS improvement somewhere. Usually in more ways than one. One of the many reasons I am so freakish (ask the boy, my friends, parents, etc) about videoing at least once a week. Comparison comparison comparison! Its a magnificent training tool for yourself (*cough* equitation *cough*) and to see any glaring problems with your horse. I love it. I'm obsessed.

We still have miles to go in dressage land (get off the forehand more more more, even MORE topline, smoother transitions, consistent balance, etc) but just knowing he IS learning is a big confidence boost.

Sidenote: Yankee is lame and his feet look like hell. I'm dying inside. Need boots immediately.

10 Things

Because I don't really have any riding news, besides 2 hack rides squeezed in before the fading daylight and after brutally long days at real person job, I figured I would hop on the informal blogging train again!

Before I answer the 10 questions though I wanted to give a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who put so much effort into answering my SOS! Every single answer was so helpful and I feel confident Yankee and I can get over this minor bump in the road! Gracias gracias!

You may also have noticed some weirdness in my blog if you visit me on a computer...yeah, at some point during my last blogpost I fucked something up mysteriously and my entire right hand side is now below my posts, my font is messed up and I have to write these posts with fucking code!! Its a bitch and I am not happy. I have no idea how to change it back because I am clueless to how it even happened. #UGH

Without further ado though, my answers!

1. Is your horse spooky or bombproof?
Bacardi is really dumb and spooks violently at dumb things, like corn, or sounds. But could give give a fuck less if a chicken flaps madly around him. Yankee is about 95% bombproof...rarely spooks and when he does he just stops dead and stares. My preferred method of spooking.

2. Does your horse have a long or short stride?
Yankee is short in stature and stride. Bacardi is huge in all aspects.

3. Describe your current barn in 3 words?
Private, tiny, ratchet

4. If you could switch barns, would you?
Yes and No. Yes, because I LOVE facilities at boarding barns because anything is better than my ancient setup. I have no arena, my stalls are old chicken coops converted into horse stalls, bad wiring, etc etc. No, because I like controlling every aspect of my horses' care..that way I know whats going in their mouth, if their stalls actually get cleaned, etc etc...BUT its cheaper...
What it boils down to is that I need a barn fairy to come build me a spanking new barn so I can have nice things and be a control freak.

5. Favorite brand of breeches?
Kerrits all the way. If I wasn't poor I think I could really get into the Fits game.

6. How many blue ribbons do you have? (Red if you live in Canada or Britain).
I have no freaking clue. Probably over a 100 blues alone. I did a TON of rodeo and 4-H as well as hunters, jumpers, dressage and eventing...for over 10 years. NO idea. They live in a box under my bed. I really need to make them into a quilt or something. I have 10 "special" ribbons though, and they aren't all blues! One of my favs is an 8th place from a USEA event with Yankee. First time he had ever actually placed! I was so proud!

7. How many saddle pads do you own?
Jesus Christ how does a tack whore even keep track?? I just keep finding pads. They're everywhere. In every crevice of my barn, trailer, attic, garage...I literally think I have 50. I have a pad and bit problem okay, don't judge me!! I have about 10 "main schooling" pads I use though and rotate depending on dirt level and if I'm taking pics or not. My fav is a black USDF championship pad, and a thin jump pad with red, white and blue piping #merica.

The black pad

#merica

8. Is your horse your phone background/lock screen?
Yes! They're my lock screen. Luke The Boy is my home screen. I need my boys on the cellie always.

The meese & Levi

9. Do you go trail riding often? (weather permitting)?
Weekly. Its so beneficial and fun! Switches it up from constant drilling and the hills are great. Also I am really lazy and you can ride trails in non-riding clothes/less tack. And can you say, galloping paths?

10. Favorite horsey movie?
Seabiscuit by a landslide. Can I just say War Horse is the butthole of all horse movies, close second is Secretariat.

These are fun! More!?

Perhaps answering some burning questions (on your blog) I have will tickle your fancy? C'mon, everyone's doing it! (I gave short answers but I demand more from y'all)

1. If your horse was a person, who would they be? (you can generalize personality if you can't think of someone).
For example: Yankee would be Perez Hilton [snarky, flaming gay celeb blogger]. Bacardi would be a hypochondriac.)
2. What is one (or two...or five) piece(s) of equipment you CANNOT live without.
(crib collar, bell boots)
3. When did you start riding/ what discipline?  
(7 years old, Hunters)
4. Do you have a barn dog? If so, what breed?
(Levi! Blue Heeler aka Shadow Dog)
5. Do you like doing stalls or nah?
(yes. see above control freakishness)
6. What treat(s) does your horse go nuts over?
(Yankee is obsessed with mints, but will literally eat anything. He REALLY likes beer. B will only eat apple flavored shit from TSC)
7. If you've switched disciplines, why? If not, also why.
 (Um because eventing is badass and hunters wasn't for me.)
8. What is your least favorite discipline and why (yeah, I aint afraid to be scandalous)? 
(Western pleasure: peanut rollers)
9. Who is currently your favorite rider? 
(Famous people: William Fox Pitt, Hannah Sue or Doug Payne. Non-famous, my old BO...she's a boss ass bitch. Over 80 years old and still rides PSG everyday. The O'Conners will forever be my favorite though #PowerCouple)
10. What is your BIGGEST pet peeve regarding horses?
(Hard to determine...probably draw reins or the word "headset" or people making assumptions. I also hate when non-horse people call ALL foals "colts". Wrong wrong wrong wrong.)

So there we have it! Maybe something to spark your blogging if you're not doing much riding wise or need materials!

Much love.

SOS: Barefoot Toes

One of my favorite things about the blogging world is the access we all have to each other! Our experiences, tips, advice, knowledge & stories! I learn something new almost everyday reading, and discover new horsey blogs weekly. Its a wonderful little-big network!

This is mildly redundant, considering my last post. But a lot of you commented with advice and I wanted to formally reach out and ask for it! (Note: I NEVER dislike unsolicited advice and am always welcome to ideas and thoughts! Unless you're rude about then BAI)

If you read my last post (posted Tuesday) then you are aware that I am mildly losing my shit over the fact that my farrier and I co-decided the best option to fix Yankee's fucked up feet was to pull shoes. temporary for now, unless he improves and then we will keep him bare until show season.

Thats a BIG "if".

In the past, his feet have aggressively self destructed sans shoes. He can't go without them, but now he seemingly can't go with them either. But, over the years, repeated intrusion of nail holes and the ever slow contraction of his heels have basically created the worst pair of "healthy" feet out there. 

Meaning, he can't hold a shoe, but he is NOT lame.

My question to you all has many parts.

1) Anyone out there with equally as shitty OTTB feet to manage? How did you?
2) If recently barefoot, how did you manage the transition? Boots? Salves? Supplements?

1a) if you picked boots, PLEASE explain how
-brand
-where purchased

-HOW SIZING WORKS (so clueless I can't even)

1b) salves? 

-what kind/usage?
1c) Supplements?

-what kind

What my farrier gave me as our managed care plan (oh god, using Medicare terminology) was a bottle of turpentine, and his phone number. Basically said good luck, call me if he goes lame and we will tack shoes back on and hope his feet don't disintegrate.

What *I* would prefer is that this POA actually works and his feet grow back healthy and we can go about using shoes during show season, and go barefoot all winter. Thinking long-term here.

So I'm kind of flying blind here. Never gone from a horse who NEEDS shoes, to going barefoot as a treatment option.

ALL THE ANXIETY.

HALP.

**apologies for formatting...it went wonky halfway through and I am no code writing genius

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Rx; Shoes Forever?

Can't live with em', can't live without em'.

Especially if you are a thoroughbred named Yankee Wonder. Forever a battle with my problem child.

From day one we had issues keeping shoes on his pretty shitty horse toes. Thrown shoe after thrown shoes after thrown shoe. Sometimes I imagined him as a dainty gay unicorn running through the pastures going "FUCK YOU SHOES BAI" and flicking his toes around, trying to make me hate him. The situation steadily improved as he got older and with the move to MO (change in farriers/change in turnout??) I was able to keep shoes on for the majority of his existence.

Then we moved back to OH.

I haven't been able to keep a shoe on him for more than 2 weeks at a time. His RF is absolutely shitwrecked at this point, having tossed the shoe 6 times in 3 months. Half the time I would find them in his stall sheared clean off with the nails still in his foot. HOW. His LH and RH also magically, mysteriously and spectacularly threw shoes 3 times. Making the grand total in the 13 weeks we've been back NINE FUCKING TIMES. Keep in mind its $20 to nail a shoe back on. Every. Damn. Time.

Once, he tossed his RF twice in one week.

I was beginning to wonder whose fault it was....Yankee's, Ohio pasture or my farrier. lord knows he was making half his profit from me.

I still don't know, but after the last time Yankee jacked his RF up beyond salvation and we ended up yanking his shoes for the next 6 weeks.

I almost had a mini panic attack with the farrier about this decision.

The one time we pulled his shoes was when we first brought him home- his feet crumbled like sugar in water and he was lame for 3 months. That  shitshow took almost 2 years to recover from. We tried again 2 years ago and after 11 days he was lame as a one footed duck. Rx; SHOES FOREVER.

....Unless you can't keep them on and now you're back to square one, 8 years later. We weighed the pros and cons and decided that besides acrylic (aka $$$) the best option was to go barefoot, hope the softer fall ground pads his feet and see if he can regrow some hoof wall. Huge huge huge huge did I say HUGE, risk, considering his past success barefoot.

In addition, if he does well, we will keep him bare all winter and hope we can get his SEVERELY contracted feet to spread out a bit. His heels are...just the worst. In general his feet are just the worst in every way possible besides the fact they aren't rotting from the inside out.

This looks 10x better than before the trim too...

Deep clefts, soft walls, cracks, long/sloping and contracted heels should make my horse dead lame all the time but he's done well with shoes up until this point. Minus his horrible bouts with thrush every spring that wreak havoc on our lives, I am always mildly impressed that my typical horsebeast's OTTB feet don't create more problems than they do. Started him on a new hoof supplement 6 months ago, & you can see the newest  growth from the coronet down to the red arrows.. I'm not 100% sure if thats good growth or bad, but it looks thicker than the lower part of his hoof.

To say I'm anxious about this decision is a massive understatement. I might lay awake at night fretting about the soundness of my baby and if he will be gucci enough to be ridden in the next 6 weeks with no shoes on his toes. The other half of me is like,

Show season isn't happening for us, so I am chalking 2014 up to a loss along with 2011-13. Womp womp.

Luckily, my farrier is on call for me and the first instance we think this is a bad idea, he will come put the acrylic shoes on and Yankee will have all winter to recoup.

ALL THE WORRIES.

Both the meese getting their pedicures

 In addition to THAT horse, Bacardi has been increasingly getting more footsore in the front. Of course. When it initially started 3 weeks ago I thought it was from our trail ride, but he only got worse riding in the back field. The biggest change I noticed was in his trot...went from lofty and massive to short and choppy. I guess tufts of grass and hard ground make my delicate OTTB fall apart.

Luckily, his feet are dimes. Cuppy, big, and hard as rocks. He's been barefoot since he came off the track and I really wanted to keep him that way, but alas. As with Yankee, farrier and I debated and think that shoes are the best right now in order to keep in training with the facilities we have available to me right now. If he gets better, then that was the problem and thats the solution. If not, back to the drawing board.

It was HILARIOUS to watch B getting his shoes. He kept staring at his feet while farrier nailed the shoes on with a very quizzical and concerend look. Afterwards, he stood spread eagle and picked each foot up and just held it there, holding them up like,

I didn't even know horses had that kind of thought process, but I swear, that's what his brain was doing.

Trying to put all my worry aside on this particular incident and compartmentalize my anxiety about starting my adult job/commute tomorrow & all the issues that go along with that. I can't even explain the level of worry about not being able to ride everyday. Its like, I need a job to ride, but can't ride with a job. WHAT IS HAPPENING.

A separate issue will be keeping the baby hydrated while I'm slaving away at work. I will be gone from 7 am to 6 pm ALWAYS and they will no longer get lunch hay or water checks. Bacardi not only drinks an epic amount per day (3-4 buckets easily), he is also is a hay vacuum. I've never seen a horse his size slam down 3 flakes faster than he can. To remedy the situation at first I was goign to hang three buckets, but that was too much work. I opted for a muck tub full of water.

 Bacardi gets ALL THE WATER. I also put his hay in a slow feed net. Might slow him from mach5 to about 40 miles an hour, but its better than giving him it on the floor and him being hungry for 8 hours out of the day in stead of 11.

I might end up hiring the neighbor girl to give them lunch hay because I hate think about empty horse tummies.

So I solved that tiny problem, for now, hopefully.

I shall now retreat to my bed to curl up in fear about the future and all the drastic life changes.

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