Monday Question: Bedding

I've been humming away over in my corner of the world, unmotivated and unable to do much due to the bi-polar weather, which has left us very cold as of this morning, and with a lot of glaze ice. As I come up on the end of my first month of expense tracking, however, I am, once again, here to cast a question to the universe!

Has anyone used pelleted bedding, particularly in a cold climate? Please tell me your experiences... and how the heck you use it!

I was just taking a look at my local options, as my manure pile is getting rather large, especially this month, due to the sheer amount of moisture the mares have been putting off. It doesn't help that the pile is in a terrible location and the horses futz with it (it's moving this spring, because I know it should not be in my paddock! It's not a good place!). Regardless of the manure pile situation, while I'm not unhappy with my bales of shavings, I know that there is a fair amount of probably unnecessary waste.

Also the freezing pee is kind of obnoxious.

My local options are either various brands of baled shavings, baled straw or pine pellets (Tractor Supply). Shavings I feel I have fully pursued; I've found a good balance of bag size and value with the fact that finer shavings are much easier to pick when you have stall walking horses. While I would love to use EZ-Pick shavings until the end of forever, they are quite expensive for smaller bags and the smaller bags mean that I have to use more to provide, in my mind, enough padding to keep the horses from getting hock sores, as they all lay down. Straw is a nightmare due to weight, and I have a feeling that stall walkers plus straw would actually be the worst idea ever.

I've toyed with the idea of trying pellets before, but as I circle back to look at them... how does one use them when it's below freezing, if they need to be "fluffed" with water? All of the other benefits sound great, especially if they work out with my messier horses, but I can't figure out how to use them, or if they should be used by themselves, or in combination with shavings.

Anyone using pellets?

Weekend Rides

I had lots of plans this weekend to ride, but only managed to get on Bailey on Friday afternoon, and dragged my over-tired carcass off the couch to catch and ride Arya earlier today. I say "catch and ride Arya" because both of those things have been a challenge lately. It started (to get worse, at least) on Monday, when it took me half an hour or so to catch an avoidant Arya who didn't care how many treats I was giving to her sisters, she wanted nothing to do with me.

She took a really funny nap on Friday in the sun; she had dreams and her legs twitched!

Bailey's ride on Friday was pleasant and sunny; we did flatwork and a bit of lateral work in the dressage saddle, and hacked around the edge of the pasture to cool out. She was good, if playful under saddle, and I continue to marvel in how rideable she is compared to the baby horse I used to know. She gives me hope for Arya, she really does. Bails got so into jamming in the canter that she ended up throwing a real buck (which is not normally her thing) and she was so surprised she stopped herself afterwards, ha!

Floofy but oh so pleasant!

Bailey went through a hard-to-catch period early in her riding career, as well, but it seemed to pass pretty quickly and I didn't have to deal with it a ton, as she was boarded and I often arrived after horses were turned in for the night. Arya, however, has gone from super friendly when she arrived this summer to, as of late, running passive aggressive circles around me trying to get all of the horses to shun me, too. She knows I have treats. And she wants them. But she doesn't want to get anywhere near me.

So yesterday while waiting for some delightful craigslist people to come take away the round bales I've been trying to get rid of for free for over a week now, I waded out into the paddock with treats and candy canes with the goal of just getting my hands on the queen of side eye. It took some time, but she did wear down, and seemed to enjoy being "caught" when rewarded with lots of scritches under her very itchy hood. Once I ran out of treats, though, she was clearly much less willing to let me anywhere near her face. Today I went out to ride not sure I would end up putting my ass in the tack. However, it took only a couple of treats to the other horses and the jealous beast let me walk up and stuff her face with food and catch her. Leading her in was less easy - she would prefer if I dragged her, because being ridden is DEATH, clearly, but it wasn't a bad first catch - I am hoping I didn't set her back by actually doing stuff with her.

Look guys I finally caught my horse (and the donkey, who has discovered that candy canes are delicious)!

The stuff we did was the normal lunging and ride. On the line, she had a lot of energy and wanted to cantercantercanter, but was slipping and pulling a bit, so I actually ground worked her until she was licking and chewing vs just letting her get stretched out and get her bucks out. I got on and within two minutes, she started to get weird and started throwing herself around like she was going to go up, like the longer I was on the more agitated she got. I got after her until she stood and let me get off, and then slid her saddle back and got back on. I don't remember now if she was wearing the jump saddle when she reared the last (really scary time) but I did actually plop it on her and it fits her quite well. I have had horses (Foxie) take exception to the forward flaps on their shoulders, but I was intrigued to note that she was much less shirty when I got back on her after moving her saddle back and making sure I girthed it up.

We were able to do some pretty standard baby horse walk/trot/canter to the left, and I was quite happy with her. To the right, though, something is up, and I'm not sure what it is. She will walk forward into the contact and swing through her back, and while it takes some work, I can get her bending and doing normal horse things. The trot and canter, though, are an utter mess. The trot doesn't stick around more than 10 steps, and quickly escalates into the tiny "I can't go forward" canter in place. And she won't go forward in the canter when asked - she gets shirty, and starts going sideways, getting light in front and ends up going left. We ended up doing several steps of trot and then halting or walking, and things got more civil, but I never did get a full circle of trot going right. She does have some hesitance going forward to the left, but goes forward fine, especially if I let her have a bit of a canter and then go back to the trot.

Reading others' blogs (hai, Emma!) has me looking at my girth as well as at my saddle. The jump saddle sits on Arya really nicely, where the dressage saddle is much more fitted to Bailey and doesn't fit Arya nearly as well. I feel like the shoulder relief girth is the right choice, seeing as she seems very sensitive about her shoulder blades, but I may see if I can find a cheap fleece girth to try, to see if something softer and stretchier would work better for her; I have a collection of synthetic girth to try in the mean time, but have a feeling those won't go over any better than the leather.

Putting the above pictures together is actually surprising to me; I figured Bailey must be much curvier than Arya, but I think the reason the dressage saddle works on B is that she's slim through her withers and gets wide below the shoulder blade, where Arya doesn't have nearly the length or height of withers Bailey has, but gets wide pretty much immediately.  The dressage saddle is the narrower of the two saddles, so it may be that I just need to find something new in that department, while the jump saddle continues to work, albeit being offensive due to the flaps. This brings back the age old frustration that I don't know what size tree my jump saddle is; it has a serial, but no sizing stamps, so I don't know if it's a 31 that has stretched with use (or is just bigger than the 31 of my older dressage saddle), a 31.5 or a 32. Bah humbug. And also who knows how she's going to look once she is working more consistently.

I'm also toying with the idea that she needs chiropractic work; the rescue mentioned it when I took Arya, but I haven't had any issues that screamed the need for bones to be popped until now. The one-sidedness of our riding issues, however, have got the wheels turning in my head. We are naught but a bundle of issues at my house; I have been really struggling with fatigue (combined with an inability to stay asleep through the night) for what seems like no reason; Arya has her issues, and Bizzy has a nice cut that has caused her whole leg to swell up in sympathy. Luckily she is a great patient and seems to be totally unaffected by her fat leg, so it's less stressful than it could be, at least?

We were due for more snow, but that has withered and I'll be interested to see if we get anything; either way, I am home alone for a good chunk of next week, so I probably won't have time to ride along with the usual animal care, so things will be quiet here this week - unless I start waxing about saddles again, and I'll do my best to not... I'm even annoying myself at this point!

Fits of Madness and Saddles

We left off in my "I'm a bad crazy person" confession at the point where I was wondering if the Heritage monoflap I had on trial was a majikal unicorn of horse behaving-ness, if my saddles really cause Arya that much discomfort or if she just had a good day.

Well, it was the latter. I managed to get myself to the indoor to ride again the next day and while there was no rearing, outright bolting, bucking or other extracurricular activities, there still were some baby horse tantrums, some noping sideways and some leaping. I had a much safer girth set up, in my opinion, and girthed down, the saddle doesn't sit as nicely as I would have expected given how it sits ungirthed. It seemed a bit too wide and low over her withers, and still sat on her shoulders where it had seemed (probably because of the much too big girth) to sit behind them the day before. 

The rest of the evening ended in some more fuckery (being late, horse wouldn't load, continuing to be late, getting in a car accident... etc) and I returned the saddle to the tack shop the next day. I have been trapped in meetings all week that a good portion of the time I don't actually have to be paying attention during, so I did get in some good thinking and reflection. 

The problem with my current jump saddle on Arya is that I want to ride longer than my saddle really wants to be ridden in; it's the Extra model of the Courbette Vision, meaning that it's got an extra long and extra forward flap. It's amazing when you want to ride short and is really well balanced for jumping and galloping for me, and is also very comfortable. It's a really lovely XC saddle.

But for flatting a young horse, I find that I prefer a longer base of support, and when you lengthen your stirrups... the giant knee rolls aren't there to catch you when Arya does her new favorite hobby of brake checking randomly under saddle. And part of the reason I didn't love the Heritage for myself was that very reason - it had a small front block, set high so it was more of a upper thigh block, and it didn't do anything for me when Arya's pace was inconsistent... which is pretty much always, because baby horse. 

What I want, really, is a less forward version of a Courbette, which has the bonus of already matching everything I own tack wise and also, because I am a nerd, I know which trees work for my horses.

So now I've found a unicorn of a Courbette (because the less forward versions are actually very difficult to find, weirdly enough) that is the same tree as my dressage saddle and just slightly more forward than it, which is perfect guessing from where I want to put my knees on said dressage saddle. The only problem? It's giant.

Like, I found the only 19" seat Courbette saddle I've ever seen for sale. It's not huge looking in photos... but isn't that really big??

My research and guessing has been correct so far in finding that stamped Courbettes (which are actually difficult to find in of themselves - my jump saddle has a serial, but no width or seat markings) go from 1 - 4, with 1 being a 17" saddle. My jump saddle, I believe, is a 1. My dressage saddle is a 4, and measures 18.5". I'm 5'8 with long legs, and find that the dressage saddle suits me well, but I do have some space behind my bum in the seat. 

If  things come together and I sell Foxie's old AP for what I want... would you go for it? I'm trying to balance knowing that Courbette saddles haven't been made since 2011 at the latest, and worrying that if I don't find something in a timely manner... I might not find one at all. And I'm thinking that the only way I can continue my black and brown tack obsession after that is to get really, really lucky... or go custom. 

I'm probably still in a "fit of madness" here, but... it's tempting. Especially if I sell that AP, I'll have 3 horses and 2 saddles - the horror!

I did a (bad) thing

As is clearly evident in my last post, I am going insane from the fact that while I've been doing a lot of petting of horses and caring for horses, it's been too damn cold to be motivated (or willing to risk my fingers and toes) to ride them. When I was younger, I feel I was tougher - or at least more oblivious - and happily took lessons all winter outside, though I was lucky to have a dad who always had hand or toe warmers in his pockets, and who worked hard to keep me warm and happy while doing what I loved. It's endlessly frustrating to stare out the windows at my horses and have nothing I want more than to go for a ride, but because winter sucks, the last month or so has been spent in a deep freeze. 

I wrote about my memorable outdoor rides on one of the days where we got above 20 degrees, and felt powerless. My horses are getting more out of shape (because at least my thoroughbreds don't seem to get fat) and more and more feral, and there's nothing I can do about it. Neither of the two in work are in a mental place to hack safely (especially alone - they might be ok with a steady lead, but we don't have a steady lead), and the few days of warmer weather we had turned back to cold quickly, but not before it rained for 12 hours before the temps dropped back down, so we've got ice under what is now two fresh layers of snow. 

So here I am, as bad tempered and whiny as ever.

And to deal with that boredom, I've been doing a lot of online... perusing. Because when you have a friend with some saddle money who keeps talking about wanting a monoflap, you shop.

And when a monoflap you've seen on Craigslist (wondering if the owner would let you trial it) shows up at the local tack shop that does let you trial saddles, you go a bit crazy. 

So like a crazy person, I made a spur decision on Saturday and ran down to the tack shop to sit in the saddle (after busting in the door 45 minutes to close with my Vision in hand, asking if I can set it on their dummy because I need to compare) and with 15 minutes to go before close, I pulled out of their parking lot with said coveted monoflap out on loan. And on Sunday, when my lovely friend J came to see the new farm resident, chit chat and pick up her stuff (I forgot to give her a very belated Christmas present, fail!) I basically kidnapped her and forced her to come with me to the indoor so I could have someone to call 911 if/when Arya put me in the rafters.

I'm an asshole, so what?

And then, when we got there (it was snowing, so I drove extra grandma like) none of my girths worked. At all. Not even close. I ended up borrowing a girth from N, who owns said indoor, and happens to have a handful of small ponies, who obviously wear small girths. We ended up using a 44" girth, which was still too big, but ok-ish enough that I felt safe enough to swing a leg over my horse. Also, because when you do crazy things like kidnap friends and haul horses in the  start of snow storms, you get on and ride the damn horse in the fancy ass saddle. 

And I hate to say it, but I was rewarded for doing lots of badly planned, badly prepared for things. Because Arya was perfect. There was no leaping, or rearing, or bucking. There was no bolting. (I feel like I'm Dr. Seuss here) or noping the f out of anything. We lunged before I tacked her up, and I could hardly get her to canter. And the worst "thing" she did under saddle was get behind my leg and need to be chased up at the canter because she kept dying out on me. 

And I think, maybe, I've been blaming a bitchy horse for something that isn't 100% her fault. Because it's been so cold, I haven't looked at a saddle on her back without pads in some time. Things fit her well enough when she arrived this summer... but she has grown. So after said starry-eyed ride, I brought the monoflap down with me do to chores so I could look at it without pads. 

And then, because science, I grabbed the Vision dressage saddle I've been using because I didn't think the wider Vision jump saddle fit her well: 

While it's not glaringly awful, it is a lot tighter through the shoulder and while I wouldn't call it "rock", the rear panels don't make great contact (you can see it hovering). Of course this makes me all kinds of anxious... but I guess I'll have to try and fit in another ride before the monoflap goes back to the store. 

In the mean time, is anyone in the market for a very pretty AP / Dressage saddle? 

2018 So Far

As we've been generally immersed in some miserable, cold weather, I have only worked the horses once since we rang in the new year. This cold weather is really taking it's toll on morale and on the horse's ability to remember that they're broke and not feral. Last weekend, we had a really nice warm up, so of course I got all dressed up and got Arya tacked up to ride. We lunged first, and this is where the adventures began; she (probably not mindfully) faked me out into thinking she was tired from all of the running the girls had done the way before. She trotted around pretty sedately, did her ground work obediently enough. She seemed disinclined to canter, and now that I think about it, it might have been due to the rough ground under the snow, or because I was using the shorter line vs a lunge line.

LOL my mom is an idiot

I got on her, and she immediately was disinclined to walk, or be steered, or listen. She threw her body around a bit, and I realized that I had made a mistake... and decided that since I was on, I might as well get this shit over with.

And by "this shit" I anticipated a good amount of leaping, bolting, throwing of shoulders, losses of steering and sucking back from the contact so she can do crazy things. She did all of the above, and threw in a lovely full diagonal of my 60x200 ring at a full bolt, while bucking. I wish I had video, because in that process, I think she pulled like 99% of the muscles in my body, yet somehow I STAYED ON, GUYS. I ran her into the fence and got her stopped - because, like the psychopath she is, she was aiming towards the broken part of the fence where there are still open drainage trenches like she was going to nope the F out of the arena again. And then promptly break her leg because there are super deep, unfilled ditches out there, idiot!

She didn't really seem to get tired, but we fought and fought and finally I got her to settle down enough to walk, trot and canter without trying to actively murder me, so we called it a day. She is so athletic and talented; before she settled, she was showing off her ability to sit and turn and stay relatively balanced even on a tiny circle and also was doing a very impressive, if obnoxious, tiny collected canter that hardly moved forward at all. She needs to learn to go forward, for sure,

She was gross and sweaty and super itchy.

I was a bit smarter for horse #2 (or just realizing that I wasn't physically capable of another ride of that... drama) and lunged BB before I got on her, but she proved to be the easier of the two, as per always. She pinged around on the line, and was well behaved under saddle, if just generally and noticeably out of shape.

I got Arya to burn off a bit of energy on the lunge again on Tuesday, but I am trying to decide if I am brave enough to take her over to the indoor ring this weekend. It's a bit scary to take a young horse on their first off property excursion alone; I've always had someone (usually a big heavy man to hold my wild animal) with me. I might not even plan to ride, the first time, just to do ground work and acclimate her to the ring.

Since so many of you have young or green horses, what are your tips for safely taking your young horse on their first field trip? Do you lower your expectations, or keep plans fluid based on how they act?

2018 Goals

Despite my total lack of ambition so far this year (and most of last month), I have tried  to think about what I want to do with these gosh darn animals of mine besides watch them frolic out of my family room window. Everyone is out of shape and semi-feral after almost a month off - an accidental vacation that is hopefully coming to an end this weekend. I think, when you look through the list, my ambitions are kind of the same across the board - have horses in work, and progressing in that work. Get them out to do things (for the sport horses) and try to better my own riding in the process.

Bailey:

- Jump more XC
- Figure out a discipline she likes and pursue it
- If possible, go to a show/event/etc in this discipline

Arya:

- Confidence dependent, start jumping and introduce XC
- Confidence dependent, start pursuing more dressage skillz: lateral work, being more through and forward into the bridle, half halts, explore variation in gaits, etc.
- Confidence dependent, go to a clinic or take some lessons

Bizzy:

- Come back into semi-regular work when the ground unfreezes
- Toodle, lunge or ride 1x a week (or more, time permitting)
- Figure out a feed plan that works for her... rounder stature especially once we have pastures.

Donkey:

- Regular grooming and handling to prevent her from becoming feral
- Perhaps: learn to pony, or lunge. Will most likely work on teaching her to load

General:

- Regularly evaluate all horses for diet changes, tack fit, etc. Ensure all needs are met
- Groom all animals more regularly - preferably 3x a week, if not being regularly worked

Farm:

- Fence new pastures
- Learn about and start composting bedding and manure / Move the current muck heap to a better, permanent location / Investigate spreaders to use the compost on the hay field
- Find a farmer to bale the hay field and bale our own hay
- Replace trailer tack room floor with something easier to maintain/clean than carpet
- Keep things cleaner! Powerwash the trailer, clean tack regularly and pursue organization solutions in the barn.
- Build at least 1 new jump and paint the ones I have.

Me:
- Ride more, excuses less.
- Go to a clinic or show - I'm aiming for Adult Riders camp if it's similar to the 2017 format (and at a venue I need to jump at more to hone my chill), but would like to ride Arya with Dom Schramm, and find BB a trainer or clinician who works for her.
- Find boots that work for my day-to-day riding needs
- Track horse and barn related spending by category and month

New Year, New Kid

I'm trying to get some of my year-end wrap up posts done, but lost all motivation due to the weather, and not being able to even clean two stalls without needing to defrost my fingers and toes, so hopefully you'll forgive me for pushing off some of the deeper thinking until I'm more capable of it.

We do have a new face, who has been showing up on the Farm instagram (@foxpointfarmmn) for those of you who follow over there. Meet Bizzy!

No time for pictures, only time for hay.

This does not properly express the roundness of this horse. She's massive.

Yes, I know, you guys had basically talked me out of her. But as my husband pointed out, she wasn't exactly doing anything at the CANTER rescue other than sitting in the pasture and babysitting other horses. And if that's generally her fate (as no one ever seemed interested in her for a job, and some folks were heavily critical of her conformation flaws when she was advertised as a broodmare despite having a few foals), why shouldn't she come live with me, and be spoiled as best I can while also serving the important purpose of keeping my girls company and providing some balance to my herd?

It seems silly to have a 3rd horse, but I'm actually very pleased with her; she's gone a bit feral from being a pasture pet, but she and Bailey are already quite bonded to each other and she loves the donkey. Arya is still biting at her a good amount, but she's kind of a B in general and she's also been out of work for several weeks, so I think they're all bored. So far, they are a happy little herd - they roll, and run and hang out as a family unit pretty well, and Bizzy is very patient with Bailey, who is sticking her nose where it doesn't belong and being silly, like she always does. When things melt out this spring, I plan to get her back into a program to get her body back into some type of shape - lunging and some light riding - to help lift that saggy topline. She's proven she's an easy keeper - she's quite fat right now despite being on 24 hour turn out in the negative temps - and is pretty tidy in her stall. She seems pretty savvy and chill about life, so I'm excited that my immature children have a patient mother figure in the pasture. She isn't a fancy moving show horse type, but she's growing on me!

I'm still playing with the spelling on her name, or trying to decide if I want to change it. I couldn't be happier that I renamed Arya. Do you rename horses? If you had a Bizzy, what would you call her?