Pony Time And A Little Spring Planning

I have promised myself I would start devoting a bit more time to my blog again. The winter blahs have disappeared with the greening of the grass. ;-)

Back from our Arizona trip, Meg and I took a day to recover, but it's back to the ponies as of today. Competition time is right around the corner. There is a gymkhana at the end of this month and Meg and I both want to be prepared to go and get the first runs of the year out of the way.

Meg has been working hard to get her blue roan, Rip back into shape. He's coming around really well...especially when you take into consideration he has had the last 2 years off, banged up his knee and is 16y/o this year...

(Sorry, didn't realize the light was so bad in this pic)

Meg said he actually feels more alive and hotter than he ever felt before. She's pretty excited to run him and see what his time is like. He's the same old 'ranch horse' out in the desert though...


Frosty is coming around like...unbelievably well. Last year, I spent a lot of time ponying him off of Moon, because he was such a booger. This year, HE is the pony horse...
I have been having hell with Moon's health, but I think I have it figured out. Last fall, I figured out the ulcer thing, so was doing all the reading and research on that. I bought some alfalfa for the benefits it provides as far as gastric ulcers...Didn't take me more than a couple of weeks to remember WHY I haven't had Moon on alfalfa all along...It has a horrible effect on his respiratory. I had just momentarily forgot that. His breathing becomes labored and when I was riding him, it was like he was completely winded. This time the alarm bells went off quickly and I immediately removed alfalfa from his diet (which pissed him off to no end), put him on an immune booster and contacted an herbalist to see what is the best things to feed to assist the respiratory system.

The discussion with the herbalist was eye-opening. He believes that some of my competition problems with Moon stem from respiratory distress. I know there have been times when I have run Moon and it all starts good and then he starts to feel frantic in the run. I have never had a problem with a horse getting away from me in a run as often as I have with Moon, so while I know I have a ways to go to really be able to ride him properly...I don't really think it is a 'training' issue. I started him on a product called Mo Lung, for race horses, that is a bronchial dilator. Along with the immune booster and a double helping of MSM. We'll see if and how well this works...

On a brighter note...

I found a stallion to breed to Chunk (Beretta's dam)...
This guy is darned near perfect...
This was a picture his owner took right after he bought him, so ignore the number on the butt. His name is Meme's Boy. He was raced and has a speed index (SI) of 90. Believe me...that's plenty fast to sire barrel horses and this horse has sired quite a few winners already. He is a son of Rare Form, SI-120. Out of an Azure Te/Easy Jet mare. These modern racing bloodlines should be a perfect nick for Chunk's foundation racing pedigree (Lady Bug's Moon and Leo). I saw this horse in person when I was home in January and what a nice, nice horse. He really is everything you could ever want in a stallion.

So while I was making the deal to breed Chunk to that stallion, I also worked up another deal to breed a couple of mares to his other stallion...

This is Rocket Irish Whiskey. He is a son of Paddys Irish Whiskey. Out of a Doc O' Dynamite/Rocket Wrangler mare. His owner uses him for everything and then his kids ride the hair off of him. His owner has been begging to let us breed a mare or two to him every since he got him a few years ago. The cross of our foundation-bred mares should be an optimal cross to this horse. Soooo...what I finally worked out was...We would let the owner of the stallion breed two of our mares. He picked Cowgirl (Gunner's dam) to breed to and he gets that foal. We picked a red dun mare we have that has not settled to our stallion by pasture breeding. We get that foal...if she settles.