Powerpac Advice?

Okay guys, I have heard a lot of you talk about using the Panacur Powerpac 5-day dewormer on your horses and I need your experience...

I hear that this time of year is one of the best times to use the Powerpac to clean out Strongyles.

I usually wait for a good hard freeze and a bit of a cold spell before deworming for the winter and this year I missed getting that done in December.

Does anyone think I need to hit the horses with Ivomectrin to clean out whatever worms are present before using the Powerpac (6weeks after deworming with Ivomectrin)?

No one here should have an unusually heavy worm load, but due to observing some cocked tails, I'm sure they have bot worms and this year I really wanted to try the Powerpac to clean out encysted parasites. That seems to have been a big problem for several of our blogger friends last year, even for horses on regular deworming schedules.

I forgot to ask the vet about this the other day when I was in his office.

On The Downhill Slide

It's that time. Time to get back to work on the ponies. The first barrel race of the year is only a couple months away ya know. March 23rd!

Tried that saddle on Moon...
(Just using Meg's pad as a guide and I see I need to order a shorter length. This one is still too long on Moon)

See GL...Us western people tent our pads too. ;-)

I dunno, it fits better than anything else I have. I need to get to get new blevin's buckles for it, new stirrups and oil it so I can cinch it down and start riding it. I am hoping that it will lay better at the back after having been oiled.

Started bringing these three in for daily graining...

Moon, Spooks and Turk.

Right now, the focus is only on these three. Frosty will join the mix soon, then Bugs and finally Jet as the weather warms.

The only other two I will be bringing out for myself later this year will be big Sandy and Shooter. Beretta will go back to SD for a year.

Meg has mentioned she would like to have her blue roan back for this season. It's the first time she has mentioned competing again in a long time. I hope she wants to get back on track with the horses. I have sorely missed her company. I don't want to push, but I am really hoping that she will also take on that Boon Bar mare we have. That's a nice mare and she sure looks like she would be fun. I'd take her for myself, but 8 head is going to keep me more than busy this year.

Me, Me, Me

With everything pretty much figured out on the equine crew that I have here, I think this year...Hopefully!...I get this year to focus on myself.

After having so many problems with 2nd barrel last year, I really am going back to the drawing board.

Me!

Not Moon.

That's not to say that Moon doesn't need a lot more slow, solid patterning. He does. As does everything else I have here that is ready to start working their way into competition.

But I am going to fix most of the problem with 2nd barrel by fixing myself first.

And that doesn't involve anything to do with horses.

Instead, I'll be hitting the slopes.

Back in my 20's I learned how to snow ski and actually spent several winters doing as much as I could.

It was my second year into skiing that I figured out a very strange correlation between changing direction on the ski slope and setting a horse up to turn a barrel.

LMAO...I know! WTH right?

For some reason, I have absolutely no problem with setting a horse up to take 1st barrel nor do I have a problem changing directions to the right on the ski slope. However, changing direction going left is eechy, jerky, a bit out of control and often results in a wreck. It's about the same when I set a horse up to take the 2nd barrel.

Now, what exactly the correlation is, I can't tell you. There is something I inherently do with my hip and my shoulder going that way that doesn't make turning to the left a smooth, fluid motion. LOL-Anyone remember Zoolander? Where Zoolander confesses after losing the 'walk off' that he can only turn one direction. Bwahahaha-That's me.

Anyway, it took quite a while for me to figure out how to smooth out my left hand turns on the ski slope and after I did, I didn't have problems turning the 2nd barrel when I was competing. For a long time, I was able to hold onto that certain 'feeling' that I figured out on the slope and when setting up for a turn into 2nd barrel, but I seem to have lost it.

So it's back to the slopes to see if I can pick it up again. Besides...I have really missed skiing over the years...and it's not a bad way to get myself into riding shape again either.