The Well Adjusted Horse

Alas, I should be in bed, but an afternoon nap today has left me bright eyed and bushy tailed. Gahhh!
This is a subject that I have been thinking about for some time. Since all I'm working on at the moment is mindless little fall projects at the moment, I thought this would be a good time to get into a discussion about this particular subject. Bear with the boring beginning, it's necessary to put it in here because the trials we go through to get to a certain point are really what make us slap ourselves in the forehead and go...Now it all makes sense!

For about a decade I have been a firm and avid believer in the benefits of equine chiropractic care. My first experience with it was as a last ditch effort to "fix" a crazy little 13.3H horse.

Scooter was a 7y/o gelding that I had raised, but traded to a friend of the family, when he was a 2y/o. I traded him because he was tiny. His mother wasn't very big, only about 14.2H, but it was obvious that Scooter wasn't even going to come close to that. So I traded him for a cute, red dun filly. He was supposed to be turned into a kids horse for this guy's grandson. Well, that fall, my brother was at a horse sale and ran into this guy. He was there dumping my little Scooter. Apparently another horse had run him through the wire and his left hind leg was cut to shit, infected and he was thin, lame and wild as a march hare. My brother bought him to keep him from going to kill. On his way home, my brother stopped at another friend's house. He unloaded the little horse and asked his guy's kids if they would doctor Scooter's hind leg until it was healed and spend some time getting him gentle again. They said sure and kept him for about 60 days. Around about the time, my brother brought him home to the ranch, my mom asked me to buy him back from my brother.

I was in the process of purchasing an older barrel horse that had a big knee. That horse was the only horse I have ever had a vet-check done on in my life. Although the vet thought I could keep the horse sound and I really liked him, the people who I was purchasing the barrel horse were good enough to let me back out of the sale on the condition they could have his ex-rays and permission to use the vet-check. I said of course and even took him to a couple barrel racings so they had video of him running. Needless to say, they got him sold pretty quick and I got my pony back. He was a coming 3 year old.

Well, the next couple years came and went pretty quick and I didn't do a whole lot with the little guy. He had some pretty bad habits; he would pull back violently for no apparent reason, he was bad, bad, bad about those hind feet and was so spooky about everything, any movement slow or sudden caused him to flinch or shy away. But, he got broke to ride, surprisingly without any fuss, he never bucked or got nasty. In those two years of just sorta messing with him now and then, a few rides here and a few there, it became pretty apparent that this little horse was fast. I mean super fast. He was also pretty cowy.

The idea that he might make a pretty good little barrel and pole horse for Megan started to form in my head. Megan was 3 and I figured that by the time he got really solid, she would be old enough to ride him. But another year into it, I really started to realize that this little guy was not little kid horse material. His spookiness never went away, we had to use a twine lip twitch to trim or shoe his hind feet and that pulling back thing was really pissing me off. Every time I turned around I was buying new lead ropes. He was riding pretty good though and patterning really well on the barrels. His biggest problem was handling him on the ground. If he had been a big horse, he would have been pretty dangerous, but since he was little it was more irritating than anything. But certainly nothing I trusted with my little girl.

There were some riding issues. Trying to lope to the right in anything smaller than 60-70' circle caused him to panic. The couple of times that I exhibitioned him on barrels, he would run to 1st, set up like he was going to take it and then...throw his head up(even with a tie-down), duck out and flat run off. No amount of slow patterning or practice runs fixed it. I was stumped. I had never had a horse act like this before. Scooter's nickname became "The Bug-Eyed Freak".

I finally sent him to my brother, who was working in Nebraska, to ride. I figured that those sandhills and some good old fashioned hard work would settle him down. I also told my brother that if he ran across a family with some older kids who could ride pretty good to sell him. My brother got no takers and after a couple of months asked me to come get him. So we loaded up and drove from North Dakota to Nebraska to spend a week with my brother. My husband took his head horse, so him and my brother could go to a team roping. While there, my brother had a family ask about Scooter, so we hauled him to their house so they could try him out. While there, my brother and this guy got to talking about the veterinarian in North Platte that did equine chiropractic work and how many team ropers were taking their horses to him to be worked on. My brother got the number because he had horse that would not pull anymore and this guy said the thought the chiro could help him. The bells were ringing in my head on the ride home!!!

I got to thinking about all of the trauma that Scooter had suffered in his short life and I wondered if this guy could help him. Hey, when you are desperate you are willing to try anything! So the next day, I called the vet and scheduled an appointment for my brother's horse and Scooter. I was hoping he could help, but I had no clue as to how much this guy was fixing to change Scooter's life...and mine!

Sudden Road Trip

Well, we knew it was coming...but I wasn't really planning on going to Nebraska today to pick up the two geldings that a friend was riding for us. But that is what mom and I ended up doing. The guy called and said he had the horses in town, at the sale barn, because he was working there today and asked if we could come and pick them up. They've been gone for what? About 6 weeks? Anyway, he is done working on the ranch he was at for the winter and thought these two had had enough for awhile. We sure don't mind our horses having to go to work, but we aren't trying to use them up, so we were more than happy to bring them home. Here is a couple of before and after pictures, so you can see that they really did have to work for a living for at least a little while-LOL.

Blue-Before...

Blue-Today...

Damn, who knew the horse had a wither? And shoulders? or that that flabby flank really could pull up and give him a decent underline? Wow! Okay, I admit he actually looks nicer in the "before" picture...but OMG...that horse was so obese in that picture, we were afraid he was gonna grass founder. Maybe not so handsome looking in the after picture, but definitely in much better shape. His cresty neck is almost normal. This would be the first time that I have ever seen the horse when he wasn't obese. Now, we are gonna have to put a bit of bloom back on him, so he looks good, but I am bound and determined that he never goes back to being a huge hog.

So Andrea-your favorite Blue horse is home again!!

The other gelding was Sandy. Now, the main reason for sending Sandy, was to see just how fast this horse was. I started him on barrels last year and he was loping the pattern nicely. I ran barrels on his 1/2 sister(out of the same dam) and she could mortally fly. But she was much lighter made than Sandy and I wasn't just too sure that this big guy had quite enough speed to be really competitive. My fears were completely unfounded. The guy who rode him said he was never, not one single time, ever out-ran in the pasture. Now a yearling bovine can hit a pretty good lick when they have the space to line out, so I am pretty sure that Sandy is fast enough to run barrels.

Sandy-Before...

Sandy-Today...

Conformationally speaking, I could tear this horse to shreds. But it's one of those cases where people can rip him apart and I will just smile. He will take me to the pay window in the near future, I do believe. The guy who was riding him made a point to look my mother in the eye with a very stern face, and tell her "That is one nice gelding.". That compliment coming from a "shore 'nuf" cowboy means the world to mom and I. He liked Blue too, but Blue is a different kind of horse. He is great for trailing cattle. He is cowy enough that he won't let anything get by, but he has a sweet and gentle nature. He would much rather snuggle up to you for a treat than rough it as a ranch horse. That is fine by us too.

I had to post a couple of pictures of the tractors for ya...

The red one on the right is the one I usually work with. It is a nice sized tractor and handles nicely. The big boy on the left is most assuridly a "big boy" toy. But, it is good to know how to run both of them.

Roan Dog's nose is healing well...

It healed together better than I thought it would. But, I still see a bit of cosmetic surgury in his future. Poor guy! He misses me! He let me walk right up to him and pet him all over.
He really is a sweet horse. I need to get back to work on him. I don't want to lose all the ground I gained this year.

And then there is Boon...

She is gaining weight and starting to relax(a little). Finally, she is learning to fit in with her brethern. Mom has her on a supplement that helps heal ulcers-don't know if she actually had any, but it won't hurt her and it seems to be helping her relax. I was going to start saddling her and redoing her ground work. But when I went to trim her back feet, she had a fit. I went over her and she is most definitely out in at least two places in her neck and at the point of her croup. You can actually see where one hip point is higher than the other and she is very tender to any pressure applied in that region. No wonder she is fighting having her back feed picked up. It really makes you wonder what the hell those people did to her....uuuhhhhh...on the other hand I probably don't want to know, I would probably pop him in the nose for being so stupid!

Oh, here is the trio of sorrel sisters we brought in from the ranch at the same time we brought Roan Dog to town.

This is "no name"(8y/o)...she is the only horse we have that has no name. The poor thing got lost in the herd for a few years. I did some ground work on her a couple of years ago and she saddled without a hump. I am going to get her broke yet this fall(I hope the weather holds out). She is too sweet to just let stand around...
This is Electra. This mare is probably the fastest of the 6 full brother/sister brood we have. She was pretty waspy when she was younger, but has mellowed with age(7y/o). She is on the list to get broke too. I would like to run barrels on her...
And this is "G". She is actually a pretty solid heel and breakaway horse. Man, can she break out of the box!! I showed her a couple of years ago and she won the halter and showmanship classes. She is a natural little pleasure-type mover, so usually does pretty well in the slow classes too. Somewhere along the line, she lost part of the sight(only at the bottom) in her left eye. The only time it ever seems to affect her though is riding in rough country and the Trail class-sidepassing over a log to the left freaks her out...
All three of these mares mom has contemplated leasing out as broodmares. A person sure hates to sell a broodmare in this market. Too many people would get a couple of foals out of them and ship them down the pike. I think mom has pretty much figured out that that isn't going to happen and is resigned to keeping them. I think G could find a decent home, even with her eye because she is so solid, but I sure need to get her looking like she did when I was showing her. This is not a good picture of her, so here is what she looks like "all fit up"...

G and "no name" are pretty much identical twins, so Megan and I thought we should get both of them fit up for the show season next year and see how many people we could confuse-LOL.

So that was my day today. Not a lot accomplished...again! But tomorrow is another day and the ponies will still be here-LOL.

Oh, I almost forgot...Western classes are usually awarded buckles as Hi-Point Awards, but what do you give someone as a Hi-Point Award for English? Megan won the Hi-Point English Award this year in 4-H and we don't know what to award her-no one has ever won that award in our small, western-riding community.

Another Year Completed

Well, for 4-H anyway.

Tonight was our "big" leader meeting and the judging of the 4-H Books. It really is neat to go through the books and see what all the kids have accomplished over the year. Most of these kids work really hard in 4-H...going to meetings, community service, fundraisers and exhibiting.

There are always some frustrating moments for us leaders...scheduling activities is a nightmare. Since this is such a small community, most of the kids that are involved in 4-H are also involved in several school activities and often church too. That makes it tough. That is part of the reason all of the horse practices that I thought would be so wonderful this spring, never materialized. Trying to schedule them so that most of the kids could participate just meant that they never materialized.

But, it is a learning process. I learned that some things just have to be scheduled and those that can show up, do and those that can't, often try to fit it in anyway. I really do want to build on the horse program for these kids, so if the weather holds out, I am going to start scheduling a practice a week. This winter, I will borrow other people's videos and try to have a "training/showing" program once a month. This way the kids can watch some better quality riders, we can discuss training methods and hopefully keep them enthused about learning more.

The other leaders are often swamped with jobs and their own kids' activities. I figure it is the least I can do, because I really do believe that 4-H is a valuable program for kids and their parents alike. Hopefully, we can add some other livestock judging to the program and get these kids involved in more projects. It has really been proven that if you offer it, the kids will show up.

All this amid the uncertainty of our county even being able to keep our Extension Office. Honestly, in my mind-I would rather join with another county that has a full time office and a good extension agent rather than keep the dink we have. We can keep our club in this county, but will finally have access to an agent that will work with us and has an office that is open 5 days a week. The other leaders see losing the office as losing control over our 4-H program. I see it as an opportunity to expand our 4-H program and finally be able to offer our kids the full benefit of what a good 4-H Extension Agent has to offer. We shall see what the future brings.

Sorry Sunny-no pictures of the "big bucks" for T tonight. I got the call from school this morning and got to go substitute teach. I think I will be sticking to the High School and the Elementary this year. I didn't like subbing for the middle school last year, but did because of Megan. The little kids can get crazy, but they are just little. The high schoolers know not to get too out of line with me-I'll catch up to them later and give them hell. The middle schoolers are little buttheads and I really don't like having to deal with their crap all day long. So I just won't...so HA!