Here are some great posts from the horse blogging world this week.
How to make your own Smartpaks from DIY Horse Ownership
Smartpaks can be great, or they can be way too pricey for convenience. If you have a little bit of extra time, this is definitely the way to go.
Izzy's Leg: Update 8 from Not So Speedy Dressage
AWESOME progress on Izzy's wound and a great photo series of how it's wrapped. The whole series has been so educational and fascinating. Not recommended for those with weaker stomachs...
European Adventure from The $900 Facebook Pony
Read the whole series. I'll just wait here. This links to Part 1 and there are buttons to continue you on your journey at the bottom of each post. If you get too insanely jealous just take a short break and come back. They're worth it.
Costume Creations: RuPaul Drag Horse from Poor Woman Showing
This post just flat out wins the internet this week.
HITS 1995 from Braymere Custom Saddlery
Vintage showjumping! Awesome.
King's Canyon Ride from Funder's Good Idea
All that green, and those trails, just made me swoon.
Ask and Answer: Boot 'Em Up from Hey Hey Holls
Boots are a perennial favorite question. I like this post because it links to some actual science about the pros and cons of warming legs up underneath boots.
Grant Schneiderman Clinic Recap from Fraidy Cat Eventing
Really, really nice clinic recap! Good meaty reading.
Bel Joeor: Life + Horses
Saturday, March 14, 2015
Friday, March 13, 2015
MARCH MADNESS: Horse Movie Style
I have a dream.
I want to stage a March Madness tournament for horse movies.
Here's how I imagine this working. Comment on this blog with names of horse movies. I'll do an initial list below, too.
On Monday, March 16, I will put up a poll. You can choose your top 5. Based on the weighted results of that poll, I will "seed" a sweet 16, and present that on the following day.
Beginning on March 18, I will begin competitions. Each day, I'll put up a poll for our matchup, with short descriptions of the movies, links to their imdb pages, images, etc., so that we can all make informed decisions. The winner of the poll advances.
On Monday, March 30, we will crown our champion. I think it'll be a fun way to talk about our favorite horse movies, and maybe discover some new ones.
SO! Comment here with names of horse movies that you think should be in the initial list!
I'll start:
Black Beauty (1994)
The Black Stallion
Danny
Dreamer
Flicka
Hidalgo
The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suite
The Horse Whisperer
International Velvet
The Long Shot
The Man from Snowy River
Miracle of the White Stallions
National Velvet
Seabiscuit
Secretariat
Spirit: Wild Stallion of the Cimarron
Sylvester
War Horse
Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken
What am I missing? I know more than a few...
Thursday, March 12, 2015
There ought to be a word...
One of the things I did during my endless night check was let my mind wander and think about why I actually love horses, instead of how frustrated I was that this was taking so long.
I thought about language and writing and all the wonderful words that are connected to horses, and are so horse-specific. Then I thought about all the feelings and moments in horses that have no words.
So, for your perusal, here are a list of horse things that really ought to have their own word. I bet we can think up tons more!
- the endless hanging moment in the middle of a wide oxer when you've been in the air just half a heartbeat longer than you thought possible
- the smell of a horse's nose in summer, that perfect mix of sunshine, grass, and horse
- the adrenaline rush of a horse taking up the bit and surging forward when you ask for a gallop
- the almost audible click of a horse locking on to a fence
- the sense of rightness in the universe when you nail the perfect striding to a perfect jump
- the moment when you realize that the mud puddle you just stepped in is over the height of your boots, and your foot is coming back up with just a sock
- the perfect spot where a horse's neck meets his shoulder, you know, the one where you bury your face when you need to cry
- the peaceful happy sound of a barn full of horses munching on hay at the end of a long day
- the endless possibility of a forward-striding horse on a beautiful open trail
- the gangly wobbly awkwardness of a week-old foal out in the field
- the floating weightlessness of a collected canter
- the intense, neverending itch of hay chaff stuck underneath a bra and down your underwear
- the happy, productive, satisfying feel of bridle leather between your fingers as you work conditioner into it
- the muscle memory that takes over when you post to a lovely big trot without even thinking
Anyone else?
I thought about language and writing and all the wonderful words that are connected to horses, and are so horse-specific. Then I thought about all the feelings and moments in horses that have no words.
So, for your perusal, here are a list of horse things that really ought to have their own word. I bet we can think up tons more!
- the endless hanging moment in the middle of a wide oxer when you've been in the air just half a heartbeat longer than you thought possible
- the smell of a horse's nose in summer, that perfect mix of sunshine, grass, and horse
- the adrenaline rush of a horse taking up the bit and surging forward when you ask for a gallop
- the almost audible click of a horse locking on to a fence
- the sense of rightness in the universe when you nail the perfect striding to a perfect jump
- the moment when you realize that the mud puddle you just stepped in is over the height of your boots, and your foot is coming back up with just a sock
- the perfect spot where a horse's neck meets his shoulder, you know, the one where you bury your face when you need to cry
- the peaceful happy sound of a barn full of horses munching on hay at the end of a long day
- the endless possibility of a forward-striding horse on a beautiful open trail
- the gangly wobbly awkwardness of a week-old foal out in the field
- the floating weightlessness of a collected canter
- the intense, neverending itch of hay chaff stuck underneath a bra and down your underwear
- the happy, productive, satisfying feel of bridle leather between your fingers as you work conditioner into it
- the muscle memory that takes over when you post to a lovely big trot without even thinking
Anyone else?
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Do you have a horse emergency fund?
I'm currently devoting all my extra cash toward building Tristan's emergency fund back up. I had a really solid personal emergency fund as well as a decent horse-specific one, but, well, the last 2 years or so have not gone so well for either of those two accounts. My personal emergency fund is on its own dedicated savings plan, but Tristan's account has mostly been seeded with a few dollars here, a few dollars there.
So as I am making plans, I found myself wondering: how many people out there have a horse-specific emergency fund? Hence the poll.
So as I am making plans, I found myself wondering: how many people out there have a horse-specific emergency fund? Hence the poll.
Monday, March 9, 2015
Night Check
Does your barn do a night check? What does it consist of?
I've always felt most comfortable keeping Tristan at a boarding barn that does night check. I think it's a good double-check, and a good way to help keep barn management flowing smoothly. It makes me feel more comfortable, as a nervous horse owner.
Last Friday night, I did night check, since one of the regular barn workers was visiting with the trainer in Florida. (And posting photos of kayaking in t-shirts on Facebook, sob.) I hadn't done it in nearly a year, so the barn manager left me a list of what the current night check routine is.
Holy mackerel, guys. Here was my night check.
9:00 pm - Arrive, turn on lights, walk up and down the aisle to make sure everyone is bright and alert
9:05 pm - Duck into tack room, let cat out, check the list.
9:06 pm - Put on lined rubber gloves and start soaking hay for the two recent colic cases. Tear the hay up into tiny shreds, flip over and over and over again to make sure water penetrates every possible nook and cranny.
9:15 pm - Start haying remaining horses in the barn. Everyone gets two flakes, except for a few who get three, and the yearling, who gets one. 2/3 of the horses in the barn have Nibble Nets right now. All of the Nibble Nets are double-clasped and those clasps are tied together with baling twine. The first stall takes me a solid 7 minutes and I swear, out loud, repeatedly. You haven't known frustration until you've tried to stuff two flakes of hay into a Nibble Net hung at head-height, while undoing the tiny clasps with thick winter chore gloves, while a deeply impatient horse is dancing back and forth, snatching pieces of hay that are escaping your arms.
10:07 pm - Finish haying (YES, REALLY), and do blankets. Every horse that had a neck cover got that neck cover that cover pulled up and buckled down. One horse was wearing a cooler from being worked earlier in the evening; I pulled that and put on the two blankets in the aisle. Probably about 1/3 of the horses had some layer that needed to be added. I also took that time to look hard at all the other blanketed horses, and fixed two leg straps that had come undone. Fortunately, I was warmed up enough from haying that I could take my gloves off to do the straps.
10:23 pm - Toss grain to the horses who either got a snack at night check, or whose evening grain had waited until night check because they had been worked right around dinner time. Add water to all the grain.
10:30 pm - Start water. Oh, winter water. My nemesis. I had two options: hose or buckets. Using the buckets would take longer, be harder work, and involve more walking back and forth. Using the hose would guarantee that I would screw up the draining, hanging, and putting away, especially with the barn manager's warning that the hose would freeze very, very quickly once I stopped using it. Buckets, then!
11:07 pm - Water done. On the one hand: I am now twice as cold, have ice rimmed all over my jacket, and pulled something in my elbow hauling water to 25 horses. On the other hand: is there anything quite as satisfying as using a sledgehammer to smash out ice from buckets?
11:08 pm - Quick double-check of the list the barn manager left for me. Check everything off. Do one last walk up and down the aisles, checking doors, latches, and lights. Everyone looks happy, and the mare who earlier was a bit unexcited about her hay is going at it with gusto now. Good. Tristan, who got extra hay scrids and a sip from every water bucket as I went by, doesn't really want to see me go, and shoves me all over the place with his nose while I close up his stall door, which I had left open with a stall guard up.
11:15 pm - Put the cat back in the tack room, over his loud protests. It's 14 degrees and predicted to hit 1 degree by about 3 am, so I don't feel right leaving him out. Make sure the space heater is on and near the water line and not touching anything. Make sure the frost-free hydrant outside is not dripping, or the dripping water will freeze right back up into the water line, no matter how well-insulated.
11:16 pm - Get into my car, blast the heat, and sit for a moment checking off the list in my head. Decide I'm done, drive away.
11:17 pm - Turn around because I have no specific memory of tucking the draft blockers underneath the front door. I hadn't really disturbed them when I entered, but the barn gets unbelievable wind coming up the valley and hitting the hill, so this is actually an important piece. I double-check: yup, they're in place.
11:18 pm - Back on the road again.
11:43 pm - Home. Bed. I'm too keyed up from what amounted to two hours of constant physical labor to sleep, so I read for about 15 minutes until the adrenaline passes and then I am out.cold.
Whew.
So yeah. Our night check routine is pretty intense right now. In the summer it's just to put eyes on everyone, toss grain and sometimes a little hay, and make sure all the lights are turned off.
I've always felt most comfortable keeping Tristan at a boarding barn that does night check. I think it's a good double-check, and a good way to help keep barn management flowing smoothly. It makes me feel more comfortable, as a nervous horse owner.
Last Friday night, I did night check, since one of the regular barn workers was visiting with the trainer in Florida. (And posting photos of kayaking in t-shirts on Facebook, sob.) I hadn't done it in nearly a year, so the barn manager left me a list of what the current night check routine is.
Holy mackerel, guys. Here was my night check.
sigh. summer.
9:00 pm - Arrive, turn on lights, walk up and down the aisle to make sure everyone is bright and alert
9:05 pm - Duck into tack room, let cat out, check the list.
9:06 pm - Put on lined rubber gloves and start soaking hay for the two recent colic cases. Tear the hay up into tiny shreds, flip over and over and over again to make sure water penetrates every possible nook and cranny.
9:15 pm - Start haying remaining horses in the barn. Everyone gets two flakes, except for a few who get three, and the yearling, who gets one. 2/3 of the horses in the barn have Nibble Nets right now. All of the Nibble Nets are double-clasped and those clasps are tied together with baling twine. The first stall takes me a solid 7 minutes and I swear, out loud, repeatedly. You haven't known frustration until you've tried to stuff two flakes of hay into a Nibble Net hung at head-height, while undoing the tiny clasps with thick winter chore gloves, while a deeply impatient horse is dancing back and forth, snatching pieces of hay that are escaping your arms.
10:07 pm - Finish haying (YES, REALLY), and do blankets. Every horse that had a neck cover got that neck cover that cover pulled up and buckled down. One horse was wearing a cooler from being worked earlier in the evening; I pulled that and put on the two blankets in the aisle. Probably about 1/3 of the horses had some layer that needed to be added. I also took that time to look hard at all the other blanketed horses, and fixed two leg straps that had come undone. Fortunately, I was warmed up enough from haying that I could take my gloves off to do the straps.
daytime, not last night, but Tristan's blanket waiting for night check
10:23 pm - Toss grain to the horses who either got a snack at night check, or whose evening grain had waited until night check because they had been worked right around dinner time. Add water to all the grain.
10:30 pm - Start water. Oh, winter water. My nemesis. I had two options: hose or buckets. Using the buckets would take longer, be harder work, and involve more walking back and forth. Using the hose would guarantee that I would screw up the draining, hanging, and putting away, especially with the barn manager's warning that the hose would freeze very, very quickly once I stopped using it. Buckets, then!
11:07 pm - Water done. On the one hand: I am now twice as cold, have ice rimmed all over my jacket, and pulled something in my elbow hauling water to 25 horses. On the other hand: is there anything quite as satisfying as using a sledgehammer to smash out ice from buckets?
11:08 pm - Quick double-check of the list the barn manager left for me. Check everything off. Do one last walk up and down the aisles, checking doors, latches, and lights. Everyone looks happy, and the mare who earlier was a bit unexcited about her hay is going at it with gusto now. Good. Tristan, who got extra hay scrids and a sip from every water bucket as I went by, doesn't really want to see me go, and shoves me all over the place with his nose while I close up his stall door, which I had left open with a stall guard up.
"But having my stall door closed is booooooooring!"
11:15 pm - Put the cat back in the tack room, over his loud protests. It's 14 degrees and predicted to hit 1 degree by about 3 am, so I don't feel right leaving him out. Make sure the space heater is on and near the water line and not touching anything. Make sure the frost-free hydrant outside is not dripping, or the dripping water will freeze right back up into the water line, no matter how well-insulated.
11:16 pm - Get into my car, blast the heat, and sit for a moment checking off the list in my head. Decide I'm done, drive away.
11:17 pm - Turn around because I have no specific memory of tucking the draft blockers underneath the front door. I hadn't really disturbed them when I entered, but the barn gets unbelievable wind coming up the valley and hitting the hill, so this is actually an important piece. I double-check: yup, they're in place.
Barn in winter, earlier this season. We have way more snow now.
11:18 pm - Back on the road again.
11:43 pm - Home. Bed. I'm too keyed up from what amounted to two hours of constant physical labor to sleep, so I read for about 15 minutes until the adrenaline passes and then I am out.cold.
Whew.
So yeah. Our night check routine is pretty intense right now. In the summer it's just to put eyes on everyone, toss grain and sometimes a little hay, and make sure all the lights are turned off.
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