Netflix, no horses today

I didn't get to see my ponies today. Maggie fed this evening and will feed again tomorrow evening. She didn't have cheer leading tomorrow and I thought she might like to go riding, but she's going to have her dad pick up Jena and they are going to come back to the house. She has been so busy with cheer leading and other stuff ever day after school that she says it will be nice to have a day at home. I told her no TV though because it seems that Jena hasn't been doing her homework and she needs to. We seem to have mislaid her orange binder. It's not in the car or the house...not a clue where it went.

So, Maggie is at her dad's and I'm here watching a movie from Netflix. I almost never pick out a movie to watch on my own but I decided to pick out one that someone had recommended to me...can't remember who. It's called Mrs. Henderson Presents...

I want to share my movie lists with my friends so I'm going to post this link so any of my friends can be my online netflix friends.

http://www.netflix.com/BeMyFriend/PcZ0DxHtWQmqvgF0T7iT

A Parelli Convert!

Since I have been taking lessons with Jennifer at Iron Star Farm in Aledo, I have slowly become a convert to the training ways of Pat and Linda Parelli. I used to think this was the dumbest horse training method known to man until I started seeing that the real heart was in the relationship. Over the last couple lessons, all the bits and pieces Jennifer has given me have begun to make sense and fall into place.

This weekend the Parelli's were in FT. Worth for part of their 2008 tour. While I agree that their merchandise is extraordinarily expensive, I do also think the quality is very high. I'm salivating over the new Parelli Patterns to give me stuff to practice at home when I can't get out to work. They demonstrated how every exercise is a pattern that builds on an old pattern and works with the personality of the horse.

I experimented with some of my learning on Liberty this evening. Linda has a horse who is very left brained extrovert. He runs and plays and runs and runs and isn't ready to be ridden every time. She joked about him being bipolar, which I often feel with Liberty. He also isn't as touchy feely as her other horse and isn't as eager to hang out with her. This is how Liberty is with me. I feel a standoffishness from him, but a desire to be up close and personal...but only if it's really all about him. I think I do some damage early on when I "made" him "behave" I don't think it's irreversible, but I do think that he is less trusting of me in some ways than he used to be. So, I'm trying to speak his language.

Linda said a couple things today that made me think. She said that horses often become a tool and the relationship gets lost (this is definitely a possibility for me) and that you need to place the relationship first. In my lesson last week, we realized that you couldn't draw him in very easily. Tonight, when I turned him loose to work out the kinks, he turned away from me some, but also was way more willing to turn toward me than in the past. I think that I have lowered my energy and he feels more comfortable standing with me now. While I couldn't draw him in completely at Liberty, once he quit moving he wasn't reactive and trying to run away as usual. I noticed his breathing and sweating a lot, even though we hadn't worked very hard and I started to notice the release of adrenaline and the licking and chewing which indicated thinking.

I then had time to play the first four games with him and we had a great time. He did the friendly game, but still flinches on the first sounds/contact of the string, the porcupine game--better on the right than the left, the yoyo game (he's getting good at this) and the circle game. Tonight was the first night I ever got him to circle without always stopping behind me. Oh, he stopped behind me a few times, but then figured out that if he just kept trotting he would be praised and given many treats. He didn't work too hard and when I left I was feeding supper...since their supper consists of low starch feed and timothy cubes, I figured he was "too" hot.

I noticed that he had a lot of trouble ignoring the horses outside the pen tonight. Especially Toots! He was really working with me and focusing and acting like a left brained introvert until I started moving him a little and then he just exploded into a fireball of energy. Toots was running around and he was running around. They were both highly amusing!

Busy week, good riding

I had some brief but powerful horsey moments this week. Jena and Maggie rode in the field on the girls and I worked with Liberty in the round pen. I rode in a rope halter, in the round pen. I thought that I was going to work on backing through the round pen gate, but I soon realized that I needed to work on simply getting Liberty's attention on me. I had the girls on their horses distract him a bit and then I sent them off to ride and worked on just stopping and standing. It took a little while...in fact, it got dark on me...but I finally was able to tell him whoa, with no rein contact, stand without him pulling on me or the other way around, and to stand. The ultimate test was when I walked toward the girls in the field and was able to whoa him in the field and have him wait for instructions. I got off a proud mama.

Darn baby

I got up early to mix grain and antibiotic for my foal to eat before work. The little stinker won't eat it. I even coated it in maple syrup and it's a complete no go. I am wondering if i let deli eat it if the antibiotic would go through her milk? I thought about leaving her locked up for the day but I think she's stubborn enough not to eat it even then.

Fiera seems better today

This am Fiera was gimping along in her bandage but did seem to feel better. She ate some of her antibiotic, but not all...she's a little picky about having anything added to her food. This evening Maggie couldn't get her to eat any antibiotic, so she and her dad gave her some of what was in the tube. I had pre-dialed it to the correct level in case she wouldn't eat the powder. I had Maggie set the feed in the trailer and I'm going to go armed with maple syrup to pour on the feed tomorrow. I may have to leave her in the round pen tomorrow to eat her food. I hate to leave her away from her mom all day, but I also hate for her not to get her medicine. I have 2 more doses in the tube and if she continues to refuse to eat it, she will be finding herself with a syringe full of applesauce, maple syrup and antibiotic. I don't blame her not wanting it, but she has to have it. Thursday am I will take off the bandage and if it's not significantly better we will be making the drive to Decatur to the buddy of Dr. Whiting to have the joint cleansed. I don't even want to think about what that will cost, but worse, I don't want to think about my baby being lame before she's 6 months old. She did still have a slight fever this evening...it was 101, but it's down a degree from Sunday.

Baby Horses are out to kill themselves!

Fiera has had her first official vet bill. Sometime last week she injured her leg. I saw it on Thursday and it looked like a scrape and I didn't think it was a big deal. After all, she wasn't limping, she was eating and drinking and running around and didn't mind me handling it. Unfortunately, now it's 3 times it's normal size and the vet had to come and she's loaded up on antibiotics. The vet was talking about me needing to take her into the racetrack clinic to have it flushed and cultured and I was pretty nervous. He just didn't want to waste my money coming out only to have to haul her to the vet. But, once he got there he was reasonably confident that we can get this under control.

I'm usually pretty quick to call the vet on stuff like this...In fact, I did call one of the vets I use yesterday evening and she said that it didn't sound like an emergency to her and to call her this am if the baby had a fever over 102.5. She didn't have a fever this am and was moving better, but then this evening she had a temp of 101.8 and when I called the same vet again she told me to call my other vet because she couldn't come out till Thursday at the earliest. Since I have to work the next two days, I wanted to get it seen so I didn't miss work so that Marisa didn't fuss at me for missing work, like I did two weeks ago when Merlin died. I just got the feeling that she didn't want to come out. I had that same feeling in April when Freeley colicked, but I just chalked it up to a lot of colics, busy Saturday...now I'm not so sure. It may just have been that she had plans and she's off tomorrow. Maybe she doesn't really do emergency calls? I'm not sure, but I think I will be sticking with the larger practice I have used in the future.

Poor Fiera is wrapped from hoof to knee but she was feeling better already from the banamine by the time I left. I have antibiotics to give her 2 times a day and banamine for the next 3 days. I'm sure my bill will be pricey with the after hours call, but I don't care since I don't plan to raise another baby and she is something really special. If she's not better on Thursday I am to get a referral to take her to one of the equine hospitals to get the wound cultured and flushed, which will be expensive!

Extreme mustang makeover

So far the makeover is lame. It started an hour ago and they have done a lot of talking and very little horse showing. We got in here with no cash and there are no atms in sight. So no lovely beverages for us.

In other news: Maggie and I rode the white trail at the grasslands today and had a nice time with Yvonne, who I met at the last supreme trail challenge. Liberty was very chargy and hard to settle and rate. It's a new problem that he's developed when he has to go behind someone. Instead of adjusting his speed to suit the horse in front he puts his head up and acts very pushy. He will walk fine behind anyone but pick up the pace he's in a hurry.

I found this post in my phone this am. I forgot to send it Saturday when things finally got going.