Our breeding project will start next spring.  I’m still not sure which stallion we’ll use.  But in the meantime, we’re getting in as much riding as we can before the weather makes conditions really intolerable.  We have no arena, so we’ve been hacking out.  The horses seem to really like the change. 

Until today, I’d really only worked with Peanut.  I had to be sure she’d behave for a weekend of pony rides, having not been ridden for 2-3 years.  In the meantime, Abbey had begun acting up.  She was being extra bossy in the pasture, and fussing when she was in her stall, pacing and pawing at her stall door and such.  I was a little worried about the “attitude,” which seemed to have developed over the last few days. 

I have always found that Abbey likes to have a job.  The more you work her, the happier she is.  Today I walked into the pasture with her halter, and she came *running* up to me.  She eagerly shoved her head into the halter and dozed happily in the cross ties as I brushed her.  After saddling her up, a repair guy showed up and I had to put her back in her stall for about 20 minues — no fussing at all!  When I got her back out, we went on a little trip around the perimeter of the pasture and she had a blast.  So I decided to take her out in the adjacent field.  Then I took her around our wetlands, through the harvested soybean fields…  all the time with hunters shooting loudly in the not-too-distant countryside. 

At some point, when the barn was out of site, it occured to me that I was *technically* on a green horse.    And *technically* I didn’t have a cell phone on me, and no one was aware that I was riding waaay out there.  Why was I doing all this with the greenest horse in the barn??  But over the uneven terrain, through questionable footing, and confronted with lots of unfamiliar sites and noises, Abbey was perfect.  (And the Irish Draught enthsiasts out there are all saying, ‘well of course she was.  She’s bred to do that!’) 

But since the ride she seems to be back to the lovable, goofy mare I know.  Mental note — don’t make Abbey repeatedly stand in the pasture while playing with other horses!

More information about Hang On Johnny RID is available at the website: www.blackshireequestrian.com/HangonJohnny.html  He’s a gorgeous older stallion, with some really valuable bloodlines.  Cross your fingers…

Our two horses, Joey and Abbey, are still being boarded.  As a matter of fact, they may be boarded longer than we expected due to some surprise construction fees.  Abbey is in training, and has begun ridden work.  My trainer says she loves her more each time she works with her.  The more Abbey works, the happier she is and the more eager she is to do more.  As she gets more fit, wow does she look sleek and beautiful!  (not that I’m biased…)  Joey, on the other hand, is looking shabby and scrawny at the end of his 2 months of stall rest.  He had a serious hock injury, and went to the Purdue Veterinary School.  He didn’t end up needing surgery, but he was prescribed strict rest (even if we had to sedate him.)  We’ve cut all his grain to keep him from being too hard to handle, and he’s behaving quite nicely.  His Purdue vet says being skinny “won’t kill him.”  His future is most likely as a trail/pleasure horse.  He won’t hold up to jumping or even very much collection.  Poor guy!

Eventually, we’ll be able to look out the window and see the horses in the pasture.  For now, we’ll have to settle for being in a beautiful new home and doing lots of landscaping.

“Abbey” is a 6 yr old RID mare by Moorpark Image, out of Pearls for Diana by Mountain Pearl. She came to us from Diane Petrie at Fox Hollow Sport Horses, in Iowa. We were attracted to Abbey by her lovely movement, great conformation and unique bloodlines. This season she will get some solid education as a riding horse, perhaps attending a local show or two. Her breeding career will begin next year, after our own barn and pastures are ready for occupancy. We should have plenty of time to pick a perfect stallion for her.

Abbey in the pasture, shortly after arriving in Indiana:

Two photos from last year, taken by Diane Petrie:

Other then the mare, Joey is enjoying his time off of work.  The pasture boarding to encourage him to rest is certainly worthy.  This past weekend his tempermant was about the calmest I’ve ever seen him.  As always he couldn’t help but tease the other horses in his odd manor…

The girls (Arya & Raven) survived an expedition with daddy to the veterinary office for their yearly checkup/shots/fun stuff.  Raven even managed to not give any other dog the evil-eye she loves to freely give.  When V took her to puppy class she was known to cause other dogs to go crazy.  As only Raven can do, she simply uses those cute looks and darts for eyes.  Just to give you an idea of the two, in the waiting room Raven kept trying her charms on the other dogs while Arya burried her head in my lap… Yep, two very different dogs..

After we finished the discussion with our contracter we decided to walk around the frozen wetlands.  There are numerous locations we typically would not be able to get to during the year.  With the water levels higher then normal, we have a frozen bridge into the heart of our wetland.  Tracking through the rose brambles you can enter the heart of our property.  While we explored, so did the dogs.  Arya and Raven as always were ecstatic to venture out onto the property.  Countless rabbits made their way to safer places taking their time hopping about as our over zealous city dwelling dogs offered no true threat. 

We had to be semi cautious as the water levels had dropped below the ice surface causing some truly pretty ice forms that had melted and refrozen.  As almost always, we forgot the camera and had to satisfy ourselves with the fading visions of this beauty of nature’s ice sculpture.  The beauty was not completely without a thorn though.  With the ice levels there were pockets where the ice was merely a shell on the surface in the thick of the rose brambles.  I stepped over a bramble area to enter a pocket of clearing to see Arya and Raven crawling around the brambles.  In their quest to find trails sniffing around Arya managed to drop herself right into a pocket and crawl out with freezing water dripping off her.  Amazingly, she did not whimper once (as she’s known for being a baby).  I tried calling her and was about ready to reach over and pull her out when Raven decided to see what the fuss was about.  After much coaxing I managed to move away, as Arya scooted past dripping but smiling.

Later while jumping around brambles poor Arya managed to catch her ear on a vicious thorn.  We didn’t notice at first, and our only clue was the one whimper she let out.  Later we were getting them some water and the blood dripped down into the bowl.  I spotted the blood and noticed her collar was blood-stained.  Then the damage was obvious.  A little scratch down the tip of ear with blood dripping.  After we got home we tried cleaning it up and putting a bandage on it.  The whole time were were laughing with the Ace Bandage contraption.  As it would be, we were tempting fate.  Her ear would not stop bleeding.  So after three times of wrapping her head up with the Ace Bandages and then duct tape we managed to get her to keep it on while she spent some time in her kennel. 

Raven had to deal with her sister being quite the baby.  And as it would be we had two birthday parties to attend.  So off we went hoping to not come back to Arya shaking her head with blood droplets spraying all over.  When we returned all was well, even though it took another good twelve hours of pressure with the Ace bandage to get the scab to form strong enough to not bleed when she shook her head.  Today she’s without bandage, but we’re watching her closely to make sure she does not scratch the scab off.

We can’t wait to be out on the property living there!  To think, these adventures are just the start.

-J

Poor Joey won’t get any riding for months, now.  After finally getting him totally sound after the hoof crack, Joey has developed a “hind end” lameness.  The provisional diagnosis is either a sacro-ileac  problem or a high suspensory ligament problem.  After more vet bills than I’d like to remember, I made the tough call to stop short of the nuclear scintography at Purdue.  (It’s diagnostic anyways — not a treatment.)  He will have pasture rest for 6 months.  As I understand, stall rest is what’s usually recommended for these injuries.  But after 2 weeks of stall rest, Joey made it clear that he wasn’t staying in his stall without protest.  During the last 2 days of “rest” we had one demolished stall wall and a Jolly Ball stuck in the barn rafters.  He was so fidgety, the vet had a hard time even examining him.  Plus, after several vet visits, Adequan shots, Legend shots, a chiropractic adjustment and “rest” he was more lame than he began.  So, now he shares the pasture with 2 sassy pony mares who have him completely intimidated.  I had to cut his long, pretty tail by about 6 inches because it kept getting tangled in his blanket straps.  :(  

 – V