Coolers and a Field Study Participant for Cowboy Magic Thrush Killer

Here is what you can do with 12 total yards of non-pill fleece and a sewing machine from the space age... 

I fumbled with filling bobbin.. heck even finding bobbin.. I'm so non-crafty but in less then a couple of hours I had the finished products!  Total cost for two coolers - $68.

Ohh a new dress!!!!!

Rosie thought she looked smashing and was ready to greet the guys at the dance... 

She even asked me if it made her butt look big... 

Ummm  Rosie honey please don't make me answer that!

Warm *yawn* good night!

Bonnie was a little less than thrilled with me and more interested in S's horses eating their dinner... 

Pink ???  

Hay!

Cowboy Magic has a new product called  Medicated Thrush Killer.  Active ingredients are Chloroxylenol which is an antibacterial  and Salicylic Acid which is anti fungal (but also used in acne treatments).   The website  states it kills Fusobacterium necrophorum.  The bottle states it kills both gram positive, gram negative hoof bacteria as well as fungus.

Directions are fairly simple "Clean hoof thoroughly with hoof pick, apply half dollar size to bottom of each hoof and brush in around frog and horse shoe with hard tooth brush or stiff hoof pick brush."  They also claim "Works instantly with a 2 minute soak on dry ground"

I decided to do the study as I've been "treating" thrush for months now in both mares switching between Kopertox and Thrush Buster.  I've always been able to keep it "almost gone" but never completely.  It's been horribly wet this year with record rain falls month after month.  So the ground is wet, muddy mess, but they always have a dry place to stand if they choose too.  So between environmental issues out of my control, as well as their previous living conditions you can imagine it's been quite the battle.  

The other contributing factor is when we pulled Bonnie's shoes we discovered the thrush was worse then I originally thought.  

I received my free two bottles of Thrush Killer middle of the week and will start the study today.  I'll continue using Thrush Buster on Rosie, and use the Cowboy Magic Thrush Killer exclusively on Bonnie.  I'll post the results when the study ends, or I run out of the medication.

Caring For the Senior Horse

I'm venturing into a world unknown to me.  I've never had an"older" horse.  I was raised on a working farm in Michigan by my depression era grandparents.  If "it" couldn't be used, we didn't have room for it.  This included pets, which included horses.

My horses as a kid/teenager were a 10 year old Morgan/QH Mare who was absolutely INSANE when in season, but all other times perfect.  I learned how to care for horses with her.  At the same time my grandpa bought me a 2 year old 3/4 Egyptian Arabian mare (out of the fire and into pan?)   She taught me to ride.. no I mean TRUELY ride!  To this day I still have the "stick like glue no matter what" seat. That Arab teleport will teach you to just go with it.   Anyway the point to that is that they were both young horses.  I sold the Morgan/QH mare at a 4-H auction and kept my Arab until I moved away from home.  So I never learned how to care for the aging horse.

Bonnie is 18, she's not always had the easy life.  I don't know a heck of a lot about her past (prior to my friend D buying her).  I do know she's barrel raced, and pole weaved, and from her reaction to anything crop/whip she's been beat.   She's had hip surgery (got into a fight with Clyde and ended up with a bone chip).  When I bought her I did very basic flat work, and she's done some eventing, and cross country.  She LOVES to jump!  Not to mention many, many trail miles.

She's not moving so well these days.  Pretty stiff in the hind quarters and I want to do my best to make her as comfortable as possible.  Stall rest isn't for her.  She stocks up just from being in over night, so she gets as much turn out as weather permits.  Which means if it's raining she comes in, other than that she is out side.

I've been giving her for over a year now smart omega 3 from smartpak, but obviously that does nothing for joint health.   I'm thinking of moving her to some sort of Glucosamine and Chondroitin supplement but the choices are so overwhelming I'm lost.


Then there is the whole "senior feed" thing....  Reading everything I can find - but welcome any advice, what's worked, what's not worked, what to stay away from.  Oh.. and she's a super easy keeper with "whimpy" hooves.  I'll save the hoof issues for tomorrows blog post.

Fire Breathing Dragon Does Chestnut Pony Impersonation

Bonnie went back to work yesterday.  Nothing hard, nothing strenuous, nothing that even broke a sweat.

She went into it kicking, and screaming much like humans do when their vacation is over.  She insisted on including rearing, bucking, and blowing into the whole thing too.

All we did was lunge.  All I wanted was walk/trot.  In typical Bonnie fashion I got so much more from the opinionated red head.

She performed Airs About Ground that would have impressed many a Lippizzan.

The bucking would have challenged even the best bronc riders.

Chronicaloutdoors.com

I swear I saw smoke come out of her nose when she blew at me.

rollredroll.com

I had to get big, and scary!  She snorted flames and reared, and I ran at her screaming and growling like a mad woman, lunge whip snapping at her like a giant snake.  Bonnie thought for a split second, ran backwards, then leapt into the direction my arm, finger, and mind was pointing.   It was all hysterically dramatic.  Reminding me of a toddler in a supermarket melting down because he can't have his cheesy poofs!

I don't lunge in boring, mindless circles.  My lunging covers the entire arena with many direction changes.  It includes ground poles, cavaletti, figure eights, and a small cross rail jump.   I try to do all three gaits as I feel walking nicely on lunge is just as important as a balanced canter and nice consistent trot. I try to do it as quietly and softly as I possibly can, expecting quiet and soft from the horse as well.

It wasn't until I got to the jump with Bonnie before she settled down and gave me some decent work and listened to more subtle queues.

We'll see what today brings... 

New Digs - Pictures

I'm sure the novelty of cleaning stalls will wear off, but I can tell you I've enjoyed it the past two days!

Job well done... 

Bonnie's still nervous and jiggy but she'll calm down soon enough... 

Whatcha doing ???

The green pasture in the background with the run-in shed is theirs too... 

 Coming to gate when called...  Rosie has turned into the lead mare over the summer.

I had a great ride on Rosie - absolutely no pulling or bracing from her!

Working Trot - sitting

Working on free walk

Happy Horse Owner!

Lesson's and Unexpected Rodeo

Today was Lesson Day and I was a bit apprehensive as Jodi hasn't given me a lesson on my either of my two horses in about a year.   I've always gone to her and rode Karaat.

You see, I'm training Rosie all by myself from greener than green to a horse anyone can ride.  She came into my world as a pushy, no ground manners, minimal steering and brakes.. well only on her terms.  This was three summers ago.  So I was afraid that Jodi,  who in my opinion is a great instructor and trainer, would be all over me for things I've done wrong with my horses even though I feel like I've made great progress.

With Rosie the fundamental things I've been working on, rather insisting from her, is complete respect from the ground.  I had to stop making excuses, not enough time, not the only one that handles her, she's young, she's HUGE.. the list keeps going.

The worst thing about her for the longest time was leading.  She'd be all up in your space, run you over, not move away from pressure, another endless list.  Let's just say, if you don't want your horse to do it, she did it.  

Jodi was delighted at my progress with Rosie's ground training.  She walks beside and slightly behind me on loose lead.  When I halt she halts, immediately.  If I want to move her over while leading I just put my fore arm against her shoulder and she steps over away from the pressure.   She now stands still for grooming and tacking without tying, inside the barn and outside in the middle of where all the "barn" action happens.  Today a bunch of kids were getting ready to go for a trail ride, and a gentleman was there repairing the tractor.  Jodi's jaw dropped when I showed her the "Put your bridle on yourself" trick.  This is a horse that would try to walk away, every time, when you removed halter, or bridle. Not.No.More !

On to the actual lesson.  I had a list of things I wanted Jodi to evaluate and give tips.  First of all, make sure I'm correcting clenched jaw and blowing through my aides correctly.  I was, lots of circles and just make a wall/boundary with my hands and wait her out.  Next on the agenda was her falling out on the forehand and feeling like concrete against my legs when trying to bend her.  This is related to the clenched jaw, which is result of me clenching my jaw and putting death grip on the reins.   Go figure that all this stuff is related to each other.

Jodi showed me how to fix both of these and by the end of the first one hour lesson my 2000 pound horse was doing self carriage again and felt like 2 ounces in my hands.  She's bending around my leg and moving away from it.  Her jaw and face was relaxed.   I did an awful lot of repetition, for both Rosie and myself.  I needed to relearn the "correct" and get faster at "correcting" but in the end I got it and was riding with a huge smile.

And then there is Bonnie....   Ya'll know that a bronc rider has to stay on for 8 Seconds right?

Well, I stayed on for 6 of those 8.   

Not sure what happened, or why, but we were going along great.  Good equitation, nice slow gaits, everything.  Nice jogs, nice lopes.  Was working on slowing down the lope, had already loped both directions  several times, very nicely too.  I was at the end of a walk break and as I came around a barrel I trotted out about 15 steps and asked for right lead lope and BAM!  Two HUGE, her heels over my head, bucks!  I probably would have recovered from that if she hadn't of thrown in another pretty huge crow hop which put me too far forward and heading off.  I grabbed around her neck and swung my leg over and landed on my feet.   I immediately went into big boss mare HUGE and moved her back very quickly, as well as around.  Got back on and tried it again.  This time I caught her as soon as she tried to drop her head and applied the emergency brake, aka one rein stop.  Rinse and repeat and no more rodeo.

No idea what got into her.  If something was pinching or hurting she should have reacted MUCH sooner than that.  She was bitless, in western saddle.  There hadn't been any tail wringing, head tossing, evading, bulking, rushing,  nothing to indicate pain or even mild discomfort.  Again,  she was completely fine with loping off after that, either lead.

No Words Needed

Bonnie vs. Thursh and Western Pleasure Day

Thursday was farrier day... I had Bonnie's shoes reset and confirmation that'd I found a mild case of thrush in her right front.  

Does this Saddle Make Me Look Fat  ?!?

... I did.  Farrier did an excellent job of trimming the frogs.  He scrubbed out all four hoofs and treated each with a 3::1 bleach solution then Coppertox.   Rosie was trimmed, I have her done oval shaped.  He cleaned her frogs nicely too, and stopped a crack.

Friday was day off for everyone as it was supposed to be stormy.  That didn't happen.

No Bonnie, you're perfect !

Saturday, another "rain out" day,  but Jim and I ran all over the area looking for White Lightening Gel to treat the thrush.  Couldn't find it anywhere so bought the last bottle of Coppertox on the shelf.  It was the ONLY thrush treatment I could find. I have a little bit of Thrush Buster in my groom box.

We spent several hours Saturday worming both mares, cleaning,  and thrush treating hooves.  We went ahead and treated Rosie's even though I'm not finding any black ooze nor any foul oder. 

Her beauty takes my breath away

Bonnie's hoof inspection today showed the black ooze gone, with just a "wet" mark and very little oder.  I cleaned well and used what little Thrush Buster I had left because I had a mild reaction to the Coppertox.  I'm hoping the thrush is completely gone by the end of the week if I keep treating it aggressively everyday.

I never tire of this view!

Today was Western all the way.   I think Bonnie looks just fabulous in the new saddle.  It fits her perfectly, it fits me good.  Western is so different to me now so I'm "adjusting".  I can tell you the seat is comfortable, stirrups are correct, well balanced, and slightly turned.  I didn't move around at all 

Bonnie was so relaxed that when she was trotting her lower lip was flopping.  She wasn't lip flapping on purpose, it was just really relaxed.  She even gave me a bit of a spook... birds shouldn't be flying out of horse trailers, but it didn't seem near as hard of a spook as before.bitless.  She immediately moved on with no tension at all.

No rides on Rosie because the weather turned stormy on me again.  Hopefully tomorrow.

Red Heads

So who is Chestnut and who is Sorrel?

Heels Down and Toes In - Horse show Pictorial

Saturday was a beautiful day for riding...

After the Color Guard finished their ceremony I warmed up Bonnie...

This is the horse I started with...

She was VERY excited at all the activity.. snorting - blowing...  I was laughing at her!  But she calmed down with quiet work and I finally got a decent canter.   Head still a bit high but not fighting me anymore.

I LOVE my form in half seat!

Then it was time for the judging to begin.   This class is English or Western Pleasure.  Horses are judged on their manners, performance, quality and conformation.

Trotting... 

And the walk... 

My wonderful husband was not able to get any canter pictures.  Left lead was great!   Right lead she didn't pick it up on first queue and went into a counter canter.  I switched it with-in two strides, but Judge was watching me as she asked for the canter.  O'well !

The line up...

There are seven of us out there.  I am the only adult but I don't care.  You can just see Bonnie's white nose just under the neck of the horse with her nose in the air...

We were asked to back... no big deal for Bonnie or myself as she backs off a leg queue.. notice the loose rein.

The suspense is killing me...

There are 7 horses and 5 ribbons...  and I got one...

2nd Place !!!!!

Even though this was an "end of year fun show" I still feel like this is a major accomplishment.   I even had tears as childhood memories rushed in of my mom at the rail telling me every time I passed "Heels down and toes in".

Mom it took me 25 years, but I finally got my heels down and toes in!