Author: Amanda

rolex kentucky 2013

ROLEX!

Amanda1 Comment

It took a little while for it to kick in, but Rolex fever is HERE!

I’ll be traveling on Friday, traveling on Saturday, and volunteering at a competitive trail ride on Sunday, which makes Thursday the only day I’ll be at a computer to follow updates…and I’ll be at work. So I can’t watch ANY of the streaming, which was exceptionally poor planning on my part.

In lieu of that, I’ve tried to put together a way to follow Rolex digitally that I just posted on COTH, and I’ll cross post it here, too, and update as I have more information.

Streaming

http://www.feitv.org/home
http://www.usefnetwork.com/featured/Rolex3Day2013/

Blogs/Websites

www.chronofhorse.com
www.eventingnation.com

Twitter

#RoadtoRolex2013
Rolex – @RolexKentucky
Eventing Nation – @eventingnation
USEA – @USEventing
USEFNetwork – @usefnetwork
FEI – @myfei_home
British Eventing – @BEventing
PRO – @PROEventRiders
Practical Horseman – @prachorseman
Bit of Britain – @BitofBritain
Smartpak – @Smartpak

Samantha Clark – @samanthaclark
Joanie Morris – @Joanie_Morris
Jenni Autry – @jenniautry

William Fox-Pitt – @foxpitteventing
James Alliston – @JamesAlliston
Buck Davidson – @@BDJEventing
Jan Byyny – @janbyyny
Andrew Nicholson – ?
Phillip Dutton – @DuttonEventing
Madeline Blackman – ?
Caitlin Silliman – ? (@WindurraUSA)
Beth Perkins – ?
Will Faudree – ?
Jennie Brannigan – ?
Becky Holder – ?
Peter Atkins – @RunHennyRun
Kristin Schmolze – @kseventing
Katie Ruppel – ?
Hawley Bennet-Awad – @HBEventing
Kristi Nunnink – ?
Sarah Cousins – ?
Shandiss McDonald –
Lynn Symansky – @LynnSymanskyEq
Alexandra Knowles – ?
Austin O’Connor – @attington
Meghan O’Donoghue – @MM_ODonoghue
Mary King – ?
Micheline Jordan – ?
Ronald Zabala-Goeteshel – ?
Erin Marie Sylvester – ?
Jonelle Richards – ?
Emily Renfroe – @Emily_Renfroe
Boyd Martin – @WindurraUSA
Lindsey Oaks –
Rachel Jurgens – ?
Emily Beshear – @EmilyBeshear
Kendal Lehari – @LehariEventing
Heather Gillette – ?
Marilyn Little – ?

farrier · surgery

Another Day, Another Setback

Amanda1 Comment

I can’t exactly claim to be surprised. This is exactly what the farrier predicted would happen.

Sometime in the last two days, the small crack leading from Tristan’s surgery hole to the abscess hole has become a large crack. As in, I can now see daylight through it and with pressure move the two parts separately. The toe has grown out enough that walking on it has pulled the crack wider. Ugh.

He does not seem sore, but obviously his hoof should not move like that. I would guess that increased movement would put him at risk of an even bigger crack. So he’s back on complete stall rest, poor lad.

I will check in with the vet and the clinic in the morning, but I suspect our way forward is to keep him quiet and get his foot trimmed and a shoe put on as soon as possible – which could prove problematic, as the farrier may not be back from Florida for another few weeks…

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Movie Review: The Long Shot

Amanda2 Comments
The Long Shot (2004)

Okay. All right. Let’s talk about this. Let’s start with the poster: Arab-y looking thing in a poorly fitting halter, running freeeeee in the background behind a woman with her child in Western tack wandering along a ridgeline. Think about for a moment what kind of movie you would expect this to be, based on that poster. Imagine some plot and character details, setting, etc.
So now let me tell you that this movie is about a woman who rides dressage. She moves to California with her loser husband and her diamond in the rough Grand Prix horse, who promptly abandons her and her daughter to live in a motel. She gets a job working for a legendary trainer, mucking stalls, teaching lessons, etc., and overcomes a series of setbacks on her way to being the feistest, cleverest, horse whispering-est horse expert ever.
It’s available on Netflix streaming, and while it is one of the most ridiculous movies I have ever seen (see below for a handful of non-spoilery things that actually happen) it is weirdly watchable. I rarely sit through full movies these days and I watched the whole thing. With lots of chocolate. And lots of incredulous texting to Hannah.
So let’s go over just a very small, not even all that dramatic things that happen in this movie. Multiply all of these together by 10 and you will have the equivalent one of at least three major totally loony plot twists.
– They drive cross-country from Colorado to California with a horse in a trailer, and when they pull up to the motel she decides she’ll take her horse for a ride, so she does. For, like, HOURS, judging by the movie’s internal chronology.
– At one point, she starts riding the trainer’s difficult horses in the middle of the night and then gets all huffy when the trainer is pissed off that she has done so, because clearly she’s fixing everything, stop being mean!
– She and the loser husband use her (never shown, as far as I can tell) horse as collateral for the loan they have to take out to move across the country. She is surprised and deeply offended when the loan comes due, and writes a nice letter to the bank manager that will clearly solve everything. (Spoiler alert: it doesn’t.)
It is amazing that this movie was written, filmed, edited, and then actually released. It is the very cheesiest kind of cheese, riddled with ridiculous horsemanship that has the veneer like they actually researched some of it – maybe they read a few articles on dressage at least halfway through, anyway.

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Good Reads

Amanda2 Comments

Two things I’ve read today that I’ve liked quite a bit.

First, an excellent post from Mustang Adventures about a defensive trail riding clinic.

Jerry walked around the arena, but with big, menacing, scary, purposeful energy. He didn’t even have to wave his arms or shout or “do anything” that looked scary, but the horses definitely got the vibe and all shied away from him, so we had to practice control in trying to walk over/through someone.

Excellent read, highly recommended: full post here.

The second is a well-written but sad article about the Grand National, and the fate of English steeplechasing in the 21st century. I love horse racing, but each year it seems to get more deadly (or maybe I’m more aware of its danger) and I take a small step back.

A giant’s claw came through the spruce. The air smelled suddenly of Christmas and a great black horse was falling. It was Paddy Mourne, an Irish outsider, and one of the things that TV doesn’t tell you is how far and how massively and how intricately these animals slide. I saw the short hairs of his belly, his hooves, and his head rising while his knees sought purchase. Everything was in motion, 20 feet from the jump that had tripped him. The rest of the field poured around him like water and then he was up and running with the herd. The jockey limped off, cradling his arm.

Death and Tradition at the UK Grand National

surgery

Six Weeks

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Tristan’s surgery was six weeks ago today, making this the low end of his recovery period estimate.

He is for all intents and purposes sound, and has been out of his boots for a week now. I am still flushing and wrapping his right front every two days, but finishing off the wrap with duct tape instead of his boot. He gets turned out in the indoor for as long as he behaves, which is longer some days than others. On days when he’s not turned out we handwalk for 20 minutes.

He is still growing tissue in the hole, and it’s tough to say how long that will continue. There is definitely some hoof growing back as well. The quality of his soles is not good from being in the boots, and his right front heel has rubs.

Mentally, he would like to be off stall rest, and he could be if it weren’t mud season. His foot is still not quite healed enough to disregard the muck and standing puddles.

Life after the surgery is starting to seem real. I brought my bridles home to clean and I am starting to think and talk about riding again. It’s possible that we will start short rides soon, just keeping his foot wrapped and staying at the walk.

Here’s what his foot looked like after flushing this morning.

birthday

Happy Birthday, Tristan!

Amanda1 Comment

Today is the day I have picked as Tristan’s birthday. According to his freeze brand, he was born in 1995. That represents the Bureau of Land Management’s best estimate of his age in 1999, when he was rounded up. It would make him 18 this year.

It’s impossible to know when he was born, exactly, but there’s a decent chance it was spring. My grandmother’s birthday was April 11, and she died just a few months before I met Tristan for the first time, so I celebrate it as his birthday.

Some years I have made cake, but not this year. We had a quiet walk around the indoor, and I groomed him thoroughly and hung an Uncle Jimmy’s Hanging Balls toy in his stall for him. He didn’t seem interested yet but he had hay left, so he was pursuing that.

Here’s the birthday boy while handwalking.

handwalking

Totally not fooling me

Amanda1 Comment

This is just to say that my horse? is hilarious.

Last night, we handwalked for 20 minutes outside, up and down the pasture hills, and he thought it was great fun. So we would walk for a bit, and then he would start jigging, and I would ask him to waaaaaaalk again, and he would heave a put-upon sigh, and walk.

Then he would jig v-e-r-y slowly. And I would say waaaaaaaalk, and he would give me the side-eye, and then jig even more sloooooooooooooowly. See, mom, I’m totally walking, I am, you don’t even have to speed up. And then when I asked him to walk, he would huff loudly, and walk for another few strides before starting up the jigging again.

I don’t know if I would have minded the jigging so much except he’s not used to moving in the boots – he’s spent most of his time standing around in the stall in them – and he kept tripping and nearly falling on his face after a few strides. Idiot boy.

After handwalking I pulled his boots, triple-checked the wrap on his RF, and doused the LF in thrush stuff. Fingers crossed he keeps everything on and his feet start to dry out and toughen up quickly.

someday farm

Birthdays

Amanda1 Comment

Tristan’s 18th birthday is this Thursday; my 30th birthday is coming up on May 12.

Just in case you were wondering what to get for us, here’s an idea.

Nested just 10 minutes to downtown Middleburg and 1 hour to Washington, DC, Horsefields Farm is a fully-restored Hunt Country masterpiece offering beauty, privacy and refinement within its treed borders. Spread over 140 acres, this one-of-a-kind property redefines the equestrian lifestyle, with graceful rolling hills and a collection of three homes — including an elegant stone manor main house and two guest houses that have been thoughtfully restored — seven manicured ponds, seven paddocks, three barns with 24 stalls for horses, six garage bays and state-of-the-art facilities for staff and equipment. Originally $14.9M. Selling Without Reserve, to the highest bidder.

Watch the video. Droooooooool.

Do the dapper looking stable boys come with the farm, do you think?

dentistry · massage · surgery · vaccines

5 Weeks!

Amanda4 Comments

Yesterday, Sunday, Tris got a massage. He was tight in some of the expected places: in a muscle that runs from his poll down to his right front, in his back from his colicky episode, and in his hind end from the funny movement in his boots and the hill work. All surface tightness – no adhesions or strains.

Then this morning the vet did a 5 week check on his foot. She was THRILLED with the way it has responded to the metronidazole, said it looked (and smelled!) terrific. We jogged him out on the hard dirt road and he has a teeeeensy bit of residual tenderness in the RF when turned on a hard circle, but totally understandable given that he still has exposed tissue there.

She was concerned about the deterioration of his soles, however, an in consult with the surgeon decided to leave the boots off when he is in his stall, put them on for turnout and handwalking only, which should start to dry them out and toughen him up. Surgeon also recommended treating with Wonderdust occasionally 1-2x a week to start toughening up the tissue.

Finally, he got two more vaccines – West Nile and Potomac Horse Fever – and then had his teeth floated. He did really well for that and the vet let me feel around in his mouth to feel the sharp edges and what they felt like once he had them floated down. It was really, really neat!

In conclusion: drunk dentist pony.