Author: Amanda

abscess

Never mind

Amanda8 Comments

I went out yesterday afternoon and curried Tristan, and fussed over him, and reinforced the toe of his duct tape boot with some more tape.

Then I jumped on bareback, intent on repeating Sunday’s ride: 30 minutes of walking, plus some loosening up.

Within a few minutes I got That Feeling. You know the one.

The barn manager was teaching at the same time, and I asked her to watch him. “Is he sound?”

Long, long pause. Too long, as we walked on.

“No.”

We agreed between us that he wasn’t in tons of pain – he wasn’t head-bobbing, or obviously favoring that leg.

He just wasn’t landing right on it. He wasn’t using the leg the way he should’ve. Guarding it, maybe, just a bit.

I jumped off, led him back to his stall, put away his tack, went back to my car, and cried. A lot.

Then I called the vet, who will be out today or tomorrow.

sigh.

abscess

Momentum

Amanda3 Comments

I rode my horse yesterday!

Just for 30 minutes at the walk, but it was enough to get him loosened up, to ask for some acceptance of the bit, to do a few tiny leg yields and to reassure me that he has not forgotten everything.

the actual cutest.

He felt sound. At the same time, however, his duct tape boot split at the toe, after just 30 minutes. So I am not sure if we can do anything more than walk around for a little while until he can have that foot open again.

I re-wrapped. There was a slight sheen of moisture inside the hole. I can’t decide if it was drainage or the last bit of saline from the last time I wrapped it that just didn’t evaporate. So this time I rinsed it with saline and then dried it with a cotton swab, then packed the hole with gauze and added more gauze on top of that. I’ll ride again today and rewrap and then we’ll see.

I also groomed him for the first time in, um, about three weeks. I’ve been that busy, discouraged, tired, whatever. He was under a sheet the entire time. So yesterday it was in the low 70s for the first time since early October and he was nekkid and I thought oh my God my horse looks like a homeless ragamuffin.

That is my size 8 Ariat Terrain for sizing purposes. That pile is halfway up my shin. o.O
He was so happy, leaning into it. He had clearly been itchy. I’m the worst horse mom ever. But I fixed it, so that has to count for something. I’ll go again today and scrape more off, and ride again, and maybe, maybe we will start to get back on track.
I’m staying in touch with the vet about the toe, and right now the plan is to wait until midweek next week when the farrier comes. We’ll have him trim the toe (which is long, and I think putting some pressure on the open area), and see what he thinks. 
We discovered while riding that there is a new banner in the arena and that Tris is apparently one of the new mascots for the local university riding team. He was used in one of their shows once and was apparently such an exemplary citizen that he offered up a polite, balanced canter when one of the walk-trot riders put his heel too far back. Ha.
I laughed and laughed. L-R that’s Skip, Tristan, Portia (I think? too many grays!), and Prince. They don’t travel for IHSA yet so I think they had a limited number of photos to choose from, and apparently Tristan’s beggar-face made the cut.
So, spring. Even with all the insanity, hope is returning.
Spring in the foreground, winter in the background.

blog roundup

Weekly Blog Roundup

AmandaLeave a comment

http://agemofahorse.blogspot.com/2015/04/easycare-glove-fit-kit-trial.html

http://bootsandsaddles4mel.com/blog/2015/the-effect-of-free-stuff/

http://handgallop.blogspot.com/2015/04/an-equestrians-guide-to-tulsa.html

http://pieceofheaven1951.blogspot.com/2015/04/jousting-hitting-tip-to-tip.html

http://www.nolongerfiction.com/2015/04/rolex-usea-event-college.html

http://gundiva-talesfromthetrail.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-adoption-process.html

http://ponytude.blogspot.com/2015/04/how-to-get-most-out-of-infrequent.html

http://diyhorseownership.blogspot.com/2015/04/how-often-do-you-wash-breeches.html

diy · shoes

What should I do with Tristan’s old horseshoes?

Amanda9 Comments

So, Tristan is barefoot again. Which was working well, until it wasn’t. Thankfully, the current abscess problem seems to be unrelated to his newly-bare feet, so he will stay barefoot.

When the farrier pulled his shoes last winter, I asked him to set them aside. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with them, but I knew I’d want them somehow. I then tossed them into my tack trunk and there they sat.

Here they are today.

Nope, never even cleaned ’em.
So, now I’m pondering ideas for what to do with them. Ideally, I’d like them to be displayed or decorative in some way in the new house – preferably in my study, which will be somewhat horse-themed.
I searched Pinterest, and got the usual assortment of ideas, but none of them spoke to me.

Plus an assortment of really tacky stuff.
You get the idea.
This comes closest to what I’d really like.
Simple, straightforward, and really keeps the focus on the horseshoe as the thing that I am interested in, not as a vehicle for other things.
But I’m still not sold on it. My indecisiveness about this is the main reason these have sat for a year.
So now I’m crowdsourcing this. Has anyone seen nice ways to display a beloved horse’s old shoes, in a way that reminds you of the horse? That’s not just a generic use of a horseshoe? Ideally something a little more understated and classy; “country chic” is very much not my style.
mustangs

Elisa Wallace & mustangs

Amanda2 Comments

I posted a video on Sunday of Elisa Wallace doing a mustang demo at Rolex, and then the Chronicle re-linked to this really lovely interview they did with her before her debut at Rolex.

This quote in particular stuck out to me:

You get addicted to the process and the journey that you go through with them. There is a certain sense of magic that’s a little bit different with them. I just really enjoy working with them and I’ve just become really passionate about them. It’s something I never thought I’d be spearheading, as far as being an ambassador and doing what I’m doing, but I really enjoy it and I really think there are some nice horses out there that should be given a chance. They love the job. They’re like any horse that likes to jump and compete, if you find one they’ll give you everything.

I mean, not every mustang loves his job, but yeah. They’re horses.  And with them, it really is all about the journey. It has to be. Going into a relationship with a mustang with hard-and-fast goal is a crapshoot. They’re not like a finely bred dressage machine, which has generations of breeding and conformation and environment telling it to be a certain thing. They are scrappy little mutts who behave as wild prey animals.

The director of the rescue I got Tristan from, whom I worked with for a summer, always said that you should go into everything with a mustang assuming it will take all the time you have, and then some. There are no quick lessons. There is bricklaying, backbreaking foundation work, over and over and over and over again.

I always tell people that the thing I’m most proud of with Tristan is not any of our riding accomplishments (which are paltry at best) but that he trusts me, and lets me lead him, and groom him. He seeks me out affectionately. That he went from wild animal to sweetheart still amazes me.