Our First Horse

Long Riding

December 12, 2007 Bill Comments 0 Comment

A few weeks ago we posted about the guy who is riding across country (he’s currently in Tennessee). In the comments, Elise mentioned her friend’s aunt did something similar. You’ve got to check out End of the Trail. Bernice Ende rode 5,000 miles on her 8-year-old thoroughbred mare Honor and with her dog Claire. She made the trip alone, human-wise, over the course of 16 months from May 2006 to October 2007. If you click the “Current Information” link at the top of that site you can see more information and pictures. I really admire someone who can take a 16-month horse ride. I imagine it takes a lot of skill, some money in the bank and a very comfortable saddle. During her trip, Honor went through 14 sets of horseshoes. I hadn’t heard the term before but I read this kind of trip is called “Long Riding”.

Long Rider Bernice Ende I’m not sure I’d want to take that long of a trip but I can appreciate the desire to get away from the world and live without deadlines and much responsibility. I’m sure she discovered a lot about herself and America along the way. I’ve bookmarked her site so I’m ready in case she decides to do it again.

Thanks for the note, Elise.

Also, Bernice probably couldn’t have done it without a decent sponsor and it looks like a company called Outfitters Supply filled that role. It looks like they really helped her out along the way so I think it’s worth clicking over to their online store to check them out. They carry a lot of trail gear I haven’t seen in the other online stores I’ve been to. I’ve never done business with them, they’re not paying me anything for the link and we’re not affiliated.

The Kid Rides!

November 26, 2007 Mikki Comments 8 comments

The Kid Rides One of the benefits of having an older, well-broken in horse to ride is that anyone can ride him. We confirmed that last weekend when we threw the Kid up on our foster horse, Sinbad, and handed him the reins.

It would be a better story if we could tell you that the Kid had been begging us to ride, jumped up there with no hesitation, and took to horseback riding like a duck to water, but the truth is, he was a bit reluctant. In fact, we tricked him into going outside, where the horse was waiting, and coerced him into getting into the saddle. Then we told him we’d hold the horse the whole time he rode, only to let go of the bridle once the Kid had gotten more comfortable. Shame on us! But the good news is, he was in fact able to control Sinbad, and by the time we went up the road a little ways, turned around and came back to the barn – with Sinbad under the Kid’s direction the whole way – he admitted that horseback riding was fun after all.

Hopefully, this was the first of many rides. We have little hope that riding will replace video games in the Kid’s world, but maybe someday he can add it to the things he enjoys doing. We’d better get another horse, just in case. 🙂

Book Review: Chosen by a Horse

November 15, 2007 Mikki Comments 17 comments

Yes, I know I’m supposed to be writing my own novel, but I started this book a while back and wanted to finish it. It was really, really good, but have the tissues handy if you read it!

Chosen by a Horse is a memoir by Susan Richards. She agreed to foster a Standardbred mare and her foal when they and nearly 40 other mares and foals were confiscated by the SPCA from a farm where they were abused and neglected. She brought this mare, Lay Me Down, back to her own farm even though she lived alone, already owned three horses and Lay Me Down was so sick she had no guarantee of survival. The foal was inexplicably returned to the abusive owner (apparently to be surrendered to a vet to whom the owner owed money), but Lay Me Down eventually recovered from the malnutrition and lung infection she was suffering from when Ms. Richards brought her home.

You would think that a horse who had been abused, nearly starved, and denied medical care would be the either the meanest or most skittish horse on earth, but Lay Me Down had a big, loving heart and over the following months, she helped Ms. Richards – who had a past just as horrific as Lay Me Down’s – open up her own heart through caring for this wonderful horse.

I won’t give away any more of the story, because you really should read it for yourself. It’s a really good book; very well-written and touching. I will tell you that when I got to the end, I was reading it in bed next to Bill, who was already asleep, and I was sobbing so hard I was afraid I would wake him. So you’ve been warned – grab a hankie with this book.

You can preview the book right here (affiliate link)

My one and only complaint is that there was only one photograph, on the title page. I sure would have loved to see some pictures of Lay Me Down and the other horses (Hotshot, Tempo and especially the lovely Georgia). But I guess Ms. Richards is more like me than Bill – at our house, Bill pretty much takes all the pictures, and I prefer to live the moment rather than photograph it. Apparently, Ms. Richards feels the same way, and only takes pictures when the moment demands it, such as the one on the title page (in the book, she talks very specifically about taking that one photo, and why). But she paints such a vivid picture with words that you can imagine everything in your head almost as well as if you did have a photograph to see.

All in all, Chosen by a Horse is one of the best books I’ve read, fiction or non-fiction. Definitely a must-read.

A Just Plain Great Idea

November 13, 2007 Mikki Comments 6 comments

Bill found this story on FOXNews.com, and I found a direct link to their blog: Uncovering America by Horseback.

Bill Inman and his Thoroughbred-Quarter Horse, Blackie, are traveling across America to prove that America is still a good place, despite what you see on the news every day. As their blog says, “To ‘Uncover America’ and document the adventure, horseman Bill Inman is traveling across America on horseback, slowing down the pace to find interesting places, individuals, groups and history that inspire pride or lift the spirit. This adventure will show the American public that we do have something to be proud of, and nothing is impossible as long as you try.”

They left their home in Lebanon, Oregon on June 2, 2007 and hope to end up in Hendersonville, North Carolina by Christmas. I hope you’ll read their blog, and the story where we originally found it at FOXNews.com. I also hope you’ll consider clicking on the “Support” button on the Inmans’ blog, because this is definitely a venture worth supporting.

We’ve spent all morning trying to figure out how we can just pack up our horses and join Bill and Blackie, but it looks like we’ll just have to experience it through their blog. 🙁 Stupid jobs – always keeping you from doing the things you really want to do.

Valentine Vacuums His Stall

November 8, 2007 Bill Comments 5 comments

Our feeding routine is a little different these days. With three horses, all of which have different nutritional needs, it’s not as simple as it was with one horse. Still, it’s not three times harder.

First, Moonshine gets her half-scoop of Purina Strategy. As alpha-horse, she gets her ration first. Next, Valentine gets his one and a quarter scoop of Strategy. He likes to hang out up on the hill until the feed hits his bucket. Then he bolts from the top of the hill next to the barn straight for the gate at full speed. He’s serious about supper time. Finally, with Moonshine and Valentine in their stalls, poor bottom-of-the-totem-pole Sinbad can eat freshly tossed hay without being run off. He doesn’t get any grain, just hay, by order of his owner, who is a vet. And don’t worry, we put the daily hay ration in three piles so Sinbad is getting plenty. Fifteen minutes later, when Moonshine is trying to eat her wooden stall (she cribs), I know to let her out. Valentine takes longer, though. Not only does he eat more but he has a bad habit of sloshing the feed out of the bucket and onto the stall floor where he would spend the next ten minutes vacuuming his stall if we didn’t stop him. Yup, he sucks the Strategy pellets off of the ground. This of course increases his chances of getting colic, since ingesting sand is apparently a factor.

Our horses have all kinds of bad habits and this is yet another one. So I guess we’ll be looking into one of those feed buckets that makes it hard to slosh feed onto the ground.

Of course we try and stop him from doing it but he won’t budge without some force. And since it’s hard to push a 1300 pound horse who doesn’t want to move, we often grab some old hay twine to make an impromptu halter and lead him back to the pasture. This works surprisingly well.

Any of you have a horse that vacuums?

And Now For Something Completely Different

November 6, 2007 Bill Comments 4 comments

Well, not completely different, because here I am offering another excuse for neglecting Our First Horse. Here’s the thing: I mentioned a few posts ago that in November I was going to write a novel for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for short – it’s an annual event every November). Well, here it is November and Bill and I are both furiously writing our novels; the goal is to have 50,000 words by midnight on November 30. This means we need to write an average of 1,667 words a day. My novel, at least, is going pretty well, but the problem I find is that I’m having trouble writing both the novel and the blog. I come to my “dashboard” page to write here a couple of times a day and think, “dang, I don’t have time for this.” So that’s why we haven’t been writing. Sorry! I’m going to try to write more here, but I’m not making any promises until December 1.

So since I can’t think about anything but that stupid novel anyway, I’ll write about that. It’s about a woman and her horse (so technically I can write about it here, since it’s horse-related). But that, I’m afraid, is all I’m going to tell you about it. In fact, I may be the only one ever to read it. You wouldn’t think that someone who puts her writing out there for all the world to see (literally!) would be insecure about writing, but I am. I read back over what I’ve written – either here or re-reading the 6,000 words of my novel that I’ve written so far – and sometimes I think, “Wow! I wrote that! Cool!” And sometimes I think, “wow…i wrote that…ick.” There’s just too much of the latter and not enough of the former for me to be confident about sharing more than a few paragraphs of commentary.

But, if I change my mind and find a publisher, you’ll be the first to know. You could say you read me here first! 😀

Our Third Horse

October 30, 2007 Mikki Comments 7 comments

That’s right…I said third. We’ve been warned that horses are addictive, and that appears to be the case.

This horse is not actually ours. He belongs to a friend of a friend, and because of dispute involving pasturing and neighbor dogs, his life was in danger where he was being kept (long story, but the neighbor of the horse-sitter threatened to shoot the horses). So he’s staying with us for an indefinite period of time. His name is Sinbad, and he’s 26 years old. He is a complete sweetheart, and we’re told that he’ll let anyone ride him. We haven’t tried yet, but only because we haven’t had time.

The biggest challenge so far in getting a third horse has been dealing with the three horses trying to establish a pecking order. We thought Moonshine would be the pain, because she is so bossy with Valentine, but it turns out that she kinda likes Sinbad and Valentine is the one bullying him. Our guess is, Moonshine is optimistic that Sinbad can help her with her…er…”needs,” so she’s tolerating him (until she figures out he’s a gelding, and then she’ll be just as mean to him as she is with the worthless Valentine); and Valentine has decided that the new guy will be at the bottom of the totem pole because he’s tired of being the one getting bossed around. So for the first couple of days, poor Sinbad spent most of his time in the far back of the pasture, sneaking in for some hay and water when the other two were either locked in their stalls or not looking. It’s much better now. He’s been here for five days now, and as I write this they are all three eating hay near the barn, about 30 feet away from each other.

We hope this will turn out to be a really good arrangement for us. We have riding privileges with Sinbad, so if he’s as easy as everyone tells us, Bill will have a good horse to ride until Moonshine is fit to ride. Or until we get a fourth horse that we will actually own…then the Kid will have a good horse to ride too. Then when Sinbad goes home, we’ll have to get another horse…

Yep, they really are addictive.

More Trail Riding!

October 29, 2007 Mikki Comments 10 comments

I went trail riding again on Saturday. I’m sure you all will get tired of hearing about this soon, but I am still just so excited – I’m riding my horse! On a regular basis! It’s just so cool.

Anyway, I went with Shari and her friend/coworker, Christina. Christina happens to be a large animal vet, so I’m happy to be getting to know her better. 🙂 We went to a place nearby that is just a nice, easy network of trails. They wander through woods, around cornfields and next to a lake. The weather was perfect, and the horses were all very well-behaved.

Shari brought her gelding, Rabbit; he’s a Quarter Horse, about 15, maybe 15.5 hh. I had my 16.2 hh Tennessee Walking Horse. And Christina had her 17 hh Thoroughbred, Wilson. Can you just picture that? Since Bill, our official (and only) cameraman, didn’t come this time, you’ll have to picture it in your head. To help you in your imagining, though, Rabbit is a bay, Valentine is of course black, and Wilson is a dappled grey. He’s a former racehorse who also was a show jumper, and Christina rides him with English tack. What a motley crew – Shari on her Western saddle, in jeans and a baseball cap; Christina on her little English saddle in breeches with half-chaps and a riding helmet; and me on Shari’s nice trail saddle (looks like a Western/English combo) in jeans and riding helmet. You wouldn’t think we’d make be a good trail group, but we did. The horses all got along famously, and as long as we were only walking, things went pretty smoothly.

Every once in a while, though – okay, several times – Wilson wanted to go just a wee bit faster. Valentine wasn’t going to take that laying down. He was like one of those drivers you encounter, who isn’t going too fast until you try to pass them, and then they speed up. The faster Wilson went, the faster Valentine wanted to go. And let me tell you, a 17 hh Thoroughbred can go pretty darn fast.

I’ve learned something else too: a former show horse is not necessarily a good trail horse. My horse, as I’ve mentioned before, was a fancy show horse. He was what you call a “big lick” Tennessee Walker. That means he was one of those horses with the big ol’ pads on his front feet, keeping his back end way down and lifting his front feet way up in the air. Pretty impressive in a show ring, but not so very practical for everyday walking. What I’m saying is, he has one gait that is really, really smooth. It’s called a “running walk.” All his other gaits are, shall we say, uncomfortable for the rider. His walk is okay – rougher than a normal horse, but tolerable. His trot is really bouncy. His canter makes it nearly impossible to stay in the saddle. We never made it to a gallop, thank goodness. I think a project in the near future will be to find someone who knows how to direct a gaited horse, so I can learn how to keep Valentine in that nice running walk. I could sit that all day.

We also took our horses into the lake. That was an adventure. Rabbit would not go – Shari had to get off and lead him reluctantly in. He has a “thing” about water. Wilson would absolutely not go. Christina got off and tried to pull him in; he pulled her out. She got back on and Shari and Rabbit stood behind, with Shari slapping him on the rump with a crop as Christina tried to get him in. No way, sister. Finally they settled on getting him to stand at the water’s edge, which he finally did. And Valentine? The first time we tried, I got him to the edge but he turned around. Then after the Wilson fiasco, I tried again and he went right in. I was so proud – two experienced horsewomen, and I, the novice, was the only one whose horse obeyed with no trouble! Later, we found a better, smoother beach and all three horses went right in, and had a high old time, pawing and splashing. We can’t wait for summer, when getting splashed will be fun for the riders too.

All in all, it was a really great day. Can’t wait for this Saturday! I wonder where we’re going?

Meeting the New Neighbors

October 23, 2007 Mikki Comments 3 comments

I think I mentioned a few posts ago that our neighbor had recently fenced the property across from us to give his cows more pasture, and that Moonshine really doesn’t like them. It’s hard to tell exactly what she’s thinking, but it’s pretty obvious that she doesn’t approve of their presence. The first day they were there, they didn’t come close enough for us to see them, but I guess she could smell them. She spent a good part of that day facing toward the field with her ears pricked forward, snorting. The next day was our big ride in the round pen, and she could see them then. Every time she got to that spot in the arena, she’d stop and stare.

Well, it’s been over a week now, and she seems to have gotten a little more used to them. It’s a good thing, too, because she got a good dose of cow socializing over the weekend when we camped at a cow farm. Valentine and Moonshine were penned right next to the cow pasture; the cows could, and did, put their faces right up to the horse pen. She seemed okay with that. Whew.

So Moonshine’s not spooked by the cows anymore. Valentine never cared about them at all. Our dogs, on the other hand…we’re sure one of them (and we’re pretty sure which one of them) is gonna get kicked in the head. And there’s a better than average chance that one of us, or someone who visits us, will at some point back into the cow fence. Moonshine’s not the only one that’s put out by the new neighbors.

Camping with Horses

October 22, 2007 Mikki Comments 3 comments

We told you we were going to keep doing this riding thing, and we have. After the big confidence boost we got last Sunday, we were feeling secure enough with our horses that when we were invited to go camping Friday night and riding on Saturday, we thought, “why not?” So on Friday night, Shari came by with her two horses in her four-horse trailer and picked up Valentine and Moonshine. We drove over to her mom’s 20-acre farm and camped for the night. The next day, we had a great campfire breakfast and saddled up the horses. I rode Valentine and Shari rode Moonshine. I had no trouble at all with Valentine; I rode him a while, then Bill rode him, then Shari’s uncle rode him. He was perfect.

Alas, the same cannot be said for Moonshine. After feeling like Moonshine was going to buck her off several times, Shari worked with her with the longe line for a while, then rode her again. She was better, but Shari still didn’t trust her enough to let Bill ride her. So poor Moonshine was put up in the barn for the rest of the day. Bill went home shortly after that. Poor Moonshine…poor Bill. 🙁 I’ll let him tell more about that, and about Moonshine’s future (don’t worry, we’re keeping her).

But that didn’t keep me and Valentine from having a good time. Shari rode her gelding, Rabbit, and we rode around Mom’s fully-fenced cow farm for a while. That got boring after about a half an hour. By that time I was feeling pretty darn cocky, so Shari suggested we leave the confines of the farm, walk down the road a ways and head into the woods. So we did. It was so great! We found a nice trail, and I was able to take Valentine through creeks, up hills, over fallen timber, through brush – he was, I say again, perfect. We rode for a couple of hours. It was wonderful!

So, guess what I’m doing this weekend? Camping and horseback riding. How cool is that?