The girls

are doing well!

Chev's gained at least 75 pounds in three weeks...and Tiny's lost a little, but she was hog fat when we moved in--and on stall rest.

She is not terribly thrilled about being tied to a post.

What beautiful, sunny weather we have had in the PNW lately!  The girls got their feet done, and I got a sunburn.

I wish you and yours all the best.  Summer's in no time at all.

A dear friend of mine

in Wyoming pointed out how I am not doing a very good job keeping up on this blog.

To be honest, it's been hard.

Chevelle has had a very rough winter and "lost a little weight" is a gross understatement.  I don't even recognize my horse when I look at her.  Teeth, deworming, and other things all seem fine according not just to my paranoid self but two of the vets at work.  I'll be pulling blood on her next week...just to be safe.  Personality wise, she's her same old self.

When I look at her, it makes me want to cry.

This is when she looked like last summer after her return to Oregon:

And this is what she looked like a month and a half ago.

I have been more or less in shock about it.  I have had this horse since she was a bouncing two-year-old, and I haven't known her to lose a pound.  She hated the old barn she and Tiny were at (which was pretty nice, even, and certainly not cheap!), and despite pouring calories into her, she just kept losing weight.  She also stopped eating on me.

Now, at the new place, which she has only been at for two-and-a-half weeks, she's already starting to look better...but it can't come soon enough.

Chev at the new place as I got in my car last night

Meanwhile, Tiny is doing fine post trying to slice her front foot off with her own rear hoof.  She's wrapped and healing well.  And has bell boots on all the time.  I think she might have even grown a little.

Come in from their private pasture

So, I think things are looking up.  I am impatient to have my fat, shiny horse back, but at least I have my happy horse back.  Here's what she looked like just a couple of days after moving:

Grr...Tiny, get lost.

And, Tiny is still as sweet as ever.  And...her mane has grown back a little.

Acre of pasture to herself...still manages to get poop on her face.

So...we'll wait and see.

Leaving already?

We have been

cooling our jets all winter.

The girls have been stabled at a private place with tons of mud.  Tiny has been stalled most of the winter with strange lamenesses.  I now have an almost full set of xrays on her, which show no evidence of anything alarming.  She's now moving wonderfully.  Chev has been fine, lost a little weight over her first Oregon winter outside in the rain (despite her ridiculously expensive waterproof blankets).  They're both heading to a lovely full care barn at the end of the month where they'll share a mud-free acre pasture with a double-wide shelter.

I have been in a working more-than-full-time funk.  I get up before the sun rises, work all day, head to the barn, check on the girls, turn them out on grass, clean, water, feed, restock, put them up and head home after dark.  It's been, frankly, exhausting.

But, change is coming. 

And change is something we all need.

2 in one day!! Is she back?

So a friend of mine came out to see the horses the other day.

He's really interested in them, but doesn't know much about them yet.

Like most people who are just starting to work with an animal, there are some residual fear issues to overcome.

I think fear (for us) has a lot to do with the unknown.  We are afraid of horses not because of what they're doing at the moment, but what they're capable of doing at any moment with seemingly little provocation.

I had him lunge both the horses--Chev on the line and Tiny in the round pen.  I think it can be helpful to realize that they do respond in a predictable manner (most of the time).  And confidence can be built on the knowledge that they really are (mostly!) pretty easy to read.

I am a very nervous, high strung, worried person.  My stomach churns in new situations.  My nerves often get the better of me.

I was the kind of kid that couldn't even call and order a pizza because my anxiety about talking to a stranger on the phone was too high.

Ironically, about all I've done for work these last few years is talk to people I don't know on the phone, often in emergency medical situations.  Irony!  At any rate, I can adapt.  Very quickly, sometimes.

I think this hyper-sensitivity is an asset around horses.  I grew up with jumpy, unpredictable horses (Arabians, but who's keeping track anyway?) that would spin and bolt at the drop of a hat (or the buzz of a fly...or the appearance of a shadow...etc, etc ad infinitum).  I sympathized with them.  I, too, was a scaredy-cat afraid of everything.

I got really good at anticipating.

I could feel a spook in a horse way before they were going to bolt (often "wayyyy before" gave me a few seconds lead time).  I worked well with them.  I became the calm, confident one out of necessity.  We understood each other.

So I guess the point is, over the years I've developed a very calm way around horses.  And as a result, I have some really, really laid back horses that look to me for support in strange situations.

Tiny was a great example the other day.

I had the chiropractor out to see if anything could be done structurally to improve her way of going (there could--she was an absolute mess).  To do this, he had to take hold of the lead rope.

Literally no one has handled her but me in almost three months.  And before that, no one had really handled her at all.  She bonded fast and hard.  Now she's tough to get rid of (ha, ha).

She was pretty confused when I stepped back, and kept looking over  like, "Hello?  Hello?  Is this okay with you?  Should this be okay with ME?"

Anyway, it's sort of flattering when an animal acts that way.  But the ultimate goal is to have a sane, happy, confident horse in any situation.  We give them support and tools to feel secure.

So consistency is really the key here.  For my friend, it will take time to learn that horses are, for the most part, predictable animals.  That doesn't mean we should forget that they are potentially dangerous, whether that be intentional or not!  But I think there's a lot of trust that forms there in that daily relationship of predictable handling.

Horses are great mirrors of a person.

Certainly not the first time I've heard this said, but the best I've ever heard it said, comes from Mr. Brannaman.

"Your horse is a mirror to your soul.  Sometimes you might not like what you see…sometimes you will.”

The round pen & a round bale

There has been some serious slacking going on here over at the Chevelle Chronicles.

Part of my problem is now they are the Chevelle AND Tiny Chronicles.

Anyway.

I started a new job about a month ago working for a great equine hospital in town.  I have A LOT to learn.  But so far so good, and I'm checking into new barns that will be closer to where I'm working now.

I watched a girl work her horse in the round pen yesterday while I was picking out the girl's paddock.

The mom and grandma were also looking on, and the grandma was mumbling something about Clinton Anderson--"Well, that's what the Horse Whisperer would do".  Clinton Anderson's the Horse Whisperer, right?  To be perfectly honest with you, I can't keep all those guys straight.

The horse, a big chestnut TB-looking lanky guy, was about as unhappy as a horse could be.  The round pen was way too small for a horse of his build to move properly in.

She kept making all these "ARRRRHHHHH" buzzer noises every time he did something wrong, while simultaneously yelling "TROT"  "WHOA"  and "TROOOOTTT!!!!"  She couldn't catch him (which is a feat in a 50' round pen), couldn't get him to stop, and was getting increasingly annoyed.

That horse had an expression like he wanted to kick her head in.

He didn't though.  He was way too much of a saint for that.

Then, after several minutes of completely mind-numbing activity where the girl expected everything and didn't listen to a thing the horse was saying to her,  I heard the grandma say, "Get him to follow you around!  That's what the Horse Whisperer does."

So she tried that.  She called and called him.  That horse wasn't moving a muscle except to get AWAY from her.  The absolute LAST PLACE ON EARTH that horse wanted to be was next to her.

It kinda made my blood boil to see.

Horses are such forgiving, amazing animals.  I've made so many mistakes with training that I can't even count 'em all.  But one thing I really try to be is fair, and to listen.  But above everything is: being fair.

This horse was set up to fail, and he did.  She didn't notice when he gave her signals that he understood and was trying to comply.

More than anything, she failed her horse.

And the worst part is, she went away from the pen thinking it was his fault.

Ugh.  I'm going to have to start offering free clinics or something.  I'm not an expert by any definition, but I feel like I could at least help people to notice when their horse is trying, and to reward that try in them. 

Then maybe everyone could be happy.

My girls sure aren't perfect, but they are respectful, interested, and calm.  They throw their noses in the halter and go towards something new bright eyed, happy, and secure.

Speaking of happy...

The girls are eating their way through a 600 pound round bale, and loving it. The free choice hay gives them something to do all day, and they could both use the extra pounds before winter hits.  This was after 1 day of being on the round bale--about 100# of hay gone already!  I've since removed the wrapping--it was supposed to help keep the bale together, but they took no heed of that--so we'll see what kind of devastation I'm looking at when I get out there today.

Happy Labor Day weekend to one and all!  Don't forget to hug your horses :)

In which I talk about coming home...among other things

Well, we made it back.

Two horses, two kitties, one 1991 silver BMW, and a ton (literally.  ha ha) of stuff.

Although technically most of the stuff has yet to arrive.

Anyway.

Chev had a pretty rough time on the trip back.  A few hours from home she started acting colicy, hauler called me, and I kind of freaked out a little inside.  For the first few days I was worried I would lose her.  I nursed her along (ironically the baby, who had only ever been in a trailer once, was just fine) and now she's back to normal and doing great.

However, it does make me concede that I'll likely not be moving my horses across country again any time soon.

It's pretty nice here in the green, cool (seriously, what is up with this 90+ degree weather lately??) PNW.

I moved them back to a barn I used to board at, and the owner was nice enough to let the girls hang out in a pipe corral big enough for the two of them--24 hours a day.  They are doing great out there.

I had a bit of a set back with Chevy's feet: the second her toesies touched Oregon soil, they went all to mush.  I had my beloved farrier out shortly after their return (THANK GOODNESS for good farriers!) and Chev has just been on hoof rehab recently--until 2 days ago, when I climbed aboard my horse for the first time in two months.  I miss it.

Hoof comparison...On the left, soon after her shoes were pulled 5/8/12; the right, same foot yesterday, 8/12/12:

It'll probably be a couple trim cycles before her feet are perfect (I can see the shape is off and her toe looks long in the solar view--not so much from the side), but boy am I pleased.  She's still a little tender on rocks (I've been treating with Hoof-Tough, a mixture of iodine and formaldehyde), but she's doing SO great.  Her frog is firm but spongy like a good rubber ball, the deep crack is completely gone and her heel bulbs look great.  So yay for barefoot!  I'm glad I was patient with her and didn't slap shoes right back on without giving her a chance to mend herself.

I'm now working at an equine hospital in the area, and I'm pretty excited about the job.  It's giving me lots of opportunities to learn more horse (and cow, and sheep, and goat, and pig) things--and there's so much to know!  In fact, I better head to bed so I can get up early tomorrow.

I'll leave you with a few pictures.

Chev shares her dinner in the pipe corral.  I honestly never thought I'd see that kind of sharing from this mare, but boy, is it cute.

Chev and the neighbor

Tiny looks worried when she's not stuck to Chevy's flank.

'Til next time!

2 more days!

I just got off the phone with the lady who will be hauling the girls for me.  She's in Cheyenne and will be picking them up tomorrow afternoon, right after the brand inspection.  They'll go down to a reining trainer's facility in Cheyenne and stay Wednesday.  Then they're on the road early Thursday, and I think they'll be back in OR by Saturday!

This actually works pretty well for my schedule--I'll have time to pack up the fencing after they head out tomorrow, and be on the road early Wednesday.  This way I think we'll get back about the same time.

Here's to hoping everything from here on out goes smoothly!