kiss that good footing goodbye

Friends, I fear that my fun in the snow may be coming to an end, as we are gearing up for an ice storm tonight into tomorrow that will supposedly dump 1/2" of solid ice on this area. I really hope that all the Rhode Islanders who have been whining non-stop about the snow we've gotten are happy with themselves. Personally I'd rather have snow than ice any day but this time it doesn't look like we're going to get a choice. If the outdoor and trails get a nice 1/2" glaze of ice on them, there will be no more riding out there. We will be confined to the indoor.

Not going to lie, I am a bit concerned about that.

The good news is that beyond the soap-eating incident of 2011, we had a nice ride last night. I free-lunged Lucy before getting on and worked on transitions to get her really paying attention to me. She was pretty good even though it's been a while since I have practiced that with her.

I tacked up and hopped on, and we spent about ten minutes warming up at the walk. Another boarder had set up three crossrails in the ring and I practiced circling L around them and moving her ribcage over each time we changed direction.

Then I picked up the trot, and Lucy was like AW HELL NO! and threw a tantrum. She refused to go forward and when I booted her a few times she kicked out. Finally I got her to go forward and made a beeline for the crop rack on by the door. I grabbed one as we went by and showed it to her. "See?" I told her, "I have a pony beater now." She trotted nicely around half of the ring and then once again got all bottled up even though I was really urging her forward and kicked out again. This time her foot connected with the side of the indoor and she left a nice hoof-shaped hole there. I took the crop and gave her a smart whack right on the shoulder and yelled CUT IT OUT! When she moved forward again I praised her and proceeded on like nothing had happened.

And after that little display, she was really good! There were even moment of self-carriage and lightness at the canter. To top it off, I took her over one of the crossrails that was set up on the diagonal and she was so good. She trotted happily up to them and cantered softly away. She halted easily at the corners of the ring.

And I will leave you with some photos of her in the outdoor from this past weekend when it was 35* and sunny, because sadly they will most likely be the last ones I take of her out there before Spring if we are really getting that 1/2" of ice:

In which Lucy has a very clean mouth.

Shh, Lucy is a *C Word*.

Cribber.

Oh, you thought I meant something different. No, no, and to be honest, "cribber" is as much of a bad word as that one is anyway.

Her stall has taken the brunt of the abuse, since she gets turned out in a paddock with plastic flex fencing.

Lucy says, "Wood is a lot easier for me to chow down on than plastic fencing...DUH. Stupid humans."

Needless to say, my barn owner is not very impressed with her new habit. I knew I had to find a solution before she did too much damage, so I started doing research and asking around.

Someone said to me that they had used Irish Spring soap in the past and rubbed it on the wood where she has been chewing, then she will stop chewing it because horses apparently hate the taste of this particular soap. It was reiterated to me that it can't be Dove. It can't be CVS store brand. It must be Irish Spring.

So off to WalMart I went, and I purchased the Magical Anti-Cribbing Irish Spring Soap. I applied it as directed:


By the time I was finished applying it to all of the areas she has chewed on (and the few areas that haven't been chewed yet), I had used half a bar:


I brought Lucy in from her paddock and put her in her stall. She immediately noticed the half bar of soap sitting on top of her blankets on her door and of course was curious. She had a little taste and mulled it over for a minute, trying to decide if it was edible or not. I sat with a wild smile across my face waiting for her look of disgust, camera on and ready to capture her reaction:


"Mmm, that's a tasty treat!" she said to herself. She went back for more. My smile turned to a look of horror as my horse ATE the soap:


After a few bites and no sign of stopping, I just could not stand it anymore. I took the soap away. She was sad:


I am not kidding you when I say she took bites out of it:

fresh powder

Another foot of snow. We're running out of space to put it all! Lucy's solution: just plow through it.










I've also added some pages to this blog. We now have a page about me, and a page about Lucy, so that newcomers can get the basic gist of the blog without having to go through hundreds of entries.

quickest ride ever

We are getting yet another snow storm today so after work I went over to the barn not really expecting to ride. When I got there, however, I suddenly got the urge to hop on without even taking Lucy's blanket off. The Princess needs to stay warm, afterall.

We wandered around the farm, down to the little field that borders the woods, and then back to the barn. I think it was ten minutes tops but I left the barn smiling and that's what it's really all about.

naughty horse

We all know Lucy is a sensitive soul. She often appears to be more annoyed and prone to be silly when I pick up contact, and her leaser has noticed also. She suggested that we might try a bitless bridle or a hackamore, so I arranged to borrow one from a nice lady in New Hampshire whom I don't really know but she gladly sent me, a stranger, her bitless bridle for a month's trial. How nice is that?

Sunday was the first time we tried it. Her leaser was riding and Lucy did alright with it at first, and then a couple of times got really pissy in the ring. At one point she popped a small rear but came back down when asked to go forward.

She seemed to be getting more and more agitated in the ring and since she's usually so happy outside, I suggested we take her for a walk, offering to follow her leaser on foot while she rode. We followed a little trail through the woods and Lucy seemed really happy. She responded well to the bridle and we had a nice time. I wasn't even out of breath trudging through a foot of snow!

Then, when we were almost back at the barn, and we had to cross a small field to get to where the far paddocks are that lead back to the main parking lot and barn area. Lucy all of a sudden got very worked up, as if she couldn't get back to the barn fast enough. She didn't bolt, but she got wound up like a rocket ready to burst. This is a horse who has never offered to be barn sour, but she had made her mind up. When her leaser pulled back to ask her to woah, Lucy went straight up in the air. She came back down and went up two more times, each time getting consecutively higher. Her leaser sat all but the last rear, and she said it was more a decision to bail than anything else. I stood in the corner of the field watching the whole thing feeling totally helpless. Once Lucy was riderless she galloped up the very icy path back to the barn. I was furious at her! I checked to make sure her leaser was ok, but luckily she had fallen in a nice big cushy snow drift (yay snow!) and she was fine.

Somehow Lucy managed not to wipe out during her trip back to the barn, but she had a hard time stopping on the barn driveway (because once again, it is ICE), and she had to run up a snow bank to stop. Then she trotted back to the barn doors and waited expectantly to be taken inside.

I wanted to KILL HER.

The more I thought about it afterward, the more I realized that her rearing was probably a reaction to the mechanism of the bitless bridle. This particular bridle works by applying pressure to the underside of the chin and jaw, and both areas are very sensitive on a horse. When we were back in the woods before she reared, I had to adjust the straps several times because on a few occasions they got twisted, and they also didn't release pressure well at all. Even if there was no tension in the reins, they were still tight against her face.

Needless to say I don't think a bitless bridle is going to work for us, but I am really glad we gave it a shot. I'd be hesitant to try it again because I do not want to teach my already very athletic and slightly unpredictable horse that rearing is an option. Even the fact that she thought she had to rear to get away from the pressure is very alarming, but it makes sense. I feel awful that she acted like that with her leaser and I am very grateful that no one was injured. It was scary.

So it will be back to the regular bridle from now on, and I've set up a dentist appt for her to see if her teeth are bothering her.

And to add to the drama, I slipped going up the muck pile with a full wheelbarrow and landed with all my weight on a solid piece of ice with one knee. I had to stand there and collect myself and just breathe for a few minutes before I could continue because it hurt pretty badly. And now my knee is all sorts of fun colours.

Happy 5th Birthday to Lucy

I am sorry to report that Lucy was a very bad girl this weekend, and maybe I'll have the energy to update about that this afternoon (the short version is that she has decided rearing is a whole lot of fun), but for now we'll forget about her naughtiness because today is her 5th birthday.

I think that all she's going to get will be some frozen carrots because really, she was AWFUL. Maybe, if I'm feeling really nice, I'll add some peppermints to her mash tonight.

Lucy enjoying the nice crisp -2* weather this morning.

Are You Prepared?

My day job is working in emergency management for colleges and universities. Part of EM is having an emergency plan, i.e. planning ahead should any type of disaster happen and how the school would get through the disaster with minimal loss (both property and life).

I started thinking last night about plans for barns and I am curious if your barn has one. What would happen if there was a fire? Do you have enough paddocks to get all of the horses out of the barn and into a safe place? Do you have spoken or written agreements with neighboring farms for them to temporarily house your horses? Similar arrangements would need to be made if your barn flooded, sustained major structural damage, etc.

If you keep all of your paperwork in a barn office, do you have copies of your horses health certificates, proof of ownership, and registrations in a separate location should the originals be destroyed?

If you don't own a trailer, do you have contact numbers for people who do in case you need to get your horses out of danger? This also links in with medically-related instances where a trailer is needed, like if your horse colics and your vet tells you it needs surgery. This always weighs heavily on my mind, as I don't own a trailer.

Do you have an updated catalog of all the tack in the barn with photos and serial numbers (specifically of saddles) in case you lose everything? Replacement via insurance claims will go a lot more smoothly if you can provide that documentation. Homeowners insurance will often times cover the loss of privately owned equipment. I know the policy that Kenny and I have for our house does, but I have been slacking big time on putting the information about my saddle on file with them.

No one likes to consider that disaster and loss could affect them, but the reality is that you just never know what's around the corner. In the past few years we have had major flooding (at least here in RI where parts of this state are still recovering from the catastrophic flooding we had this past spring), and there have been numerous barn fires in this area. In California you have the incredible rain storms, which lead to land slides. Earthquakes and hurricanes can cause major and widespread destruction. Tornadoes are like mother nature's way of rolling a dice and seeing which building gets sucked up. The moment when you get the news that a major disaster is imminent is NOT the time to wonder what to do with your horses.

videos from tonight

Another great ride on Lucy tonight! I rode last night and she was so amazingly good that I set up a little crossrail that she happily trotted over. Unfortunately no one could video for me yesterday, but today my friend Jenny came to the barn with me and she took some video!

Lucy on the flat

Lucy over a crossrail

A screencap:


Not gonna lie, I am THRILLED :D

Also, don't forget to leave a comment with a question for Lucy here.

Stylish Blogger Award

Kristen from sweet horse's breath awarded Lucy and I with the Stylish Blogger Award :D

There are 4 duties to perform to receive this award:

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award

2. Share 7 things about yourself

3. Award 15 recently discovered great bloggers

4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award!

The Thank You:

Kristen and I have a lot in common. We are both young artsy professionals, starting our married lives with our significant others. And both of us fell in love with a thoroughbred who wasn't in the best condition, and we have both made our horses shine again. Her horse, Lazarus, is a handsome bay OTTB whom Kristen got fresh off the track. Like a lot of OTTB's, he needed some weight when she got him, but you'd never know that now because he is shiny, happy, and there are no signs of ribs :) She has also worked with him through a bout with laminitis, but he is back on track now and feeling great. She inspires me to keep at it, even when Lucy is really pushing my buttons, because something awesome is always around the corner.

Seven Things About Myself:

1. I have been riding since I was 3 but my earliest memory of horses isn't from riding. Until I was six, I lived next to a horse farm and my mum would ride the horses over to our house and come up the driveway. I remember standing there as a very young girl and looking up in complete awe at my mum on a gigantic bay thoroughbred, and then off she went, into the hunt fields to jump big fences. And that is how I got hooked.

2. Lucy is my very first horse, and I bought her for myself in November of 2009. I got tired of asking "Santa" for a horse. All he ever got my was a My Little Pony, or a Breyer. Those are lovely, but I wanted a real live eating and pooping pony! I've always liked the project horses and boy oh boy has Lucy been a project. I adore her and I am glad I keep this blog, because it makes it easy for me to click back through our progress and realise just how far we've come.

3. I grew up all over the place. I was born in Hong Kong, and have lived in England, the Annapolis MD area, the Boston MA area, and now I live in Rhode Island with my husband. I have also traveled a fair bit, and I try to ride whenever I travel.

4. I love, love, love to eat, and I will try almost anything. I draw the line at some animal products (and tofu, because that just sounds gross) but I do try to be adventurous! I am screwed if my metabolism ever slows down.

5. I also love cars. I plan on having a mid-life crisis and buying a Mini Cooper. After my first car (a Honda Accord) died last year, I was *this close* to buying a Mini but at the last minute bought Lucy and a used 2008 Volvo instead. If Lucy weren't almost 17hh, I would name her Mini Cooper. ;) Just kidding.

6. I work in Emergency Management, which is basically the art of predicting unpredictable events and trying to be as prepared as possible for them. This is not my passion, though. I am an artist by trade and training and I have a BA in Fine Art. I post my artwork from time to time here, but if you'd like to see more, you can check out my DeviantART account.

7. As I mentioned above, I live in New England with my wonderful husband, whom I married this past September. He is a pretty good rider himself, though he doesn't spend a lot of time at the barn these days. I fell in love with him when we used to ride two horses down in the Southern part of the state. We could ride right to the beach and boy did he look handsome on the Azteca mare with his cowboy hat on.

15 Great Bloggers:

1. A Collection of Madcap Escapades
2. Eventing-A-GoGo
3. Green n Green = Black n Blue
4. Grey Brook Eventing
5. Jessi Makes Jewelry
6. Lovin' from the Oven
7. Saddle Fitting: The Inside Journey
8. Sweet Horse's Breath
9. Tacky Tack of the Day
10. Team Taco
11. The George Morris Chronicles
12. The Jurga Report: Horse Health Headlines
13. Wanderlust
14. Tucker the Wunderkind
15. Tails and Trails of a Barn Rat

200th Post: Ask Lucy

Wow, two hundred Lucy-centric updates in a little over a year. That's not too bad, right?

The thing is, Lucy is bored, and getting slightly annoyed, because I never let HER talk:

"seriously, mum, will you shut up already?"

Now I don't know if all of you have had the pleasure of interacting with a young, bored, and slightly annoyed mare, but it's not pretty.

To switch it up I thought I'd give everyone a chance to ask Lucy some questions. I will relay the questions to her and let you know what she says. She can be a little bit loopy and sometimes she rambles, but I think underneath all of that 'tude she is quite intelligent.

I'm sure she'd love to talk about her boyfriend(s), her wardrobe, her routines, and her dinner. She'd also probably like reminiscing about her short-lived stint as a racehorse, and musing about what she envisions herself doing in the next few years.