smellshorsey

You Can Catch Poison Ivy from Your Horse

Who can resist this face, which says, "Pat me! Pat me!" Yes, It's hard to keep hands off of such a cute pony. But if you could read the sign, which you probably can't since I can't either, it said something along the lines of "Do NOT touch this horse. Poison Ivy!"

I thought maybe that was the pony's name. There's probably a pony somewhere appropriately named "Poison Ivy." Maybe the pony bites. Lures you in with a cute face, then CHOMP.

Or maybe the pony had rolled in poison ivy and you'd catch it if you rubbed him. My cousin caught poison ivy from his dog who spent the day romping in poison ivy and the night in my cousin's bed.

But no. I learned something new at Pony Club camp, where this photo was taken. This pony was out grazing and came upon some very yummy poison ivy, so he ate it. Apparently poison ivy doesn't bother horses, but it comes out through the horse's skin and secretions -- and if you touch the horse for the next 48 hours or so, you may as well go roll in the poison ivy yourself.

Back from Carolina's Region Pony Club Camp

We're back from five days in Tryon, N.C. at the Pony Club Carolina's Region summer camp. I love this photo, which I took on the cross-country course at FENCE. I don't know this girl but her horse was green and he jumped off of the bank jump like a happy five-year-old child who'd just discovered jumping off the side of the swimming pool. I love how he seems to be flying through the air with the mountains in the background.

Lily was also in this group of five girls and horses. It was mercilessly hot. Two of the five had to drop out due to the heat. I probably would have dropped out but moms aren't allowed to drop out. Here's a photo of Lily and Markus over the same jump. This was Lily's first time ever doing a drop bank.

Now here's one of the many, many cool things that happened at camp. See the woman whose back is to the camera? That's Sarah Hansel, who was one of the excellent instructors at camp and who has a personal connection to Markus, Lily's new horse. Sarah used to show him for the woman who had rehabbed him after his slab knee fracture at the track when he was four. She would have been an incredible instructor for Lily even if she didn't know the horse, but since she had a history with him, she was able to give extra insight -- and confidence -- to Lily.

Lily's lesson on the cross-country course with Sarah had Lily completely aglow. She said, "That's the best time I ever had in my life doing anything!"

I've never been so hot and tired as I've been over the last five days. But it was worth every drop of sweat and every pound of Tryon red clay that won't even wash out of our whites with bleach.

More to come.

Getting Ready for Pony Club Camp

School ended Friday. We're getting ready for Pony Club camp, which is in less than two weeks. I don't know what I'm getting myself into but since the materials state "this is not the kind of camp where you drop off your child and leave," I'm staying. And since I'm staying I'm bringing my horse as well as Lily's new horse.

I'm actually excited, especially since we decided to stay in a hotel instead of a stall. Or a tent. I really couldn't be civil if I slept in a stall on a cot for four nights. I'd likely start to crib, weave and take on other vices, especially biting the other campers and chaperones. I'm grumpy enough with sleep.

Lily signed up for tetrathlon shooting practice. She's never shot a gun before and has been wanting to learn. This all sounded fine until....they don't have enough pistols for the campers to use and are calling for campers to try to bring one.

Well, I have a S&W .357 magnum and two other handguns. But I don't think this is what Pony Club permits. Especially when they have middle-aged adult women (read: hormonal) sleeping in stalls. No, we do not need to be armed.

Turns out what they want is an air pistol. This sounded good. I had visions of a $20 BB gun from Wal-Mart. But no! These target air pistols are more in the $400 and up range. Ouch!

I knew that horses were expensive. But that's a lot of money for a gun you can't even use on a crack-crazy intruder or a rabid raccoon unless you really want to piss them off. It's a gun that's not a gun.

And here I was trying to plan ahead on the stuff we needed such as hay, feed, supplements, buckets (Pony Club is big on buckets), more buckets, replacement parts for everything that might break, which is everything, etc. Had to get a new Coggins on the new horse and all the shots up to date. And now I need to find and borrow a gun that doesn't really shoot and costs $400.

I called my good friend whose husband is heavily armed. Of course all of his guns shoot real ammunition. And I've got some other heavily armed friends, but I doubt any of them have arms that aren't lethal. We do have a potato gun that is great fun and was under $5. That might have to do.

I hear the tetrathlon is great fun and it's wonderful that volunteers are willing to come to camp and work with our kids. But I'm constantly amazed at the "one more thing" I need to have. (Nobody is saying that I have to have one -- don't get me wrong. Our Pony Club has nice reasonable people in it -- they're just hoping for some members who can lend us air pistols or moms who haven't already spent all their money on fly sheets.)

Anyway. I'm bringing my camera, and I plan to shoot that.

One Trendy Style Horse People Can't Wear

It's hard to be a horse person and to dress stylishly. For one thing, all the money for style goes to buy horse blankets to replace the ones that the horse thoughtlessly and gleefully shredded. And then there's the horse food. And the riding lessons.

There's also little reason to spend good money on any clothes that don't look good covered in green slobber. Or clothes that can't stand up to a good bleaching.

But then there's another obstacle for horse people who want to dress fashionably: the fashions themselves. I do believe that I would start to crib if forced to wear these cute (I guess) capris from Ann Taylor.
Is it just me? I see these pants -- I feel the ties brushing on my legs. FLIES!

I cannot and will not wear clothes that feel like I have flies crawling on my legs. Because most of the time, I do have flies crawling on my legs, and I'm constantly stomping and slapping at them.

I have a bathing suit cover-up with fringe on the bottom. One of those island print thingies. Very cute. Had to give it away. Fringe on bottom = FLIES on legs.

My TB mare, Lucy, has the same problem. I put a fly sheet on her last summer. Although she wears a blanket all winter with no problem, she was convinced that the lightweight mesh fluttering around her was FLIES. It made her crazier than before. So, since Buddy's fly sheet had arrived missing pieces (I eventually ended up getting a credit for it but haven't shopped at that particular Internet horse store again), I just let him have hers. Which he tore up.

The flies are bad already. I know I'm a little late, but I'm starting the horses on feed-through fly control, I'm hanging fly traps (pew!) under the eaves of the barn away from the horse end, and I have (probably foolishly) ordered new fly sheets that cover from ears to tail. And then I found these cool fly leg wraps and have ordered them, too. Last year's fly masks are in usable condition, so at least I didn't have to get that.

Of course, we're running through fly spray like crazy. And we need to figure out why the fans in the barn aren't working.

But wear fashionable clothes that have ties that feel like flies brushing my legs? Forget waterboarding -- that would be torture!