This is completely self-indulgent. Buddy likes watermelon more than Lucy, but she's the Boss Lady. Notice how he keeps coming back to me to fix this problem on the playground. And of course, I do.
If you're not a LOLcat fan, I'm so sorry. I just couldn't help myself.
I haven't been posting because I've been stuck. No, not like the horse in this picture, though this is exactly how I feel. (Photo from here.)
Let me first explain what "stuck" is. It's not getting your head stuck in a chair, no matter how coy and attention getting that might be.
Stuck is much less dramatic and possibly even less useful. A local riding school has some very reliable school horses. They can be relied upon to do what you ask, or perhaps not. But they won't do anything stupid or dangerous.
Sometimes, for no apparent reason, they get stuck. Maybe they will have been standing in a group while their riders jump individually, or while their riders were getting instruction on what to do next. At any rate, when the group of horses moves off, one (or more) might decide not to. Their riders will flail away with their legs banging the horses' sides in an effort to move the horse forward, but the school horse (or horses) don't budge. They are stuck.
You've seen it. You may have experienced it. The horse is stuck, all four feet planted on the ground. It's not going anywhere. It is stuck.
The instructor has to intervene. She pulls them forward. They come unstuck and it's like it never happened. "Sometimes they just get stuck," she tells the rider.
I've got something that I just have to write and don't want to. It's not hard, but there's a lot of it. I've done all the pre-work, the research and interviews. And try as I might, I can't make myself move forward. I am as stuck as one of those school horses, and there is no one but me to get me unstuck. I'm not doing a good job of urging me forward, but I am doing a good job of at least limiting fun distractions, like blogging.
I came a little unstuck this morning, since the deadline was last week (oops!). I'm a third of the way through. So long as I don't get stuck again (this is not writer's block -- this is an inner protest) I should be finished by Wednesday.
And that will unstick the rest of my life.
I need to post about riding horses in the ocean in the Bahamas last month. I need to blog about the Pony Club Quiz Rally, and especially tell you about the shoe table. But for now, I just need to stay unstuck. Be back soon.
Oh, to know how a horse's little mind works. I feel bad about this story.
We had Buddy all loaded in the trailer and were driving down our street on the way to Lily's weekly riding lesson at a farm 15 minutes away (in the South distance is measured in time, not miles) when I saw our silly dog, Parker, in my rear view window. His Invisible Fence collar must need a new battery because he had left the yard and was following us down the road. He's so sweet and so dumb.
So I stopped (no need to pull over on our street) and Lily got out to take Parker back home. I stayed in the Yukon. Suddenly, the Yukon started shaking. There was no banging or weight-shifting from the trailer, so I didn't see how the shaking was Buddy. He wasn't moving around or making noise. But there was something going on back there. I would almost swear the trailer was trembling. I got out to check.
Poor Buddy! He WAS trembling -- shaking all over. He glanced back at me and the whites of his eyes were showing. I petted his rump and spoke reassuringly. What was the deal? We had just stopped in the road. Then he started whinnying for Lucy. A panicked whinny. And he was still trembling.
The whole trailer was shaking. No banging. Just shaking. Lily got back and I said, "Look at your horse. He's trembling all over." It was a terrible sight.
"Is he colicking?" she asked.
"He just pooped before getting in the trailer, so I don't think so," I said. "Let's get moving and see if he'll stop," I said, figuring that if he wasn't okay (and what could suddenly be so wrong? He was fine when being groomed and loaded. He was better than fine) we could come right back.
We got back in the truck and started again. I went back over in my mind what had happened. Then it dawned on me. You probably could have seen the light bulb appear above my head. Lily had yelled at Parker, the dog, for following us. When the dog knew he was in trouble (he's very submissive), he started running back home. Lily yelled at him to stay home and not to get in the road again. She followed him all the way to his dog bed on the porch and told him to stay there.
Lily must have started yelling at the dog as soon as she got out of the truck. Buddy thought he was the one in trouble!
We do not beat our horses, though we do not always speak in a polite, quiet tone. Especially when Lucy tries to push her way into Buddy's stall because he gets more food than she does.
Poor Buddy. He didn't know what he had done. He didn't know Lily wasn't yelling at him. He had no where to go to get away, standing in the trailer like the good boy he is. So he just started trembling.
I've never seen him tremble before.
When we got where we were going Buddy was eating hay and all fine. Still, before we unloaded Lily got in the trailer with Buddy for some sweet talk, treats and much scratching of his favorite places so that he would forgive her (he already had) and wouldn't think the trailer was a place where you had a reason to tremble.
Poor, sweet Buddy.
When the lesson was over he hopped right back in. Whew!
Buddy's great. He doesn't walk into the trailer and he doesn't charge in. He hops with a controlled enthusiasm. I'd hate for that to ever change.
They're having a hot air balloon and equestrian festival in Aiken, S.C. What will be next? Plastic grocery bags and horses festival?
My horses would think that hot air balloons were Giant Breathing Plastic Grocery Bags of Death. We would find out just exactly how fast and how far our horses could go. We'd no doubt beat the balloons to their destination.
And they've got fireworks, too! Yahoo!
Look at a portion of the schedule, below. Can you imagine warming up for dressage while the balloons are taking off?
Festivities begin on Friday September 19th with barrel racing at 4:00 PM, jumping exhibition at 5:00 PM, Kids Balloon run at 6:00 PM, Special Shape balloons and tether balloon rides at 7:00 PM, Fireworks display at 8:00 PM.
On Saturday September 20th the balloons will take off at 6:30 AM, dressage exhibition at 7:30 AM, hunting exhibition at 9:00 AM.
But I just might go watch the goings on. Perverse, I know. Beyond the disconnect between horse behavior and hot air balloons, it sounds like fun. Here's the link.
Lily went to riding camp last week. The instructor's dog, Savannah, kept looking for a shady spot because it was usually in the 90s. If you'll look in the shadow of this jump, you'll see the dog. The instructor kept getting Savannah to move to a safer spot, but she especially liked the shade cast by this jump and kept returning.
It was probably a good experience for the horses to jump a jump-with-panting-dog combination, and none of them refused, but it's still not the best choice on the dog's part.
Between outages of almost every kind caused by lightning (now we've been struck THREE times this summer) and multiple fun trips plus a very welcome guest, I'm so far behind I may not be able to catch up. But I'll give it a shot.
Buddy is better, thank goodness. Thanks to all for your well-wishes and good hints on how to get him to take his medicine.
More later. Hope you're having a great, lightning-free summer!
I'm in love with Albert, son of Gilbert. Best of all, Albert's in love with me. I'll explain in a minute.
Jane's farm is so much fun. Here's a photo of Buddy with Jane's six-month-old colt, Albert, from our November visit.
We went out there Saturday to look at a horse that Lily's friend may lease for the summer (and keep here so they can ride together). All of Jane's horses were excessively friendly -- except, of course the one Lily's friend may lease. I would love to show you a good photo of Albert, who's now a yearling, but he was far too friendly to photograph. Or rather, you couldn't get far enough away from him to take his picture. He was like a cat when you're trying to read the newspaper. Wherever you are, that's where he had to be. You want to look at the miniature donkeys? Too bad. Albert's going to stand between you and them. You want to walk across the pasture? You're not going by yourself, not as long as Albert's on the job.
I wanted to bring him home. He didn't allow you to pay attention to anyone but him. Wherever we went, he went, too. We stayed there and scratched and massaged him for about an hour. In return, he offered us lots of love. He was still sorry to see us go. If I ever need to feel loved, I know where to go. Click on the photos to enlarge (except the one of me, which I only include because that is just the funniest horse face -- the one with the blaze). Please notice both the people's and Albert's expressions, especially his eyes and lower lip in the last photo of him.
And then, there was the friendly mini-jackass who stole my camera case. (He was formerly named "Bill" and his mate was named "Hillary," but Jane changed their names when she got them.)
I wish I could snap a picture, but if I go outside the horses will stop what they're doing and come to me. Here's what they're doing:
Buddy wants to play (always).
Lucy doesn't (always, which means never).
So Buddy's following Lucy all over the pasture, and she's having to walk fast to stay out of the way of his all-set-to-nip lips and teeth. If she breaks into a trot, he'll break into a canter and deliver the bite. He doesn't care if he gets kicked in the head (that's our problem). So she's walking fast. He stays right behind her. This is fun. Lucy is alpha. But beta boy can bug her and feel like the boss for a little while.
Lucy needs the exercise. My daughter, Lily, is watching them with me through the window. "Look Mom," she says. "Lucy has a personal trainer."
It's a Saturday morning. My turn to feed the horses. Only I don't feel like getting up early. So Lily goes down to feed the horses. And they're pretty grumpy about the bad service at this restaurant. Here's the photo she sent me. That's my sweet Lucy with her nose over the fence.
See this tree? It used to have bark. Now it has horse teeth marks. Not content with being horses, Buddy and Lucy want to be beavers. I don't know what kind of tree this is but it's one I like. I need to paint it with Tabasco or something. They're also beginning to work on the pecan trees, which may bring out the horse muzzles. Sweet gums they can have because the gum balls get in their feet. But pecans are another matter.
If you ask around you'll find a lot of reasons given for why horses eat tree bark. Some experts say it's a lack of copper or other nutrients. Other experts say it's to make up for fiber in cold season grasses.
Buddy and Lucy have not one but two mineral supplement blocks. They eat a bale of Coastal Bermuda hay a day. They get a pelleted feed that's supposed to be full of yummy stuff. There is some green in the pasture. I agree with the experts who say it's because they like the taste. But maybe there's a grander scheme.
You didn't think horses were long-term thinkers and planners, did you? Neither did I. But this bark-eating thing has been going on a while, and I'm seeing a plan.
First they ate all the bark they could reach off of our sweet gum trees. Go figure. If the tree is actually sweet that's a no-brainer. So we had a big die-off of the sweet gums in our pasture because the horses cleaned all the bark off of the trees. In other posts on this blog you'll see photos with stumps in the background. Those were the sweet gums. We had to cut them all down before they blew down and hit the barn. We made some of them into jumps.
But we missed one. And in the high winds over the weekend, the top sheared off and broke through the fence. We didn't see it at first because it's in the wooded back of the pasture where we seldom go. But Lily and some friends were out exploring and discovered the gum tree crashed through the fence. It's hard to make out what's what in the following photo. Paul put a board across the top as a temporary fix. You can see the tree squashing down the wire portion of the fence, and the dead horse-eaten trunk standing in the foreground.
Notice also that they have already started eating the upper branches that are now within reach.
Tell me. Is it because the trees are tasty, or because once eaten through, they'll be able to go visit the neighbor's horses and eat their grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side-of-the-fence?
It’s most likely to flare up when you’re just starting your
ride, or giving your horse a rest between exercises. You're working to get your horse
relaxed and moving forward.
Suddenly, he stops. He pulls the reins out of your hands and
desperately rubs his face on his cannon bone. I hate to tell you, but these are the symptoms of SIS, or Sudden Itch Syndrome.
So, knowing how bad an itch can be, you let your horse
scratch. He stops. Now you proceed with what you were trying to do. Your horse
may move forward for a few steps, and then, when you aren’t paying attention
(or even if you are), that itch is back! Your horse suddenly stops and really,
really scratches hard this time.
Is it the leg that itches? The face? The noseband? The lazy
bone?
Most likely, it’s the lazy bone. You can tell because it’s
just so darn itchy, no matter how much it’s scratched. And no sooner does it
receive a good scratching than your horse needs to stop and scratch again.
If your horse has SIS, you’ll have to figure out just how
much scratching is allowed. I give my mare one good lazy-bone scratching at the
beginning of our ride, and one at the end.
You’ll have to make your own decisions about what’s best for you and your horse. But you have to do something, because Sudden Itch Syndrome only gets worse over time.
