Just To Update

Taunie's reaction to seeing a beagle baby:

Morgan's first trip to the barn:

I really have nothing new to say (ooh, exciting) so I'm just blogging to blog now.

The bf (Trent) and I might be moving soon. Far, far away from his mother's house. And while I'm very much in favor of this, my pony is living at her house. I won't be able to see her as often as I do now and thats a bummer. I'll actually have to board her somewhere and pay someone for it! Oh the agony!

On the brightside of paying someone $300 a month to feed my horse, I'll actually have a place to work and train her. I'm actually looking forward to that. I mean, I know I can't do much right now. But just getting her out, putting down a firm foundation for heeding and getting her used to the saddle would be an excellent step forward.

I'll explain the process of "heeding" some other time. You know. When I actually feel like explaining myself. I'm a crappy trainer in the aspect that I don't like to explain what I'm doing. Just trust me and in 3-4 sessions, you'll get the idea when you see the progress. But in my defence, there -is- always progress. I just hate explaining how I get there.

So we'll save that for another time. I'll probably just end up copying and pasting the theory from someone else who knows the procedure because I'm just that damn lazy. I'm totally ok with that.

I took Trent's beagle puppy, Morgan, out to the barn yesterday. She was on my heels the whole time, complaining to be picked up. That poor dog. Trent got her to use for hunting rabbits, but she's barely touched the ground since we've had her. Some hunting dog this lap pup will be!

Anyways, so I decided to crush her reality and take her to the barn. You know. Make her walk through snow and whatnot. Taunie is actually rather good with dogs even though I doubt she's had any experience with them. The other week I had out lost and found puppy, Holly, out at the barn with me while I was doing some drills with Taunie. Taunie was fairly interested in her. Craned neck, blowing through her nostrals, ears up. But she didn't spook. The puppy came running over to dodge inbetween my feet and Taunie's feet while we were working, and Taunie, although a little confused, just tried to step over her best she could.

So now Taunie sees Morgan. A much smaller, less fuzzier version of Holly. She cranes her neck over the side of the fence and raises her ears to her. Interest. Not fear. I think thats what I love about my little mare. She's very interested in things. So much that she learns how to deal with new experiences on her own purely out of curiosity for it. She hasn't spooked once. Of course I haven't done a lot with her. But from what I've thrown at her, she's shown that she's more curious than she is afraid of the world. I love that.

So uh...yeah. Thats that. I'm done typing. I'm gonna try to put up some photos, but I can't promise you of where they'll end up. So just deal with where they're put.

Shack Of Shame

Fucking hell. This new computer won't let me place pictures where I want them. So you'll have to deal with them bunched together for now. I finally got a picture of that small shack/barn thing that I keep talking about...oh! And my beautiful water trough!

Still no water heater, though I'm continuously promised that there will be one. I really don't care. Its not my water I'm wasting.

The pasture is actually larger than that, but I decided not to center on the other side of it since theres really nothing there. I'm so gosh darn proud of myself for helping to build that little wall on the run-in. The boys did all the work, really. But my opinion actually mattered in it's raising, so I'm happy. I'm kind of torn over the structure though. I'm not sure whether I truly like it or not. Its big enough for two horses to squeeze by eachother, but if one of them has a fit (and I've held my breath once or twice) they're either knocking into the support beam inside or bouncing off the wall. They don't have the entire width of the inside of that thing to move around in. Its split in two for feed storage.

It keeps out water for the most part, unless it lets it in. And when water gets in there, watch out. It doesn't drain. It's like muddy soup up to their knees after that. Really kind of gross. Luckily the only one who really has to stand in it is Dusty, who really doesn't give a damn. Thats where his feed bucket is, and he'll stand in fire as long as theres grain being shoveled into his mouth.

Taunie hates mud. I realized this a few weeks ago when everything was gooshy and gross. She'd leap over the indent in the pasture where the water drains through. Big old leap. And then she'll try and leap over the entrance mud to get into the shed. Again, I hold my breath and pray "Watch your head!" but she hasn't smashed anything yet. I can't help but think "Damn, she's gonna be a bitch on the trail" but watching her leap over those large patches of yucky mud, I also ponder what sort of jumper she'll make me one day. Liverpools here we come!

Unfortunately I haven't been in there much since my black eye. Call it caution. I dunno. I see the the mud they sink 3 inches into, or the frozen mud they scramble over, and I just can't help but pass off my next inside visit for a much better day where the ground isn't so challenging. My niece came over the other day and I led her into the shed during feeding time to pet Taunie while she ate. We have a good picture of that. I'll probably never get it because my older sister is lame. But if I do end up snatching it, I'll post it up. Taunie was an angel. She reached out of her grain bucket and craned her neck down at my niece in curiosity. My niece loves the horses. I can't wait to teach her some things.

Speaking of grain buckets...Taunie has become lead mare over night. One day she was waiting last to be fed, and the next day she downright mowed Shiloh over to be fed second. Nasty expressions were exhchanged but Shiloh backed down. Taunie has taken Shiloh's grain bucket, and Shiloh now needs to be fed from a pan on the ground. Haha. Taunie grew a pair.

Graffiti to Tonic

Oh, what good news!

I've been flushing Graffiti's eye out for a few days now. Sunday I spent at least 5 minutes staring at that eye. Just staring at it. I couldn't figure out whether it was getting better or if it was just my imagination.

Monday? It was clear as day. Bright eyed, open to the world. No more irritations. No more squinting.

Score! I was going to call the vet on Monday to see about getting some eye cream, but it looks like whatever was in there had flushed itself out and she's fine and dandy now. I'm awesome like that.

We got our water trough in. I'm delighted about that. For years Trents mom had used an old bathtub for a trough. I didn't really care when it was just the two other horses in there. But once I brought my filly in, I couldn't help but eye it with hatred. I didn't like that old bathtub. It was gross. Dirty. Sharp edges. Dangerous. I hated it. But Sunday was the day we got a real watering trough. One of those big black plastic ones. Its so shiney and beautiful!

Ontop of that she's looking into buying a water heater! A water heater! The same thing she denied me when I asked a few weeks ago. I'm so excited. I know she's not doing it for me. She'd doing it to upgrade her own little farm-thing. But it still feels like Christmas anyways. A real water trough and a heater! Woot! My dreams are coming true.

Lets skip to something different. Trent doesn't like what I named my filly. Even though I named her Graffiti, he just can't bring himself to call her anything but "Emmy", the name she came with. I hate this name. I had trouble with a big gray mare named Emmy. The horse was wonderful, but there was some controversy between me and another rider regarding that horse and it just left a sour taste in my mouth. So I can't call her Emmy. I just can't. However, Trent can't get into the habit of calling that horse Graffiti either. So after some long, hard thought, I decided to rename her. It took me SUCH a long time to come up with that Graffiti name. I think I'll still keep it as a show name. Maybe add onto it. But for now? I had to rename her. So my little black filly goes by "Taunie" now, which is short for Tonic. Trent likes this name. It's simple to remember. Easy to say. And he's been using it.

Showing isn't but a ways off right now so I have plenty of time to fit the words "tinoc" and "graffiti" in the same phrase for a show title. I'm not in any hurry.

I know I promised pictures, but I can't deliver. My camera has no batteries left and I haven't been able to get any.

In the meantime, you can stare at my new puppy for a while

Far From Frightful

The weather outside is amazing. Warm, sunny, no clouds. Hardly any wind. I hope it stays like this forever. The temperature is simple amazing.

And the mud has dried up. Way to set off the New Year!

In my last blog I mentioned that Graffiti's eye didn't want to open during feed. I didn't notice any heat, swelling or draining that day so I let it be after investigating it a little further. For the most part she'd have that eye open and was looking around. But she'd also keep it closed which was a bit of an alarm for me. I'm getting into the habit of panicking at the small stuff, especially things that involve my horse. So when this turned up, I kept it on my mind to keep watch over it, but I wouldn't let myself get worked up either.

Last night I went to feed and I noticed some yellow goop gathering near her tear ducts and there was a trail running from her eye. So she had started draining. Perfect. I grabbed her and brushed away the goopy eye buggers and pried her eye open. There was nothing inside of it. Again, she was using it fine. It was slightly more squinted than the other eye, but she wasn't in so much discomfort that she wasn't using it at all. When I got home I asked Trent about it and he said that he had noticed it earlier but she wouldn't let him catch her for him to check it out. He thinks she poked it on a stick in the pasture, and although I think that has some good reasoning behind it, I also have to add that I think something blew into it from the harsh windstorm we had just the other night.

He tells me not to panic, of course. And I go into planning what I'm going to do about this. Trent is so relaxed about this kind of stuff that it helps me relax about the things I really shouldn't fret over but do anyways due to my annoying pregnancy hormones. I swear. They cause more anxiety than a cat thrown into a dog fighting pit. He tells me to just let it be, it'll heal itself. Of course I just can't let it be. I have to fuss.

So this morning I drive down to the drugstore and grab an eyedropper after feed. Feed went well. Nothing out of the ordinary is ever happening there anymore. Everyone has settled down into their ow routine. So after I come back I grab a bucket of hot water, a wash rag and the eyedropper and catch Graffiti. She doesn't want to come out of the shed. I do the backyard horseman thing and trudge over the dirt thats still a bit wet and sinkable and turn around before pulling on the lead. Finally, after a 5 minute tug-of-war, she leaps over the dirt and comes to me. I hold a hot compress to her eye for a bit and then flush it out with that warm water using the eyedropper. She doesn't seem to appriciate this, but she doesn't do any heavy protesting anyways. Afterwards she looked a little worse off, but thats because her eye was all wet and sorry looking. She still uses it regularly. Still watches things. Still keeps her eye open for the majority of the time. Its not hot or swollen. Just draining and looks a bit irritated. I think she'll be ok. I just want to make sure.

I also did some heeding exercises with her. By about 10 minutes she was stopping right when I stopped without me having to touch her. There was no pressure on the the leadrope. She just stopped off of my body language. I also just had to lean forward and reinforce every once in a while with my stick to get her walking again. We were making such great progress that I felt like trying to trot her, but by that point the puppy we found at Christmas was being chased out of the pasture by Shiloh and Shiloh was causing all sorts of havok. So I thought that was the end of our training session for the day.I didn't do any "space" exercises...and by all means, I thought I'd have to. She's a space invader (hahaha) but she doesn't know she's doing it. By the time our little heeding session was done, she was respecting my space a lot better and didn't bother to come into it.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for her eye and I'm hoping tomorrow's weather is the same as today so we could do some more stuff. She seemed to really enjoy the attention. And who wouldn't? I'm awesome!

I'll also try to get some more pictures by tomorrow. My camera's batteries ran dry and I just have to find replacements before I snap anymore shots.