Picture Time

I kept my promise, even if I am posting these a bit later than I said I would.

Andie; September 15, 2008

Andie again;
September 15, 2008

Andie again... do you like her tail?
September 15, 2008

BJ's cute face; September 15, 2008

BJ; September 15, 2008

I gave Andie another bath today because her skin was looking really dry and flaky. I want to keep her coat and skin in good as condition as possible before her winter coat starts growing in.

To any knowledgeable readers, I have some questions! Do you bathe your horses in the winter? Is it a bad idea to bathe with cold water from a hose? If a horse is bathed in the winter, should they wear a blanket/cooler afterward? What kind of cooler is the most efficient for a reasonable price?

Another Exhausting Day!

Today was as equally exhausting as yesterday. As I mentioned in my last blog post, it may seem like I'm directing my entire attention to Andie and ignoring Beej. The reason I have been giving Andie significantly more attention lately is because frankly, she needs more attention. BJ is dirty, fat pony. Otherwise, he's in great condition. Andie, on the other hand, needs her fly allergies taken care of, her skin isn't very healthy, her hooves need better farrier treatment (they're too flat and they're starting to get a little long again... we'll need the farrier out soon), she needs some weight, and she needs to get in shape. The last time I rode her, asking for a trot faster than a tortoise was like riding a jack hammer. She needs her propulsion muscles developed so she can push herself forward with her hind end. After she recovers from her injury, I'm planning on starting her off with some ground driving to reestablish ground rules (she tends to be a little pushy sometimes, although she's getting much better just with me hanging out so much these past few days). I'll probably do the same with BJ, since I'm not sure how long it's been since he's been driven (correctly) and I really need to refresh his memory.

BJ, Easter of 2006;
I just thought I'd supplement my
"woolly mammoth theory" with some evidence. ;)

Today I gave BJ a bath. Anyone who has met BJ knows that indefinitely, he loves to be dirty. Whenever he gets wet, he immediately rolls, which is a frustrating habit. Aside from today, I don't think he'd had a real bath this entire year because most of the time it's useless and a waste of time. Since winter will be rolling around the corner soon, I decided it was time to get the layers of dirt and dry skin washed off of the filthy boy before his winter coat started growing in, deeming the task impossible. The winters are generally mild in Washington State, so I rarely blanket the horses, even at night. Usually, if it snows (which happens on occasion) I'll toss a blanket on Andie so she doesn't get quite as wet. As the temperature drops, BJ adopts a coat representing that of a wholly mammoth. Apparently there's still a few around! This means that grooming anything beneath the surface of his coat is impossible. In the dead of winter, he could be soaking wet, but if I pat his rump, dust comes wafting up out of the depths! It's quite hilarious, actually, but even if he IS dirty, at least I know that his skin is staying nice and dry! :)

After his bath, I trimmed his bridal path (the hair from that alone would have been enough to give Andie a complete mane), ears, whiskers, beard, fetlocks, and some really long hairs that never shed out on his neck. He's starting to look really sharp! I also took the hair tie out of Andie's tail (I had to use one of my own out of my hair yesterday because I don't have any rubber bands left that don't break) and French braided BJ's tail since his drags on the ground. I trimmed it a little at the bottom also, so hopefully it won't get as nasty on the bottom as it was before I bathed him.

He made a BIG fuss about standing still today. I had his lead loosely wrapped through the horse fencing and I gave him a little pile of hay to keep him occupied. I walked over to the shed to grab a brush to comb out his mane, and he pulled himself free and went running around the paddock, refusing to be caught until I started calling his name really sweetly and crouched on the ground, acting like I had a treat. Good thing he didn't kick up enough dust to ruin his shiny new coat! He was still really wet. In general, he did well, but the hose makes him nervous. In general, he dislikes being sprayed, even by a spray bottle. I'm not exactly sure why. I don't remember this particular "fear" of his when I first got him. It seems like it's just recently become a problem, although If I'm able to hold him still, he usually is able to handle it well. He especially disliked getting his tail hosed off today, and kept moving away from me. When I'd ask him to move "over" to his original area (where the sun wasn't shining in my eyes so I could see what I was doing), he would refuse to move, lean towards me, and a few times he even pointed his rear in my direction. Either that, or he'd move over a baby step, and then next time I'd give him a litle poke/push/shove/smack (depending on how many times he had ignored/disobeyed without doing what I asked) he'd step back towards me and try to "shove me." He really is the sweetest pony EVER, but when he gets nervous, he is SO emotional! When he gets all upset, he usually gets fiesty as well, which doesn't help the situation AT ALL since I tend to have major issues controlling my own anger and frustration. I took a major step today, though, because even though that little squirt was trying my patience, I was able to keep my cool and ask him to do things nicely, if he obliged, I'd lavish him with praises, but if he disobeyed, I would discipline him in steps that would increase in severity each time he didn't listen. After a while, he figured it out, calmed down, and stood perfectly until I was finished. :) What a good boy!

I kept him tied until he was dry (one of the reasons I trimmed him up so nicely, because normally I wouldn't have paid so close attention to all those tiny details), otherwise he would have rolled and ruin all of my hard work. I had to shampoo him twice and scrub him really good in order to get most of the dirt and loose hair washed away. His mane and tail look gorgeous, and even though I didn't wash his forelock or face, I was able to get them brushed off well enough that he looks really good. After I untied him, I immediately fed them to insure that he wouldn't roll while he was still a tiny bit damp.

After the ponies had settled with their hay, I did some more work in the shed, mainly organizing the random drawers thrown on top of the desk/cabinets, organizing all my stuff that needed to stay in there, moved a cabinet so I could get into another cabinet which my stuff had been stuck in for several months because it was blocked off. Everything is situated now so even though it's cluttered with stuff that shouldn't be there, at least I'm utilizing the drawers and cabinets, at least while they're still in there. There was also some trash that I was able to get picked up (an empty bag of oats, some strings and broken fence insulators, etc.). The black mildewy layer of hay and straw is starting to dry out now, so hopefully I'll be able to get all of that scraped up and swept out. Everything is looking SO much better.

Tomorrow I will take pictures of their current condition, I promise! Thanks for reading. :)

Day One

Andie, July 8, 2008
As you can see, she needs a little weight.

I've accomplished a lot today, and I've definitely taken a very large step towards my goal (getting Andie and BJ in shape). Today I started cleaning out the tack shed, which is located in the paddock above the arena (which is pretty much just a large, flat, rocky pasture that's trying to grow grass). It's divided into two sections, on the left it's a run-in shelter for the horses, and on the right, it's enclosed with 2x4s and a gate. That's where we store the hay (on palettes), grain (in a metal trash can), and other non-leather equipment (halters, lead ropes, etc). My dad, who owns a small production business called North Woods Productions, recently moved out of commercial space back into his original office which is located on our property. The building is much smaller than the space he was formerly in, so a large desk that used to be in the main lobby area is now being stored in the shed, along with a couple cabinets and a hutch that used to go over his desk (it won't fit anymore since the "shop," as we call it, has a slanted ceiling). There are also two pitch forks and an array of shovels, hoes, and axes stored temporarily in the shed along with a busted up pony cart that BJ broke in his one and only driving "episode/accident." He IS trained to drive, which was immediately apparent when I bought a harness and did some ground driving with him last year or so, but the cart, which my parents and I drove a LONG way up to Seabeck to get for him, was home made and made incorrectly. I'm pretty sure it was too small for him also. The tools are in the horse shed because we recently replaced the four-strand electric fence with actual horse fencing because the ponies tend to be mischievious and find ways to escape. It looks very nice. :)

So basically, there's a lot of junk in the shelter that really shouldn't be there, but we don't have another place to put stuff (I have no clue how we managed before it was built). Anyway, I brought a wheelbarrow down and started scooping up all the loose hay and hauling it out into the woods. I gave a little bit to our two LaMancha goats, Goatee and Buttons, but as I started getting to the bottom where I could see the tarp, I realized the hay below the surface was really mildewy/moldy. It's pretty disgusting. The very bottom layer is completely black. I'm mad at myself that I didn't start cleaning it out earlier! At least the weather is still warm and working outside isn't bad at all.

I also gathered up all the baling twine, which had been accumulating for at least a year or two, hanging on nails on the beams in the shelter. I'm not sure why we decided it'd be a good idea to save all that twine. Heh. There were all sorts of bugs crawling in them, which really grossed me out after a minute or two trying to unhook the twine from the nail. I gathered them up and put them in a black garbage bag along with a broken bucket and all the garbage from taking care of Andie's wound (I'll explain that thoroughly later on). I tried my best to get things tidied up, but really, there's not a whole lot I can do without getting my dad or older brother to help me move some of the heavy junk out of there. Since the pony cart is broken, I think I'm going to tell James (aforementioned older brother) that he can cut it up and use it for whatever he wants-- most likely another airsoft bunker, aka pill-box. It's just been sitting in the shelter, with one shaft completely busted off as well as one of it's wheels (the axel actually snapped) since BJ freaked out and broke it. It's just a piece of junk taking up space, although whoever made it did put a lot of care and effort into it, I can tell. They just didn't really know what they were doing.

Anyway, so after I did my best cleaning up what I could in the shelter, I gave Andie a bath! Her skin and coat really aren't in that bad of shape. She just had a good later of dirt and dry skin built up, which wasn't tough to get rid of at all. She would NOT stand still, though! It was definitely worth it, though. She looks much better than she did even just a few days ago. I washed and conditioned her tail THOROUGHLY for the first time in a while, and I have to tell you that a brushed out tail is much, MUCH easier to get completely clean than a tangled one. In the past, I've always tried to get her tail detangled after washing it, and I wasn't nearly as successful as I was today. After her bath, I trimmed her mane so it was even(which was completely rubbed out except for a few chunks that were still a "year long") and cut a bridle path. I have to say, Andie looks pretty dang cute with a mohawk. This is the second summer she's had one, due to her allergies to flies. I might start calling her Sarge now. Haha. I also evened out the stubble on her tail so it doesn't look so dang aweful.

After her tail dried for the most part, I french braided it where it was long enough to braid towards the end of her dock all the way down and trimmed the ends so her tail is straight on the bottom. Since I had the hose in the paddock already, I decided to wash a couple brushes I found buried in some loose hay in the pony cart along with a hot pink lead that Andie got muddy during her bath.

Earlier I mentioned that Andie had a wound, so now I'll explain that. Sometime during July (I forget when exactly), Andie and BJ escaped and went on an adventure down the road one evening while my parents and I were out for dinner. We got a call shortly after we got home from one of our neighbors, saying our horses were out. Dad and I jumped in the car and drove down the road and found Andie and Beej being held by an older couple. After thanking them and chatting a little about the situation, my dad took both horses and had me drive the car behind with the flashers on so they could see where they were walking, and so anyone driving could also see them. It was then that I noticed Andie had a horrible gash on her left hind leg and a few other minor scrapes on two of her other legs. Luckily I had bought a few rolls of vet wrap because Andie had been limping and I suspected she might have had an abcess (we had the vet out and it turned out that her feet were just a little too flat and she was uncomfortable because of it) and figured it might be good to have some vet wrap just in case I needed to wrap her foot. So I treated it as best I could in the dark and put some polo wraps on over the vet wrap to make sure it stayed secure and she didn't bump her injuries around too much.

Andie's wound, July 8, 2008

I called the vet the next day, and he wasn't available for at least a week. We could have spent a few hundred dollars for an emergency farm call (which wouldn't include any kind of treatment), but I decided that I'd take my changes and see if we could get her healed up on our own. I'm glad we didn't have the vet out, because several experienced horse people have told me that due to the location of the wound, it probably wouldn't have been able to be sutured, or the stitches would/could have been ripped out. It developed some proud flesh, but we were able to get it completely removed with some special wound spray. Every day I clean the wound and spray it with cleaner and healer spray, place a non-stick gauze pad over the wound (also known as "Telfa"), and wrap it securely with vet wrap (I like the cool colors :D). So the garbage from changing the dressing (I use gloves also because it tends to get messy and I don't really appreciate fragrant bluuud and guts on my fingers) had been accumulating also, which I was keeping in a bucket. I finally got around to emptying it today.

So that concludes my novel blog post for today! You may be wondering why I haven't been talking about Beej much or caring for him as much as Andie. I'll address that topic in my next blog post, which will hopefully be tomorrow. I'll try to get some recent pictures posted so you can see how much today's hard work really has paid off.

Starting Fresh: the Introduction

"There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered."

-Nelson Mandela, 'A Long Walk to Freedom'

My name is Emma Finney. Today I'm starting a blog all about how I've decided to change. I've decided that over the past year, at least, I have ignored my responsibilites as a horse owner, and that my horses deserve better. I'm ashamed at how little attention I've given them lately, and I've decided that enough is enough. I've owned Andie for a little over three years now, and BJ a little over two. They've been located at my home in Washington for two years. I bought Andie as a five year old mare with plenty of spunk. I was a complete beginner rider at the time. She was challenging for me, fun, exciting, and I learned A LOT more than I normally would have on a calmer horse. I loved Andie, and still do. But back then, she was my whole world.

Disclaimer: I have loved horses since birth. I've wanted horses my entire life, and I still do. It was just tonight, however, while I was brushing the knots out of Andie's tail, that I realized that I had been neglecting my horses. They are safe, they aren't in danger, they are fed and watered, and they are nowhere near death, but they certainly aren't in any condition that I'm proud of. I'm humiliated how someone like me, who lives and breathes horses, could possibly lack the interest to spend time with their horses.

My interest in Andie started declining when the luster of being a new horse owner started wearing off, as well as when my parents' wallets started wearing thin. When my trainer moved and my parents decided we couldn't afford another riding instructor, things started to get especially dull. Even though it's been three years since I first started riding, I still consider myself a beginner rider. I simply lack the knowledge and experience to be advancing and improving during my rides alone with Andie. I got bored, Andie got bored, and I got frustrated that I couldn't fix what was wrong with both of us-- me as a rider, and Andie as a mount. So I gave up. Andie developed an allergy to flies, which causes her to become very itchy, which results in her itching out her mane and tail every summer. This certainly wasn't the part of horse ownership that every young girl dreams of.

Tonight I've realized that ever since I decided I wanted to become a horse owner, I have had larger than life dreams. I have wanted SO much. My parents, belss their hearts, tried SO hard to make those big dreams come true, but the "real world" has many more limits than I could begin to conceive as a thirteen-year-old-horse-crazed-girl. I wanted my outdoor arena to have sand in it. I wanted a barn with five stalls and a smaller indoor arena. I wanted more than one riding horse. I wanted beautiful jump standards. I wanted, I wanted, and I wanted more. When I subconsciously realized that this was never going to happen, I sort of just kicked the bucket and went home. Even though Andie isn't my dream horse, and I don't have my dream barn, or my dream arena, or my dream trails, I've finally figured out that I'm extremely lucky to have Andie and BJ, despite all the problems we have encountered together. And tonight, I've decided to make the most of it.

This blog will be entirely about my journey to improve Andie and BJ's conditions. This will include their grooming, weight, muscle mass, overall physical condition, and their training. I intend to go back to square one with both horses and give them "refresher" training courses, so I can learn more about the basic principles of riding, training, and making improvements on both. I'm not going to be able to do this on my own, though. The very reason I have made this blog public is so that I can receive the help and encouragement I so desperately need. I need people to keep me acountable, to correct me when I'm wrong, and to help me when I'm clueless.

"It's not that some people have willpower and some don't. It's that some people are ready to change and others are not."

-James Gordon, M.D.