Standards Equine
Tuesday, February 6, 2024
Winter Wonderland
Friday, October 6, 2023
Whaddya Mean New Pony??!
Wednesday, September 20, 2023
In CDE the "D" is for Donkey!
Tuesday, August 1, 2023
Driving. That is ALL
Monday, July 24, 2023
Back in the Show Ring
Hey, it's been a minute. How are you?
Why so long? I'm not an absent friend on purpose. I've actually been dealing with some health problems since February. Anemia's a pain. I actually haven't been able to safely ride while dealing with this. But now it seems things are stabilizing and I'm back in the tack.
Fortunately, while I had to take a hiatus from riding, I still had a young horse to play with and two little turkeys to continue training in harness.
Let's start with the yearlings! You remember our two fantastic half Arab x warmblood colts from last year? So proud of them. Misha (Baryshnikov SE) was sold to a good friend of mine, and now adoringly dubbed "Tater". He's got a wonderful lifetime home and I get to watch him grow up!
Uri (Nureyev SE) has stayed with us and has started his show career. He hauled out a few times for exposure and then made his debut at the Western Canadian Arabian Horse Breeders Championships in Red Deer. He showed Yearling Colts Half Arabian Sport Horse In Hand Open Dressage and Hunter Types. It was a BIG learning experience for any young horse but he made me proud. The first triangle was for dressage type. Uri was insecure, and didn't show as well as I would have really liked, but he also didn't kick, rear or leave the arena. So that's a win! He took reserve champion by 1.5% with a really cute little anglo colt taking the class.
The following day was the Hunter type and he went through the triangle like a pro! He showed really well, made me proud and took the championship by 5%!
You could absolutely call me a proud mama!
But even more than that, he learned how to be a show horse. He learned about a stall, wash racks, hand walking and lunging in an arena, he learned what the triangle training was for. And he got better and better!
After a few weeks, we headed to an open all-breed show for more exposure. I wanted him to go into a new arena with new horses in a different format and just experience it. I took him in showmanship, halter for yearlings, and halter for arabs, morgans or crosses. The showmanship class was quite large so I used it for a schooling opportunity, modifying the pattern so I could better use it for my training. He stood perfectly for the judge to walk all around him so I could do my squares - my goal for the day!
He showed confidently in yearling halter (big class of 1!) and then again in the Arab/Morgan halter class. We qualified for championship class so got to get back into the arena one more time! We came home from that show with 2 first-place ribbons and a good baby who laid down in his stall and snoozed while Ali rode her under saddle classes. I was so proud of him.
Working forward, we have started to introduce long lining to his lunging in a surcingle and boots, and he's had a bit in his mouth for the first time recently as well. We will take him to some obstacle workshops in the fall when they come available and plan to continue to show him in hand locally next year.
So that's the baby horse update! Up next: Driving littles. I'm obsessed and my head is broken.
Happy Horseing!
Tuesday, January 17, 2023
Old Friend Said Goodbye
Oh Mud Puddle...
In the summer of 2006, I spent a lot of time working young horses for a breeder of pintabians and Arabs. That year, I took a couple youngsters for training as halter babies. My mom had decided she wanted her own young horse again. But it needed to be something that was HERS, that I wasn't going to take over training and want to show. I knew if there was a part-bred Arab filly that was solid coloured, I'd want nothing to do with it.
There was just one that year. Her name was Mud.
Ok, she was registered as BG Coal-B, but she was a little stinker from the beginning. Her name was Mud Puddle and that was that. She was exactly what Mom wanted. I had very little to do with her over the years - except to tend to injuries (she is a big reason I became an equine first-aid instructor) and other unpleasantries (vaccines, deworming, etc.) I commonly referred to her as the bane of my existence, although I loved her because she was so loved by my mom. She was part of the family.
Mom aboard Mud with me leading. |
Recently a young friend of ours who recently found herself horseless had taken on Mud, riding, adventuring, loving on her, everything a horse should enjoy and it seemed Mud did just that.
Monday last week, Mud got herself stuck upside down in the shelter in her pen. Not sure why, or for how long, but it seemed pretty evident that it was a fair amount of time. I was at work; Mom got her out on her own. Right away, Mud was showing discomfort, disorientation and was not quick about recovering. She was laying down a lot, not eating or drinking.
I came out right after work, with a 5 litre bag of ringers in hand. We didn't have the equipment to start an IV, but I felt comfortable doing subcutaneous boluses, so that's what I did. Her body wasn't really showing dehydration and she was passing some small amounts of loose manure. It didn't look right though, not well digested and the colour was wrong. We put in a litre of fluid into her neck over an hour or more, then got her up to start walking. We had given her Flunixin earlier and started alternating walking with resting breaks where I piled syringes of warm water with electrolytes and mineral oil into her mouth. She seemed tired but stabilized.
As we got ourselves ready for bed, we talked about doing night checks and who would get up when. Mom decided that Mud needed to make a decision if she was going to try to improve or if she was going to quit. It was up to Mud.
She spent 2 hours with her that night, out of the pen. Mud didn't have much fight to stand, drink, take the syringes of water, just laid down and was obviously uncomfortable.
I got up a couple hours after to go check on her. We'd left her out of the pen - just in case she decided to expire, it's sadly more practical to not have to try to move a body out of a pen if it can be helped... I found her in the snow, still alive but having no interest in getting up. She was becoming more dehydrated and possibly hypothermic. But I honored my mom's direction. Mud had her own choice to make.
A little comfort for a very uncomfortable mare |
A few hours later, in the morning, I found her in a different spot. This time she was very dehydrated and hypothermic. Unfortunately it was also very foggy and it was not possible for a vet to safely get to the farm to help for several hours. Mud did get up and walked with me up to the driveway. I asked for warm water with electrolytes and tried to get her some syringes. There was no fight in her, she just let the water fall out of her mouth. It seemed that Mud developed a displaced colon colic. She strained to poop, laid down and held herself upside down with legs in the air, thrashed around and caused herself to become exhausted. It was the most painful thing to watch. We all felt helpless. We pulled blankets off ready for what was coming. Eventually she laid down and rolled over one last time. I put a blanket just over her body, she was sweating hot. She was obviously seizuring then. After a few minutes, her eyes were not reactive to touch at all and we knew she was gone, it was just a matter of her body getting that message and shutting down.
Our poor friend of 16 years left us. So many questions. Was she colicing before laying down and rolling in the shelter where she got stuck, or was she being silly and rolled and got caught for several hours which caused the colic? Unfortunately we will never know. We have learned a lot from this experience though, new things we will put into action on the farm.
Once again, my sincere gratitude to Chuck McKinney from Just Passing Horse Bereavement Services for his kind, understanding and quick services to pick Mud up and give her a dignified burial.
Well miss Mud Puddle, I hope that all the gates where you have gone are not latched so you can easily push them open as you so often loved to demonstrate. I hope there's all the treats and grass you could want. Thank you for sharing yourself with us. Even though you were a turd, I love you.
Thursday, October 6, 2022
A Very Eventful Summer
I'm not sad it's fall.
I'm not sad summer is over this year.
Summer was a lot. Not all of it good, but not all of it bad. It was just a lot.
I was blessed with the arrival of two really exciting colts. Misha had a rough start. His mom didn't produce much milk for him and we needed to help him out quite a lot. Since we've got what he needs figured, he's thriving and I'm really excited for the young horse he's becoming. Uri grew and has been healthy all along. He's gigantic and was a little too much personality for himself. At 10 days past 3 months, I had him gelded. He's since been weaned and is far more humble. I quite like him now!
I had the opportunity to volunteer at Canada's National Arabian Horse Show in Red Deer a couple weeks ago. What a fantastic experience it was! Scribing for dressage and the sport horse in hand classes was such a fantastic learning experience, once again. The show committee did a bang-up job, especially for pulling the whole show together in less than two months! They took extremely good care of the officials and volunteers. The horses were beautiful, and competitors were all vary gracious. It had a fantastic family/community vibe and I'm so excited to get back into it next year with the colts!
Recently the Canadian Warmblood Horse Breeders Association held their Fall Classic sale. This year, the auction was completely online. For the first time, a Ritchie foal participated in the sale. Last year, we had a gigantic sweetheart of a maiden mare, Voila, by Volte, come for breeding. She produced a lovely colt! He definitely took the best of both parents; lovely conformation, tall, great movement. I'm excited that he will be staying in Canada (so far anyways.) We wish Dynamo's new family the very best in his future!
Dynamo and Voila |
The farm has been super busy with boarders this year. I can't remember ever having so many people out but it's been wonderful! We've got regular lessons happening with Cathrine McLeod (Excalibur Sport Horses) and riders are progressing really well!
We had two senior horses leave us recently as well. Hunter came to us 4 years ago to be Ali's step-up horse after Bucky. He was wonderful. He was loved by so many people and was such a fixture on the farm. Unfortunately his breathing became a struggle for him and I was concerned he was starting to suffer. His prior family came to see him, have his final ride, and spend some serious time loving on him - as he deserved. Everyone got to have their goodbyes. I also can't say enough wonderful things about Just Passing Horse Bereavement Services. Incredibly kind, respectful and compassionate group of people. They made the situation much more bearable. Also, I personally don't think I'll ever have a horse put down chemically by a vet ever again if I can help it. The method utilized by Just Passing I observed to be far more humane, immediate, painless and kind.
The service returned a couple of months later to help a boarded mare, in a very similar situation to Hunter, pass.
Every horse deserves to be loved by a little girl. The very best are loved by several <3 |
Jasmine has been out several times for visits with residents in care between Westlock and Barrhead. It's always so special to be able to bring some joy to people who sometimes society forgets.
Crowded rooms, walkers, wheel chairs, nothing phases Jasmine! |
Ali and Jesse's collection! |
Always so much fun when I get to take Phillippe out! |
It seems I'm not allowed to upload pictures right now. I'll try to come back at a later date and update this post to include them. Oh well, technology.
Now bring on fall!
Happy Horseing!