In CDE the "D" is for Donkey!

We did it! We made it successfully through out first CDE! What a fantastic adventure with the most wonderful, inviting and encouraging people. The Harvest Moon Combined Driving (Donkey) Event was hosted by the Klondike Driving Club at the beautiful facility owned by the Brown family outside of Vimy. There was, what I understand to be, a moderate turnout of drivers. Most were single-horse entries, several minis and one pair of lovely palomino welsh mares affectionately referred to as the Golden Girls. On Friday evening, we took up our vehicles for measurements and checked in. We had a course tour of the marathon and a look at the obstacles. There was a competitors' meeting that evening and I got all my questions answered.

Saturday morning, as bright and early as my migrane allowed, we arrived on the grounds and got set up for dressage and cones. It was such a delight seeing everyone dressed in turnout for dressage. I was hoping to wear my tophat, but the facility waiver states certified helmet, so I obliged. There will be another day for more fancy headgear. I drove the first dressage test with Phillippe, Ali was just a couple of tests after me. Now, I realized very well that my donkey was not going to have any movement to write home about, but after riding and judging dressage for over a decade, I knew I'd be able to drive a very accurate test. Indeed, the comments agreed. I learned about eventing dressage, how it's scored in penalty points, not in percentage like regular dressage. I'm proud to tell you that we were not the bottom of the barrel! The judge was kind and generous and very encouraging for my little long ears. My score equalled out ot over 65%. Phillippe was not as relaxed and confident as I would have liked, but that didn't matter. It was his first time in the ring. He'll be more confident next time he sees one. From dressage, we went straight to cones. Despite a moment where I got lost (who put 13 waaaay over on the other side of the field??!!) we were clean through the cones, with only 4 minutes over ideal time! In training level - the beginner level we're competing in, we're only permitted to walk and trot. Donkeys just don't trot as fast as ponies or horses. So we trotted the whole thing and had an accurate tour, there's really no way to get him to make time. All we can aim for in the future is to get closer to ideal. So many of the competitors were cheering for us and stopped to watch his cones course. He seems to be quite the novelty. Sunday was a much earlier start. Phillippe and I were asked to be second out on the marathon course, 1 minute after the first driver. This was done because we were not going to be competative on speed and we wanted to be out of the way for the next driver after us. It was a 6 km tour through the property with 5 sets of gates. Training level only requires the first 3 gates to be negotiated. I'd studied the courses the night before so I had my plan in place. Again, I'm very glad to say we were clear through all the obstacles! Phillippe trotted the entire way around and did not feel like he was spent at the finish line. We even went through the water and over the bridge. He felt so brave and interested in what we were doing. Again, everyone who was out volunteering or watching cheered us on! When we crossed the finish line, we were a mere 14 minutes over ideal time!!! Despite that, we finished the competition on a number, not eliminated! In the end, we placed 7/9 in trainnig level.

Ali and Jasmine had a great time too. They had a clean first dressage test - the first dressage test Ali's ever negotiated and she had to do it by memory. Definitely room for improvement but she scored 64% (yes I beat her!!! But that's the only place I beat her!) She had 1 ball down in the cones course and was only seconds over time allowed! That pony just loves to motor!

In marathon, they went backwards through one set of gates which cost them, but overall were only 2 minutes over ideal time. That's pretty impressive for a little $50 kijij pony trained by a teen! I was very proud of them. They did win a junior high-point prize as well. A lovely dash storage bag for her vehicle. I'm very excited to try CDE again next year. I have ideas on what I can do to be even more prepared and perhaps slightly more "competative" - that just means with our basline times and scores, not with anyone else, YET! Besides, I've now acquired another pony who I expect will be very competative!! More on that next time! In the meantime, happy horseing!

Driving. That is ALL

Did we talk about this? It's been a work in progress for sure. But we seem to have some things figured out! Matter of fact, both Jasmine and Phillippe have even shown in driving classes this year with their first CDEs yet to come! I started the year with a pretty peppy and cooperative pony. Jasmine had a good idea of driving and was pretty confident, just not refined. The donkey, however, was a little different... He was pretty convinced that he really didn't need to cooperate with me or respond to my polite requests. I was disheartened because driving him was something I wanted to do so badly!!! But he was a brute! Thank goodness I have friends, amazing, wonderful friends, who have experience both in driving and with long ears. Sawatzky Equine team had hosted a clinic in early spring - late winter, it was months ago now, for ponies and littles beginning driving. We put the crew in the trailer and headed up! I was gifted with some wonderful tools that included both equipment and a mindset shift. I'll tell you, by the end of the day, I had a LOVELY donkey who was cooperative and relaxed. From there, we've been sailing with consistent and steady progress, so much so that we've participated in a second green driving animal clinic, driving classes (and won 2/3) in this spring's Alberta Donkey and Mule Club show, have driven at a local eventing facility including successfully navigating through their water hazard, participated in a "fun day" hosted by my local driving club chapter, again getting through water, and also cones, gates and a dressage arena! We now regularly do 5 km conditioning drives down the road, much to the delight of the neighbours.

Jasmine has become quite consistent, so much so that I can hand her lines over to green drivers and feel confident that they will have a positive driving experience on their own. Ali's done a great job with her. Although that pony is FORWARD, she's got places to get to, she's super confident, but she's not intimidating. Every once in a while I still get to take the lines on her as well.

Plans from here, as I mentioned, to experience our first CDE. I'm not sure that a donkey can be competative, but the fact that he's game to try is everything! It makes me delighted that we can just go out. I'd had some health complications at the beginning of the year that made riding not the safest idea for me, for 6 months... But!! I had the littles to drive. That saved my sanity, I think. I had figured that driving would be a fun retirement hobby when my body is not up to climbing into the tack anymore. I just didn't realize I'd be additing it to my life this early! Driving is a blast. The littles are so fun and I can't imagine ever not having this in my life. Happy Horseing!

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! 

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. 

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!  

Baryshnikov SE (Misha)

Nureyev SE (Uri)

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!

And we got to go to one last horse show! Ali took Jesse and I took Phillippe and away we went to Sunwest for a fun schooling show.  I anticipate next year will be a little more serious in the show ring, but it was fantastic to be able to finish the year on a really good note.  

 

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! 

Hospital Visit

 With a heading like that, you'd probably think there was some sort of emergency or urgent health issue that we needed to go to the hospital.  Fortunately we are all healthy and well.  The hospital visit was by request of a palliative patient's family.  

Last weekend I had the pleasure of meeting a lovely lady who has a life-long passion for horses.  Unfortunately her presence in this world will soon come to an end, but it was an absolute pleasure to be able to take Jasmine to the hospital to meet her and spend some time visiting.  It was very thoughtful of her family to tell hospital management about her interests so they could connect with me and we could make the visit happen.  

Balloons didn't bother her at all, it's just me who doesn't like them!

After our priority visit, we did go through the rest of the hospital, to probably 3/4 of the patient rooms, Emergency Department and visited with almost all of the staff.  Pictures galore.  I could definitely feel a difference in morale in the facility after our rounds.  I'm so glad that I can share this special experience. 

Now, I'm looking towards setting up site visits at other sites.  We're booked into Barrhead long-term care at the end of September.  Ideally, I'd like to visit a site a month, be able to do a bit of a costume, and take some appropriate treats for staff and patients/residents.  It's a lot of work (lord is it ever..) but it's the most rewarding thing at the same time!  

To bring Jasmine to Westlock, it takes roughly 3 hours of driving, altogether, an hour getting her cleaned up and ready, and 2 - 2.5 hours for visiting. With the prohibitive cost of gas, I'm afraid that I won't be able to fulfill all the visitation requests.  I've started a gofundme campaign and have received some early support from kind friends.  With some assistance, I'm pursuing funding requests from various societies and unions.  Hopefully the support will allow us to continue to spread joy and bring up morale.  It's been so much working in healthcare the last few years... The novelty of a pony in the site seems to make a huge difference for staff and those in care.  

And yes, that's her own ID badge on her harness.

Happy Horseing! 

Mr. Fabulous

 Over the last month, I've been working regularly with Ritchie to bring him back into shape, fitness and addressing body soreness, balance and stretching.  He's coming along really well.  One of the biggest bonuses of boarding with Sawatzkys is the constant variety of obstacles in the arena, and access to a giant obstacle playground outside.  Having Ritchie climb things has really done wonders for his strength in his hind quarters and the reach in his front end. 

While life has been more than a little crazy over the last month, Sunday gave Ritchie and I the opportunity of a perfectly quiet arena and loads of space.  Rather than tacking him up, I decided why not let him run around outside and stretch his legs without my interference??!  So out he went.  As soon as I unclipped his lead rope in the outdoor arena, I started taking pictures.  Happy would be a gross understatement, I believe.  

Once he'd had his fill of running around, we went out to the playground and worked over some obstacles.  There's a bunch of telephone poles on the ground of various heights as well as tables and moguls.  This time, he was far more confident negotiating them all. 

We finished with some grazing and a good grooming.  Such a happy boy.  

Graceful... 

Happy Horseing!