BABIES HERE!!!

My horse's buddy Addison had her baby a few days ago! It's the spittin image of her mama. The cuttest little thing I've ever seen! And she already walks with a halter and lead around her rump. Sweetest thing ever! The owner Tanya named her Ivy Rose. I forgot what her show name is going to be. The only sad thing is that my horse Beauty and Addison had to be seperated until baby is weaned because my mare is a little to pushy to be around a newborn. Oh well. Beauty is still very protective of Addison. Every time someone goes into Addison's stall she has a fit and starts calling for her. And anytime Addison and the baby leave the barn to go outside she has a fit too. Very protective mare, let me tell ya. Well gotta get back to work :(..its 80 degrrees outside and I'm stuck at work. boo.

Horse for Half-Lease In Valparaiso, IN

18 year old black Tennessee Walker mare for half-lease in Valparaiso, IN. $250/month- guarantees 3 days a week to ride. Over 300 acres to trail ride where she is stabled. A 2-3 on the temperment scale. Rides both english and western. Very responsive to aids, incredible smooth gaits and rocking-horse canter. Very personable and easy to ride. Not available for jumping or barrels. Available for shows with owner approval. Owner prefers intermediate rider. Great horse if you like to trail ride for hours or just a ride in the indoor/outdoor arenas. All tack will be provided for use. No extra cost unless horse is injured under your care. Contact me at nicolering23@yahoo.com for more information!

Still Weak In the Hocks...

Went out and visited my horse today. Crappy day I must say. Started raining really hard about 10 minutes after I got to the barn! So tired of this weather, Bring on the sunshine! Well decided to work on ground work today instead of ride. She's really getting better at trotting instead of pacing when I ask her too. However, I had her trotting and can tell her right hock is still weak. Just have to keep working at it. She'll get right into it (most of the time, she still tries to sneak in a pace) and be fine for a circle or two, then she'll start exaggerating the trot and I can tell by her head placement and expressions that it's uncomfortable. So I bring her down to a walk and let her relax for awhile and start it up again. The vet told me her hocks are going to be weak because of her being on rest basically the entire winter from getting kicked and then finding out her arthritis problem in the same leg! It's her ankle that has the arthritis. Xrays showed her to have very thin cartilage in her right ankle. They injected her with HA (hyalauronic acid) which helped a bunch. I also put her on liquid joint supplement that has HA in it (cortiflex HA).

I also did some other ground work. Have been implementing the parelli lessons I see on RFD TV. They really help with communication. I really wish I would have gotten into it 8 years ago when I bought her! I can't count how many times I just couldn't communicate with her what I wanted her to do and it was so frustrating! Now I have been using the parelli stuff and it just seems so easy. I can get her to do some things withing a few days. We're working on the side passing lessons, yo-yo game, circling game, friendly game, and started to teach her how to bow. Think that's going to need a few more bags of carrots though! I think throughout the years of owning my first horse I've learned to be more patient and know that it's never the horses fault. I've always heard that and known it, but never really understood it. I'm really realizing that it's all in the way I communicate with her. She's very personal with people and has no problem doing what you ask as long as she understands whats being asked. Always something to learn when it comes to horses!

Testy Mare!

I've had my horse for 8 years now and that little snot still tries to test me! She is the dominant mare in her herd, so I see where it comes from. I turned her out in the arena with her buddy Addison (who is pregnant!). When i went to go get her to work with her, she decided she didn't quite want to be caught. She kept herding Addison away. She's been very protective of that pregnant mare lately (maybe baby's coming?). So I decide to do the same. I cut her from Addison and herded her into a corner. Took a little bit of direction changing to get it through her head that I'm boss and I'll be the one telling everyone who's going where! Well she finally got it and let me catch her. I've just started teaching her how to differentiate her front end movements from her back end movements. I saw this game on both Parelli's TV show and Chris Cox's TV show, so I thought I'd give it a try to improve her side passing. It's where you bring your horse up to the wall and tap her shoulder till she moves away. Then you tap the rear end to have that move away. Keep doing it until you both are in constant motion and they are side passing. Sounded easier than it really is! My mare is not really scared of anything and can be unresponsive to things most horses would quickly react to. I had to smack her pretty hard on both her shoulder and back end to get them to move sideways. I think I'm going to email one of them and ask about this. I don't want to hurt my mare. She'll just stand there and take it and I felt like I was abusing her or something. But she finally caught on and this is the second day I've done this game with her. She definitely remembered yesterday's lesson! Still going to email them. I started by just swinging the rope end toward the shoulder, then lightly tapping, then harder and harder until she finally moved. Seriously thought I was going to leave a welt or something. I finally had to take her head and push it away before she actually moved. But she did catch on. Well gotta go, got work to do!

Bummer!

Couldn't get anyone at work to switch with me at work so I can't go to the horse show on Saturday. Bummer, but it's supposed to rain anyways so that makes it a little better. The rest of the horse shows this year just happen to land on my days off, so I should be able to go to most of them. I'm at the whim of the owner of the barn because I don't have a truck or trailer to take my horse to these events. I'm getting really excited because I've never shown before even though I've been around horse my entire life and have had my own horse for 8 years now. Never had the money to be able to do such things. I don't really care if I win anything, I just want to go have fun.
Still waiting to see if my horse Beauty's buddy Addison is pregnant. I think the owner Tanya is going to wait until the vet comes out in April to find out. If she is, she's already 8 months! She's really got a big ol belly on her and she eats like its going out of style! I'd really love to see a baby in the barn!

Maybe a new baby!

Stopped by the barn before heading to work to see my girl Beauty. Started talking to the owner and come to find out, Beauty's buddy Addison might be pregnant! The owners (Addison is shareboarded) didn't really know anything about her past when they bought her last August. Well we all have been noticing her increasing belly size that seems to be pulling on her back. The vet will be out soon to check her out and find out for sure! I can't wait! It would be so awesome to have a little baby in the barn. The owners are worried because they didn't really want a horse that was pregnant, they just wanted a horse to enjoy. I called dibs on the baby if they dont want it (if she is even pregnant). If it's anything like the momma, it's gonna be a great horse. I can't wait to find out, babies are so exciting and not to mention cute!!!!!

Beautiful Day!

I just got off midnight shift and planned on sleeping all day until I woke up checked the weather about 1230. It was 62 degrees outside! I hurried and got ready and drove to the barn. Seemed I wasn't the only one who noticed the incredibly nice day. There were 3 other boarders there getting thier horses ready and a bunch of kids there taking lessons. I share my horse with another boarder named Tanya. No lease or shareboard agreement, just if I need to use her horse so I can bring somebody with me to ride I do and she does the same with my horse. Well her daughter wanted to trail ride so I let Tanya take my horse, Black Beauty and I took Romeo. Romeo is a Rocky Mountain horse that I also have the same agreement with his owner. We talked the owner of the barn to come with us, so she grabbed her mare, Jackie. Then the other two boarders joined in too. We headed across the street and ended up trail riding for about 3 1/2 hours. Romeo was made to be a trail horse. He went ride through those woods like he'd been doing it all his life, even though he'd never been out that far. All in all the horses behaved and we had a good time. Supposed to rain all week so who knows when we'll get to that again with everyone there!