Day 47

I thank God every day for my wonderful Hennessy (:

Today was a busy, busy day! I started off this morning with the normal stuff; feeding, turn out, mucking out, filling inside and outside water tubs, and filling haynets. The farrier came today around noon and did Romana and pulled Roman;s shoes because the vet is coming tomorrow to look at him!!  I then loaded up the trailer because SB had her dressage lesson with JC today at 2:15pm!  When the farrier had gone, we loaded up the trailer and were off to JC's place. Her lesson went wonderful and they worked really hard. They also tryed out the bareback pad they will be using when we take the horses swimming Friday (:

When we got back to the barn , I unloaded Romana and brought all the other horses in too. I then put my riding pants on and got Henny out and put only his bridle on and rode him bareback! He was amazing (:  We worked on walk, trot and canter!!  My butt is sore but he was such a good boy and listened and didn't go to fast-we're ready for swimming (:  I then fed all the ponys!!

SB and  I then headed to a barn just done the road from her!  SB was planning on being in the CAF. event camp, but since Roman hurt himself, she was in need of a horse to ride. So she has been talking to a guy about a horses that he is willing to lend her for camp!!  We showed up at the barn and met Commander a huge, close to 17h percheron cross. He was awsome(:  We set up a small jump that he wouldn't really jump unless he was cantering! SB is really excited about using this big guy for camp. After a long day, we came home checked on the horses and went to bed!

Goodnight (:

Day 46

The day of good and bad news!

At around 8 am SB and I went out to the barn and cold hosed Roman's leg, the swelling still had not gone down any. I then gave all the horses hay, and mucked out Roman's stall while SB wrapped his leg. I fed all the horses and after they were done eating  I turned everyone outside. I then started mucking out stalls, filling haynets, water buckets, cleaned out the tack and feed room, groomed Roman and built a jump course for my lesson later on! I then cold hosed Roman's leg again, then SB and I went out to lunch at Panara Bread, while we were out we picked up some bedding and fly spray at the feed store.

It seems to be that Ransom ( SB's other thoroughbred rescue) is not getting any better , and she can't afford to have horses that can't do their job.  So sometime soon he will we going back to FFI the rescue group he came from. Then some good news came...SB had already entered Roman in the USEA Horse Trials at Penny Oaks next weekend.  Since he is off work, she will not be able to go, which means I will get to go in her spot! I will be competing in the Beginner Novice division!

At around 3:30 pm I brought all the horses in and got Hennessy ready to jump! SB came out to give us our lesson.  He was amazing once he got focused on me instead of the flies!!  We worked on funny lines and staying with me. As long as I stayed back and kept my outside rein strong he jumps like a dream (:  The highest jump in our course was 3 foot !!  After putting Henny away I got Roman out and cold hosed his leg again, and the swelling had gone DOWN!!  Next I re-did Ransom's cribbing collar.  After all the horses were fed I brought in all the bedding from the truck and am now done for the day (:

Videos from last weekend at CAF !

Day 43, 44 & 45

The Weekend!

Friday

I started the daily routine of mucking out stalls, filling water buckets and haynets at around 8 am. I finished all of that at just before 10:30 am, then I loaded the trailer up for the show that S.B had this weekend.  At about 11:30 am we begain on our 2 and a half hour journey to Dayton ,Ohio for the Gemwood Horse Trails. S.B would be competeing in the open novice division. We were taking Roman , S.B's eventing thoroughbred!

We got to the show grounds around 4:30-5 pm , we quickly found our stalls and unload the stuff we would need for the night including; bedding, water buckets , fan , mucking out tools and hay. We had to get a battery powered fan because there were not many outlets at the show grounds and it was going to be a hot weekend! S.B and I then walked around the very open show ground to find the show office to get her packet. After getting her packet and feeding Roman we headed to the hotel.

When we got the hotel the first thing we did after checking in was we found the swimming pool. After swimming for about 45 mins. we got changed and went back to the show grounds , because it was so hot we wanted to make sure Roman had full water buckets at all times. When we got to the grounds I filled up his haynet and topped off his water buckets. We then went to find something to eat .  We picked a local Chinese restaurant and had some very yummy food , then we went back to the hotel and crashed (:

Saturday

We woke up and got ready for a long hot day of showing .  We had some quick breakfest at the hotel and we were on are way. When we got to the grounds I got Roman out of his stall and let him eat some grass while S.B's mucked his stall out! After his stall was clean , I started cleaning him up  -  Roman loves to roll and lay in poop and pee /: yay me, but hates to be groomed. Even though he disagreed with what I was doing, I groomed him til he was shining!!  I then got all the dressage tack out of the trailer while S.B's braided his mane.  Her ride time was about 5 mins til 10am.  I tacked him up and had him ready to go at just before 9:30 am , while she started warming him up, I filled his water buckets up!  They had a great dressage test and ended up with a 35 %.

After her test I showered him off and let him rest, because he didn't show jump til 1:00 pm. After watching many of the prelim horses jump, we walked the show jumping course that was on grass at this show.  The first 5 jumps or so had pretty straight lines  but after that they weren't so straight anymore!  We had a riders meeting at about 12 pm where a vet and some other people talked to us about drinking lots of water and how to keep your horses cool!  After that I got all the jumping tack out and tacked him up. S.B then got on and started warming him up. She went in to jump him and it was going well until about the 5 th jump when he slipped after the jump, and it scared him because it was hard to get his footing again because he doesn't have back shoes.  Because he slipped he took a funny line to the next jump which was an up-right then one stride to a oxer - he jumped the up-right but it wasn't pretty, then stopped three times in front of the oxer before crashing into it and going on to the the next one. S.B descded not to jump the last jump and take her self out!

We decided not to stay for Sunday because she was scared that Roman had hurt himself, so we packed up and went home. When we got home, we iced and rapped his legs! I mucked all the other horses stalls out and brought everyone in and fed them.

Sunday
S.B and I went out to the barn and fed everyone and then checked out Roman's leg.  It was swollen like a balloon /:  We cold water hosed it for about 15 mins and then rapped it and put him in his stall for the day. We then put Ransom and Henny out in the front hay field  - they were very excited to go out in the big pasture.  I then turned Ramana out in the boys old pasture.  I started cleaning all the stalls , filling water buckets and haynets. 

I came inside and started to study for my BHS (british horse society) level 1 exam that I will have to take this week. I took 3 pages of front and back notes - I studied for 3 hours! At about 1 pm the sky became really dark.  S.B and I ran outside and brought in all the horses, it only rained for about 20mins ):  Since it did rain a little it cooled down!  So at around 5 pm I got Henny out and S.B gave me a lesson!  He was not too happy about having to work, since he hadn't been riden since Wednesday!  But he got on with it. I took him outside and we worked on 10 meter circles to 10 meter circles! We would do a 10 meter circle to the center line, then a 10 meter circle the opposite direction back to the rail at a trot and then ask him to do a long and low 20 meter circle. Once he started using his back end and stepping through he was doing really good!! Then I did one 20 meter canter circle to the right asking him to shorten and then lenghen his stride and then back to trot... it was wonderful. Then we did it to the left and it was perfect once again . His canter has come so far!  We then ended with a long walk! After untacking him I gave him a bath and and treated all his bites ( which are getting better ).

I then fed all the horses, mucked out stalls again then put everyone to bed for the night!!

Day 42

I got down to the barn around 8 am, S.B. and I rode as soon as we got the horses ready, trying to beat the horrible heat! I rode Henny, she rode Roman. Henny and I worked on transitions from walk to trot and back to walk . We also worked on walking and trotting long and low! After I got him untacked, I put both the boys outside and fed them outside, while S.B. rode Romana!

Then I cleaned stalls, filled outside waters, filled water buckets and hay nets! I then gave Ransom a bath!

I brought all the horses in by 6:30 pm and fed them! Just got done with night check and I have tomorrow and thursday off (:

jumps from South Farms , Ohio !!

Show (: Beginner Novic Test B , Jumps set at 2'7

Day 41

Day went  little different then normal !


I went out to the barn this morning , and put Henny , Roman , and Romana outside , then gave them their food outside .  Then I got Ransom out of his stall and put his shipping boots on and  we took him to the vet !  He has been off in his back left leg for awhile now and they are still trying to figure out what's going on.  When me and S.B got to the vets ,  I unloaded him off the trailer,  then we took him in the round pen while the vet watched him move .  We got him inside and they decided to nerve block his leg, starting at the bottom of the leg and moving up as there was no improvement in his movement . Then they injected his back to take the soreness out of his back .  We will lunge him in two weeks to see how he's doing.

 When we got back , after being at the vets for 4 hours ,  I fed Ransom , cleaned all the stalls , filled water buckets, filled hay nets, filled water in pastures , re-padded Ransom's cribbing collar and put fresh water out for the chickens .

After it had cooled down outside , S.B and I got out Henny and Romana and rode them outside !  Henny started off a little annoyed I think because of how hot it was today , but we got through what we needed to work on .  We worked on collecting and extending the trot both ways , then collecting and extending the canter !  The last thing we did is simple canter changes  -  they were wonderful , never been better (:  In the end he showed his true colors and was a goood boy (: