Saturday, June 18, 2016

I miss riding!


This is the reason I haven't been riding!  We have been under heat advisories all week and the horses sweat like this all day, just standing in the pasture doing nothing.  I sooooo wish the barn was done so I could have some fans set up for them.  They are miserable.  Another reason I haven't ridden is because I pulled something in my good shoulder and it turned into a crick in the neck... yeah there was no way I was riding like that lol.  I'm fine now though.  I was going to ride today because it cooled off a teeny bit, but I got woken up at four am from Jackal screaming in pain (scariest way to wake up ever!) and then had to spend over half my paycheck at the vet, then I babysat him all day because I didn't want to leave him inside alone.  Check out the post on my other blog HERE for more details.

Here are the rest of the sweaty horse pictures.


They did not get rained on, were not in the pond, were not hosed off, nothing.  That is literally sweat running down his legs and hooves!!


It's hard to see sweat on Rocky, but can you see the white streaks?  That's salt streaks!!

 Sweat running down Chrome's legs.

 His entire neck, front legs, shoulders and chest were soaked.

 Poor guy is having a heck of a time with his sweet itch too.  He's so itchy!

 Hard to see, but the reflection is the sweat. 
 It runs down his flank just like rain would.


I don't think it's fair or safe to ride when it's that hot.  I wish my sprinklers hadn't gotten lost because I would have set them up for the horses.  Chrome LOVES the sprinklers when it gets like this.  He will just have to deal with being hosed off though.  He likes when I spray the water in the air above us and it feels good for me too.  :D  So that's why I haven't been riding.....  I hope you guys are having cooler weather and getting lots of rides in!

Monday, June 13, 2016

Chrome Ride 147 - 100 Ride Challenge Ride 33 - Rocky Ride 15 (with us) - Rocky's New Saddle Pad

I got home from work and was surprised to see a box from the post office.  I opened it up and there was a saddle pad inside!!  Not just any saddle pad, but one made specifically for treeless saddles.  :D  One of my blogger buddies Olivia from Do It Yourself Horse Ownership sent it to me for Rocky, since hubby is most comfortable and pain free in the treeless saddle.  Thank you Olivia!!!  I'll email you tomorrow.  So of course we had to try out the saddle pad and since hubby was hurting from work, I had to ride Rocky.

Us taking pictures of each other lol.
In the first picture if you look closely you'll see Rocky's tongue hehe.


I just found out I have to go in early to work tomorrow, so I need to get to bed asap.  That means there won't be many words in this post.  I rode Rocky for ten minutes and he was good.  He tested me a few times by trying to turn toward the barn, but it was nothing that was difficult to work through.

 Looking at hubby.


When I went out to the pasture to get Rocky Chrome tried to stick his head in Rocky's halter!!  Then while I was riding Rocky, Chrome was screaming and galloping around!  My spoiled brat seriously doesn't like to be left out.... his galloping around was starting to get Rocky stirred up, which is why his ride was so short.  I wanted to end on a good note and I didn't have the energy (soooo hot and humid!) to deal with a fight if it came up.  Since Chrome was practically begging to be ridden and since I'm falling behind on my 100 ride challenge, I obviously had to ride him too.


He didn't disappoint.  He was fun to ride.  He's such a goofball!

 Sniffing the t-posts leaning against the building.

Remember what I wrote in this post (LINK) about hubby clearing the sides of the driveway and a path into the woods??  I said it was a secret.  Well the picture above and the two below are more hints.... ;)

 He was fascinated by all our hard work in the woods.

You can kind of see a hint behind Rocky too.

 He was stretched out again.  He's so weird.

 He was so excited to be going out on the road.

 I love this picture that hubby got!!

 Chrome shaking his head because of flies.  They are relentless.

 He wasn't wanting to stand still because of the flies again,
so we had to work on a lot of lateral flexion to remind him to stand still.

 I just rode up and down in front of the property.  We didn't go anywhere.
I only rode him for 22 minutes.  I cantered him twice on the driveway, but the rest was walking.

 He still looks for the neighbor horses.


Then he's resigned that they aren't there anymore.  Poor guy.  He misses his neighbors.  I've been noticing he stands more square more often.  It used to be that he always stood with his rear legs apart.  He's also building some of those quad muscles he needs for his stifles.  His thighs don't dip in as much as they used to.  I wish it was easier to get a picture to show you what I mean, but it doesn't really show up in pictures at all.

I had fun even though it was a million degrees outside with eight hundred thousand percent humidity.  Now I have to hit the hay so I can get up at the crack of dawn tomorrow.  Night guys!

P.S.  I forgot to get pictures of the new saddle pad, but I will soon, I promise.

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Chrome and Zep

I think I worry too much haha.  Understatement of the year.  I always worry after a long ride that I've overdone it with Chrome....


I think not.  He was feeling good today!  I was letting him graze at the end of the driveway by the road, but he kept galloping to the backyard.  I didn't want him grazing there because it had just been mowed and he was scalping it to the ground, so I kept moving him to the longer grass up front.... and he kept galloping back lol.  Here's a couple of blurry screenshots.


I also got some pictures of Zep eating his timothy hay because a friend was asking for new pictures since it's been a while.

 Shaking flies off his ears.

 He kept watching me creep closer and closer.

He never stopped eating though.  :D

Saturday, June 11, 2016

Chrome Ride 146 - 100 Ride Challenge Ride 32

  Notice anything about my handsome boy?

I trimmed his mohawk!  Not very well either lol.

It was starting to fall over so it needed done.  I had to go pretty short because I waited too long.

 He is so relaxed during grooming.  He loves it.


I rode around the yard for 55 minutes.  We started off slow, just warming him up, but I did do some cantering at the end of the ride.  Notice anything about the driveway in the above picture?


Hubby used the bush hog and bucket to clean along the sides of it.  The brush used to come right up to the driveway.  There is a reason for this (other than making it look nice), but it's a surprise so you guys have to wait hehe.
He also made a path into the trees.... but again it's a surprise hehe.

Caught him shaking his head.

 Chrome was pissy during the ride because the flies were awful!! Even with loads of fly spray.  :(  I hate those stupid green headed flies....  He was shaking his head (I forgot his bonnet....), randomly stopping (because he wanted me to slap the flies off, which I did for the ones I could reach) and would NOT stand still.  The not standing still was getting seriously frustrating....  I feel bad for letting it get to me.  He was miserable.  It was so hot too.  We were both pouring sweat, even when we were just standing around.  The humidity is horrendous.  Remind me why I used to like summer????

 We still had a good ride when we weren't being tormented or fussing with each other.


LOVE this picture!  We were looking at the garden.  Hubby has done an amazing job with the garden. I will try to do a post on it tomorrow.

 He walks right up to the tractor with it running so I can talk to hubby.  :) So brave!


We were standing in the shade waiting for hubby to come back outside to get pictures of us cantering.


As I mentioned before he did not want to stand still.  He was pawing in the above picture.  Brat!

 I forgot to crop this one.  It's off of hubby's phone.  
He took it to show me how Chrome was standing.


 He stops and gives me this look when he has a fly. This is how he shows me what side it's on.

 Once I smack the fly he walks off again.

Cantering pictures!

He was so eager during the first canter.

Then he decided it was hot and a lot of work...  
See NuzMuz he definitely doesn't always have his ears forward.  

Oh and ignore my crouching forward, I was encouraging him to jump into a canter (which he did) and apparently I lean forward when encouraging him haha.  I do sit back up though...

More crouching eek!

It's probably a leftover bad habit from when I first started cantering him and he'd jump into it so fast it would catch me off guard.  I was very defensive back then.  Now it doesn't scare me at all, but I guess the habit lingers on.  I need to work on that again.

Just ignore me.

We were flying for the last one!!  I can't wait to gallop him.
He switched to his right lead and was downhill because he was tired. That's why this was the last canter.

My favorite thing is when we're done he goes right back to walking on a loose rein.  :D

I had fun cantering in the grass for a change.  I think I want to tie Rocky up and try cantering in the pasture again to see if I'm still too chicken out there.  Chrome did get to where he was anticipating, but all I had to do was say "eh eh" and he would go back to walking.  It was actually kind of cute, but I won't make the mistake of letting him get away with that.

We did have to have a serious discussion that involved using a tiny branch as a whip.  He was not wanting to go up the driveway and was doing that stupid throwing his shoulder right and then ducking left to try to turn around thing.  So I used the stick on his right shoulder to make him stop popping it out.  Once he would actually walk a straight line I praised him big time and called it good.  I hate having to discipline him, but not doing so could be extremely dangerous with a 1200 pound horse.  He didn't hold a grudge or anything though.

Hubby told me I should have taken a picture of the stick to share with you guys so you could see the massive thing I was beating him with... haha.  That's sarcasm by the way.  I actually popped my own leg on purpose to make sure I wasn't hurting him.  I baby him hehe.

 After the ride.  Tired, sweaty pony!!


Even his haunches were sweaty.  We didn't even work that hard! It was just that blasted hot and humid outside... we've been very fortunate this spring so far and it is June so I guess I can't complain.  It's normally this hot the first of May.

 So sweaty!

 Sweaty ears from the bridle.

I took him to the pasture to let him get a drink before taking him back to the yard to let him graze.  I love that I can lead my horse to water and actually have him drink!  I got some cute pictures once he was finished drinking.

 So itchy!  Poor guy!

 Look at this precious face!

 
 He couldn't figure out why I was crouched on the ground and was staring at me.  So cute!

 Grazing in the yard, all sweaty.

Then he had a bath!

 After his bath, still wet, grazing while he dries.

I washed him all over with his itch soothing shampoo, then scrubbed his shoulders and legs with dishwashing liquid because nothing else gets the Desitin off that I've been using on his sweet itch, then I washed his legs in betadine because I'm wondering if the flies are infecting the sweet itch sores and making his skin funk worse.  I also washed his tail twice because it was just that nasty.  I got his entire tail in the bucket, even his dock as far as it would go. He's such a tolerant horse.  Now he has a clean tail bone hehe.

I want to dye his tail white... it is so yellow and gross.  The funny thing is I can't find my big car sponge that I usually use for bathing horses, so I used one of my small kitchen sponges that has scotch brite on the back.  He LOVED being rubbed with the scotch brite.  It must have felt so good on all his itchy places.  His favorite places were his neck, chest and, believe it or not, between his sheath and thighs.  He must have been so itchy.

After his bath I was exhausted and dizzy and out of breath.  I got way too hot....  that's how bad it was outside.  Normally bathing a horse isn't that big of a deal, but when it's that hot and humid it sucks!

 Looking sexy after his bath!!  His legs and belly were still wet here.
His tail is soooo much whiter at the top now!

 I cringe at the bad job I did on his mohawk lol.  It doesn't take away from his cuteness though.


Tail is still yellow at the bottom.  I think I'd have to wash it everyday for a week to get it clean....
I'm going to have to get some of the whitening shampoo....

 His reward for his patience is green grass!  His favorite. :D

 Ugh!!! I see so many spots I need to fix!  Love his neck though hehe.

When I went back out several hours later to get them some more hay (having to feed square bales until our suppliers cuts more hay... it sucks!) he followed me a short ways and then stopped to pee.  I waited for him while hubby and Rocky walked on ahead.  When Chrome finished peeing he stepped forward with his hind legs, reared halfway up, lunged forward and galloped to the hay feeder!!  I was worried I might have overworked him... I guess not LOL!

Well that's all for now.  Be safe in the heat guys!