Chrome's Hoof Trim

Here is a photo from Chrome's last hoof trim.... He was almost asleep lol.  He's come a long way from the yearling who would NOT STAND STILL while getting trimmed.  :D  Love my boy!

What were the horses freaking out about yesterday??

I mentioned in yesterday's post that the boys were freaking out at the beginning of the ride... the reason is because they spotted something new on the property.  I've been hinting for the past month about this with the pictures of the fence we've been building and one reader actually guessed correctly.   Anyway we were tacking up when the horses finally spotted it....

FFA!!

They were so freaked out!

We led them up the driveway to see this surprise.

Here is a video of them walking up the driveway on full alert.

Direct link HERE.

Chrome could smell it and was reaching over the fence with a huge arched neck.  This was the best shot I got lol.  So do you want to know what was freaking them out??  Well you'll have to go read the post on my other blog HERE hehe.

Chrome Ride 149 - 100 Ride Challenge Ride 35 - Rocky Ride 16 (with us)

Today was uncharacteristically cool for July (the high was only 90F and humidity was around 67%) so I asked hubby to go ride with me.  Chrome and Rocky were both spooky as heck at first (more on that in tomorrow's post), but settled quickly once we got on the road.  We went 1.48 mile and rode for 38 minutes.  It was a quiet, walk only ride with only one big spook on Rocky's part and eyeballing from both of them.  I finally bought me a new riding bat (the kind with the loop on the end to go over the saddle horn or around my wrist, that has a popper) because I'm so sick of Chrome's balking, but I don't want to carry my dressage whip all the time, since I only need it a couple of times.  It took maybe two gentle taps to get his attention.  It was so funny though because when I had it in my hand he had his head cocked to the side and that ear back, eyeballing it.  It was hilarious.  I promise I wasn't hurting him though, just using it as a gentle aid to get his attention so I don't have to keep kicking him. Anyway, here are the pictures.

Sorry they are unedited cell phones pictures... I was being lazy so I didn't even crop them.

 Where did my horse's head go??

He was sniffing the pavement.

 Rocky and Hubby went off the road for some fun since our neighbor recently mowed the ditches.

Chrome and I walked in the grass for a while, but his stifles kept giving out on the uneven ground so I got him back on the road.  Even this short of a break is enough to mess up his stifles again ugh!

Their reward for being good boys.

I also noticed Chrome was rubbing his tail like mad, so I decided to do some investigating.  There are three things that I've heard can cause tail rubbing.... worms, needing to have the sheath cleaned or ticks.  I knew it wasn't worms because they were done recently (and that might be a myth, not sure).  So I decided to check the other two.  This might be gross to some people, but I have to brag because this is one of the reasons I love this horse!  I brushed his belly until he dropped (he almost always drops when I'm grooming him because he likes his itchy belly brushed).  Then I cleaned him up.  He wasn't dirty at all and I was able to wipe or peel off the dry, crusty stuff that was there.  I'm so glad he stays fairly clean in that area.  There are a LOT of horses who won't let you touch their sheath at all, so the fact that I can completely clean him without drugs (or even a halter.. yes he was loose in the pasture) is so awesome!

So the last thing to check (because as soon as I finished that he started frantically rubbing his butt on the fence again) was his tail bone.  Found the culprit!!  There were four ticks in his tail.  Hubby pulled them off for me because they gross me out, then I washed his tail with my anti-itch shampoo.  He LOVED having me rub his tail because it was so itchy.  After his tail dried I sprayed and rubbed my fly spray (that kills ticks) all through it and into the dock as best I could.  What do you guys use for keeping ticks out of their tails?  It's difficult getting fly spray all the way to the skin...

Well that's all I have for this post I guess.  After cleaning his tail I put medicine on his sweet itch sores and covered him in his neem oil.  Oh we did go to the store and I got them a sulphur block just to see if it makes a difference at all.  It's mostly salt so even if it doesn't, I don't care.  It's worth a shot.  Chrome seemed to like it.  I guess that's all.  Check this blog and my other one for exciting news tomorrow!

Chrome Ride 148 - 100 Ride Challenge Ride 34

It was only 95F degrees when I got home with a nice breeze and normal humidity (as opposed to the kind of humidity where you feel like you're drowning just trying to breathe), so I decided to hop on Chrome for a bareback ride around the property in just a halter.  As soon as I got on I could tell he was very tense.  When I asked him to walk up the driveway he was so hesitant I thought he was lame!!  Turns out he just didn't want to go up there, because when I turned him around he walked out really big and forward... ugh.  Above is the only riding picture I got because he was so tense.

As we headed up the driveway he first had to freeze and stare at all our hard work (in the above picture behind him).  He sniffed each post and then ignored it.  I walked him up the driveway and was standing near hubby, talking to him as he stretched the last bit of wire (we hang gates tomorrow) and a tree limb started squeaking where they were rubbing.  He flinched!!

Then something fell behind us and he jumped like he was going to bolt!  His head was straight up in the air and every muscle in his body was coiled for action.  My heart was racing in terror, so I got off.  Yeah I totally chickened out!  I'm not used to him being so spooky... it wasn't worth getting hurt or anything (and I'm paranoid right now because my best friend got kicked in the head a week and a half ago and almost died).  So the ride was only fifteen minutes.  I was talking to my dad later and he said it's probably the fireworks that the neighbors have been shooting off for two days.  Even the cat has been really freaked out.  Oh well, we didn't die.  We will try again tomorrow (with a saddle and bridle because I'm chicken... at least I was wearing a helmet!).

One more thing before I end the post. See the above photo?  See the muscles??

Those muscles???  Yeah!  He has butt muscles!!  His thigh muscles have never bulged out past his hip before.  :D  So the riding is definitely helping.  Hopefully this will get my motivated to get back to it despite the heat and humidity.  I'm way behind on the challenge so I definitely need some motivation.