Hobby Horse Blog Hop #6

Here are the rules: Answer one or all of the prompts. Link back to Living a Dream's post. Visit other blogs. And don't forget to ask a question of everyone else!

1. My horse does this silly thing . . . when I tickle his lips he pulls them back and does something with his tongue. It's hard to describe. I need to get a video. Here is a picture . . .

This picture was from back in 2010 and it's not exactly what I'm talking about because he was trying to get my hand and normally he doesn't put his head in the air lol. It's close enough though.

2. What trick(s) have you taught your horse, dog, cat, husband, or kids? I'm not very good at training humans (and don't have kids) so nothing there lol. I don't have the patience to train a cat, so nothing there. I taught my Siberian Husky several tricks (sit pretty, high five, paw, shake head no, weave through legs, etc.) and I've taught my Beagle/Mountain cur dog over forty tricks. You can see a list of his tricks on my other blog Living A Farmer's Life (www.myfarmerlife.blogspot.com). I think the list is current. I might need to check on that. I've been doing clicker training with him since he was seven weeks old (now four years old). The list of things I've taught my horse Chrome can be found above on Chrome's Training Log page (http://rdxhorses.blogspot.com/p/chromes-training-log.html). I haven't checked it in a while so it might not be current either lol. Guess I know what I need to work on. So yeah I love teaching tricks/behaviors. :D

3. What was the last movie you watched? Like at the theater? I think it was War Horse. I don't think I've watched a movie on T.V. in months lol, so don't really remember what the last one was lol.

Now my question . . .

Does your horse stuff (halter, blankets, brushes, etc) match? Do you have a color for each horse? If so, what is your horse's "color"? :D

Faran's Hooves

I was looking for something in my old photos and found a picture of Faran's hoof back when we first brought him home. I stuck it next to a current (well as current as I have) photo for comparison.

Can you believe the difference?? The main factors in his improvement were diet and environment. He went from living in a round pen and eating six quarts of sweet feed a day to living on thirty acres and eating a ration balancer (with no sugar). BIG difference. He's only been trimmed for a few cycles now (in fact has been trimmed since the recent picture was taken) and that improves things, but I still think diet/environment/exercise has been the main factor in it. Faran was obese when we got him and didn't have a lot of room to move around. That has very negative effects on the hoof. So if you're horse is being trimmed regularly, but is still having problems (abscesses, chipping, cracks, lameness, etc) look into diet/exercise/environment. It has a much stronger influence than most people think!

Now for the horse hoof experts, I have a question. Why is his central sulcus a deep hole instead of a groove that goes out the back of the hoof? I've never seen one that looks like his. I'm treating him for thrush since nasty stuff gets trapped in there. We've also put a bevel on his hoof since this picture was taken. I think the biggest thing right now is getting those toes back so his hoof returns to a normal shape. :) I'm excited about the changes in Faran, physically and emotionally. :D

Chrome's First Trip To A Creek

I walked Chrome a mile down the road and introduced him to a creek for the first time ever!! This was his first time ever seeing running water as far as I know and I've had him since he was five months old. :) Please ignore my hideous fashion statement in the second video below!

I decided to walk out to the thirty acres to find the horses instead of calling them up. You would think it would be easy, but it actually took a minute to find them lol. Check out this video.


Silly guys!

He looks totally Friesian in this shot!

Once I got him to the house I had to figure out how to carry my rubber boots.

I didn't want to carry them for a mile (wore my sneakers for the walk), so I put them in grocery bags and let Chrome carry them lol.

He wasn't bothered by them at all. :) At one point when he climbed up the slope of a ditch the boots fell off. He spooked, but not bad at all. When I went to put them back on he tensed for a second, but was fine as soon as I had them on his back.

My pretty boy. He's developing the wrong muscles in his neck for some reason. I'm trying to get a chiropractor to see him because he's also developing a dip in front of his withers, but I have to get his teeth done first (if he would call me back, getting pissed!), so we will see. It could just be the awkward stage of growth he's in.

The above picture better shows how he's using his neck. Ick.

Don't get me wrong though, he still has a nice neck. :D

Okay, here is the video of us at the creek.


He did so well! Such a good boy. And some pictures. :)

Doesn't look impressed, does he?

I LOVE this shot!!

This was the only shot I managed to get of him climbing down the slope to the creek.

All in all we had fun. I had to do some yielding and backing to remind Chrome when he got excited or nervous that he couldn't barge into my space, but he's getting much better about it. Even in his flat nylon halter!! I'm curious to see how he will be about crossing water while being ridden because if I refused to step into the water (like when I was wearing sneakers), he would too. The only time he went in is if I went in first. Still, for his first time he did great! :)

On the way back home he stopped to pee on the side of the road lol! I'm glad he's comfortable enough to pee and sleep around me hehe.

Once we got home I sat on Chrome's pedestal and took pictures . . . a LOT of pictures lol.

Faran was glued to Chrome as soon as he got back. He was NOT happy when we left without him and according to the neighbors spent the whole hour and a half neighing. Poor guy. In the above pictures they are digging through the sticks to eat the grass growing in it. :) So cute!

Look at the size difference between their butts and tails lol. Faran's is a lot shorter than it used to be, I guess because of the detangling we've been doing. It's still incredibly thick though! Oh and Chrome is not taller than Faran, he's just standing uphill.

While the boys grazed Zep came to see what I was doing.

You can probably see in one of the pictures how the halter has rubbed his fur off of his nose. So far it isn't rubbing his skin, but I'm worried it will. Do donkeys need a different kind of halter? Do I need to put some sort of padding on the halter? Any suggestions? Now that the barn is fixed I'm about to make a stall and lock him up so I can work with him several times a day and get him tame . . . wish me luck. I hope he doesn't spend the whole time braying or we might have to turn him loose to keep from angering the neighbors . . . we will just have to play it by ear.

Faran is so handsome. I can't wait for him to shed his winter coat. He gets that weird chocolate color when the sun fades his coat.

Watching the neighbor walking down the street. I remember when he was so small that he would stick his head through the panels. Now he can just look over. :)

Poor boy was tired after out 2.4 mile walk and play time in the creek.

Sleeping.

Handsome Faran!

They are so cute! Resting the same toe. :)

Hope you enjoyed the pictures. :)

Do You See What I See?

You may want to click to enlarge the picture.
Let me know if you see what I see!

Also keep an eye out tomorrow for the post on why he looks so sleepy. It's a fun one!!

Just A Couple Of Picture

Not a lot going on. I worked on Chrome's hooves again today. They are looking so much better, but it will take a while to get the toe back and his heel widened. I did notice the contraction is getting better already! :) I meant to get pictures, but it was hot outside and I was tired. I'm planning to do a little on his rear hooves tomorrow so I'll try to get some pictures then.

Anyway I wanted to share a couple of pictures. I love this first one from a couple of weeks ago. We went out to the lease land for something (don't even remember why) and the horses came to see what we were doing. We decided to take them to the house for . . . something (wow my memory sucks), but we didn't take their halters!! So I grabbed some hay strings and we made halters. The angels walked happily and politely up to the house. I let my husband hold them while I went inside to get their halters and turned around to get this picture. They are so cute! My husband's expression is weird because he was saying something, but I love how he just has his arm casually over Chrome's back and they are both watching me. :D

Just for reference for any new readers, Chrome is 15.1hh, my husband is 5'10 and Faran is 16hh. You can read their pages above for more info!

The second picture I took today. We brought the horses up to groom them, let them graze and work on their hooves. I like this picture because they are both resting a hoof and their tails contrast each other nicely. :D Faran's curly black tail makes Chrome's look so white!

Anyway, that's all I have for now. I get to ride Chrome in two months and a couple of days (May 28th is the day of the party) and I'm getting so excited!

Hobby Horse Blog Hop #5

Here are the rules: Answer one or all of the prompts. Link back to Living a Dream's post. Visit other blogs. And don't forget to ask a question of everyone else!

1. What are your thoughts on providing hay for your horse when you trailer him or her? I like to provide hay in the trailer. It gives your horse something to do and if he eats you know he's relaxed. I provide hay for Chrome, but right now he gets too nervous to eat. I'll be working on that. To protect their eyes from hay flying around (or other debris) you can use a fly mask. I haven't tried it, but probably will when/if I get a stock trailer someday.

2. You have just won a two minute shopping spree at a tack store. What store would you visit and what would you get? I'm not sure which store I would go to . . . preferably something with a large selection of Dressage stuff. I would grab anything leather (bridles, breastcollars, etc.) I could get my hands on since I like to take things apart a make things out of them. You can never have too much leather! I would also grab as many saddle blankets/pads as I could of different varieties so I can figure out which ones I like. I would grab breeches, paddock/tall boots and helmets for me. As many as possible since you can never have too many and I'm in short supply. I would love to have a pair of paddock boots that actually fit!! If I had time I would grab a few saddles, but I'm guessing my two minutes would be up by then. Sounds like fun . . . when can we try it??

3. What plans do you have for the weekend? Well I have to work as always. Yuck! After work on Saturday I plan on riding horses with a friend and on Sunday after work I plan to help my husband finish repairing the barn so we can get our insurance money from the bank. I can't wait to start using my barn again!!!

When buying a new horse what conformation flaw would you absolutely avoid and what flaw would you let slide? (Examples of conformation flaws would be club feet, sickle or cow hocked, ewe necked, steep shoulder, etc.)