Faran Update

Faran's new owner gave me permission to post the pictures and stories she's sending to me so I figured you guys would enjoy an update!  I'm pretty sure I already mentioned that he rode well on the trailer to her house, but was definitely ready to get off after such a long ride.  He unloaded well.  We were a bit worried since there was no divider, but there was the support post in the back that he had to go around.  He had no problem figuring it out.  :)

He went into the round pen near her other horses so he wouldn't be worried or lonely.  He settled in really well!  She spent a ton of time with him the first few days to be sure he was doing okay.  One funny story she told me is that he tried to bluff her about wanting attention.  When he started to turn away she quickly walked away, leaving him before he could leave her.  She went to her other horse at the fence.  Faran stared at her, totally confused and then walked straight to her asking for attention again hehe.  Silly boy!

He has definitely already decided she is his new human.  When she leaves and comes back he's already greeting her with a nicker.  :D  That makes me so happy!  She works with him every day which is what he needs.  She uses the massage techniques that I'm using (and still learning) with Chrome.  She gives him a full body massage every day.  He loves it!

 I love his pretty face and his almost roman nose hehe.

So everything was going great until last weekend.  She introduced him to one of her geldings and a yearling.  She wanted him to be out in the pasture since it had a shelter for some bad weather that was on the way.  They all seemed to be doing just fine.  She had to walk down the road to her sister's house to help with something and started hearing her yearling squealing.  She ran back to her house to find Faran attacking the other two horses.  My jaw hit the floor when she told me this!!  I had never seen him be mean to another horse.  He was chasing them so she ran out into the pasture and scared him away from them, then she got the other two out and put them in a different pasture.  They are fine, just some bites and scrapes.

She left Faran in the pasture so he would have shelter from the weather.  When she went back out there he went right up to her, even neighing at her, because he was lonely.  The big dummy just chased his company off lol.  Everyone was fine and settled back in.

His adorable dirty face from eating his mash.

Then Faran started getting out!!  She found him in the yard grazing and he let her walk right to him and catch him.  She put him up and then he was out again at three am the next morning, so she stuck him back in the round pen so she could go to work.  Later she put him in the pasture and watched him to see what he would do.  He walked right to a low spot in the fence and stepped over again like he was so proud of his accomplishment and had no clue he was doing anything wrong!  :)

He's definitely keeping her on her toes, but she's enjoying him so much.  He's letting her pick his feet up in the pasture without being tied up already.  She's been leading him around outside of his comfort zone (his comfort zone has always been his pasture, everywhere else makes him nervous), tossing the lead rope around his body to desensitize him and she's been standing on buckets.  Basically just doing all different kinds of things with him to get him used to the unexpected just like I did with Chrome.  :)  He's flourishing with the daily handling.  I'm so happy I found someone who has the time and desire to work with him every day.

Isn't he looking awesome??  Even with the glowing demon eyes hehehe!  So that has us caught up.  I'll update again when I have more pictures and (hopefully fun and happy) stories to tell. :D

P.S.  For anyone just joining the blog Faran is a fourteen year old 16hh black Percheron gelding that my husband and I got in 2011 from a lady who was terrified of him.  She had sent him to a trainer to break him to ride and the trainer ruined him, making him absolutely terrified of humans.  We spent a lot of time with him at first working on getting him to trust humans and to calm down, but due to bad stuff happening (husband's injury, job loss, moving back home, etc.) we didn't have the time to work with him and he reverted back to his half wild state.  So that's where his new owner is having to pick up with him.  Reminding him all over again that humans are okay and teaching him that he can trust people to do things around and to him.  He needs daily interaction to stay calm and relaxed.  She's doing a really good job with that and he's very happy in his new home!!

P.P.S.  All of these pictures were taken by and belong to his new owner.  I do not own them, but I do have permission to post them.  :)

My pasture feels empty...

It's weird only seeing one horse at the gate ...

(Zep never stands by the gate, so that part is normal)

After grazing for several hours yesterday Chrome calmed down and stopped neighing every few minutes.  It's so funny because he kept staring off at the backyard like he thought Faran was still just grazing back there without him.  He doesn't realize the horse trailer took him away.  Today Chrome is totally fine again.  He still has Zeppers, so he's happy.  :)

Faran is doing great.  He settled in immediately and hasn't acted spooky or nervous at all.  Yay!  I'll keep you guys updated on him.

I thought about riding today, but my allergies have been so bad the last week or two that my ribs feel bruised from sneezing so much (my back and stomach muscles hurt too)!  I love the temperatures at this time of year and all the sunshine, but man my allergies make it miserable!!  So I just did his workout like normal (routine 2).

I noticed when doing his leg lifts (tapping his rear legs to make him pick them up to his belly) that his left stifle was locking again (only twice and only when switching back to that leg, so having it straight is what locked it).  However when doing his hip stretch his right leg seemed stiffer.  This horse is so weird.  The hip stretches were MUCH easier this time though, so I think the work is already making a difference.  We didn't do the hindlegs together exercise since I haven't built a new pedestal, but everything else went well.  He did much better on the poll stretch (my expectations were wrong.. my Masterson's Massage book explained it better and has pictures so that helped me understand what I was looking for).

The flies are out already (and the ticks eek!), so I've been having to spray Chrome everyday.  I'm already seeing bumps on his shoulders too, so I need to find my Neem oil before the gnats really come out of the wood works.  It seems a bit early for them, but it's been really warm so I guess not.

Well I guess that's all I have to ramble on about today.  I'm going to go try not to sneeze for a while!

P.S.  I changed my blog header because I was bored with the old one (since it had only one picture hehe).  I think it's really cute, so let me know what you think of it!

Faran's New Home & Chrome's Monthly Progress Report

Okay, first I have to say I didn't get any pictures today.... I had my camera with me the whole time, but I totally forgot to take pictures, so I'm sharing some old ones.  :)

Faran finally went to his new home!!!  I haven't mentioned anything until now because I didn't want to jinx it.  After over a year of trying to find him a home and several leads not working out I didn't want to have any reason for this home to not work out lol.

I got him out first thing this morning, brushed him down really well, did a once over of his mane and tail to check for snarls and then let him graze in the yard.  Chrome was pissed that I was giving Faran attention and that he wasn't getting to graze in the yard too.  He galloped around like a maniac (see video at the bottom of this post), so I didn't let him graze until the end of the day after he had settled down again.

When Faran's new owners were getting close I popped him back in the pasture so he could get a good drink before he loaded up for the three hour haul to his new home.  When they got here I helped them load up the rice bran, minerals, his driving reins, etc.  I also bagged up three days worth of feed so his diet wouldn't change too quickly.

Once everything was loaded we brought Faran out to see what he thought of the unfamiliar trailer.  He hesitated (because I fed Chrome to keep him quiet and he wanted to eat too... oops), then walked up to it and stood sniffing.  It took a few minutes clucking to him and asking him to get in.  We praised him each time he stepped forward and then he just put his front foot on and hopped right in.  Such a good boy!  I was so proud of him.  He handled the three hour drive to his new home well, but he was definitely ready to unload!  His new owner said after she put him in his pen (next to his new buddies so they can get to know each other) that he even let her approach him.  I'm so, so, so glad he likes her!!!  He's normally so skittish of strangers so it's a huge relief that he's settling in well and enjoying her attention.  A bit later he tried to pretend like he didn't want her attention so she walked off and left him.  He almost immediately walked back to her asking for attention.  He doesn't have her fooled!!  He loves the attention.  :D

 I will miss our beautiful boy so much, but I think this was the best thing we could have done for him.  My husband has been too busy to mess with him much and my attention has been focused on Chrome, so I've felt kind of bad for neglecting Faran a bit.  He does NOT do well without daily work.  After the move he got to where he didn't like being caught or having his hooves done, etc.  He settled eventually, but never back to the way he was when we worked with him daily.  So at his new home he's going to get lots of attention every single day and I think he's going to settle down again really quickly.  I'm also happy that we can go visit him since he's only three hours away.  :D

His new owner has been reading the blog, so I want to say thank you for taking my boy.  I'm so glad I found you because I think you and Faran are going to be a perfect personality match (my anxious personality with his anxious personality wasn't really a good match!) and I can't wait to see the great things you can do with him.  :D  I really hope you enjoy him and that you both are happy with each other.  It sounds like he already considers you his new buddy.

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Since today is the nineteenth I have to do Chrome's progress report and assessment.  I'm using the picture from my last post since I didn't take any today.  As I mentioned before it shows his muscles (and lack of) really well, so although it's not a fantastic photo it serves it's purpose.

Date: 4-19-14
Age: 4 Years 11 Months
Height: 15.2hh
Height Gain: None.
Weight: No idea!  I need to check.
Weight Gain: N/A

Progress:  So far he's doing really great with the new workout routine!  You can read about his new workout program HERE.  He only had a couple of days where his stifle was locking again after the second workout.  It has a lot of stifle strengthening exercises in it, so it didn't surprise me.  I'm not sure how I feel about his weight... some days he looks a little thin and other days he looks great.  I guess a bit thin is better than too fat.  I think our new hay will help plump him back out a bit.  I haven't really talked about our hay problems this winter, but there were some!!

After moving we had a lot of trouble finding a new source of hay (the one I used years and years ago when I grew up here isn't selling anymore).  So we asked around and tried hay from several different people, but they kept running out!!!  We had people sell us bales that were filled with mold which we just had to take a loss on because they wouldn't take it back.  We had one guy selling us hay that I swear was two or three years old even though he said it was last year's.  The quality of the hay we found that was actually edible still wasn't that great, so we had problems keeping weight on the boys.  I've had a LOT of people tell me their horses lost weight this winter because it was so cold and icy, so it might not have been totally the hay's fault.  Anyway we finally found a great source of gorgeous barn kept, fertilized hay and he cuts enough he said he never runs out. He cuts probably 5000 round bales of hay a year and who knows how many square bales.  It's kind of a long drive and it's a bit pricey, but it's worth it just to have a reliable source of good quality hay.  Oh how I wish we'd found it at the beginning of the winter.  It would have taken a load of stress off of my shoulders!  My boys have never lost hay in the winter so it really stressed me out that they did.  I think the move from a thirty acre pasture to a five acre pasture was part of the problem too.  I'm just glad the hay problem is solved!

So other than that things have been going well.  :D

Assessment:  The book suggests asking yourself five questions at the end of each month to see if you're progressing, pushing too hard or not hard enough.  Also keep in mind during the Prep phase there won't be a very noticeable change in appearance.  The Cardio phase is where things will start changing.  Here are the questions:

Where are his muscles filling out?  Since this is just my baseline I'll mention the muscles I'm hoping to fill out.  His neck is developing upside down so I want to work on that along with his topline and abdominal muscles.  His quads (stifles) are very weak and they definitely need strengthening.  So he needs to develop in his whole body, but specifically it's his stifles that need the most improvement.  Sadly they are the last muscles in the haunches to develop so it could be several months before he starts showing noticeable improvement.

Has he developed any resistances/or has his behavior changed?  Again this is a baseline, so I'll share a few things I've noticed to give us something to compare to.  He walks very fast downhill and even tries to trot.  That is a lack of strength (and practice).  Going uphill (and this is not a very steep hill) takes noticeable effort, but it's improving quickly.  He walks really fast heading out on a walk or when going toward neighbor horses, but he balks walking away from them.  Once they are out of sight he goes back to his normal walk.  He is landing heel first on his rear hooves (hooray!!!), but still landing toe first on the fronts (I'm working with my farrier on getting his toes shorter on the front).  After doing a workout that has a lot of stifle strengthening exercises (like walking over poles, picking up his back hooves or stepping over his hay bale) sometimes his stifle will lock up the next day and he also has to warm up his stifles (by going for our walk) before he can step over things without banging his toe.  That is another lack of strength issue, but it is also improving.  He seems to enjoy all of our exercises so far and I haven't noticed any reluctance at all to do anything.  The only thing he balks about is walking away from neighbor horses.  Oh and he doesn't care for his pelvis tucks, but he's never liked them.  That's all I can think of offhand.

Does he start out stiff each day (as if he hasn't recovered from previous day's exercise)?  I'm doing his workouts every other day and so far he hasn't shown any stiffness except after routine two when his stifle started locking.  He warms up out of it though.  His rear legs also feel unusually stiff in the hip stretch so I'm curious to see how/if that improves with our work.  It's probably because he doesn't use his rear end due to his stifles.  

Does he fade during exercise or show signs of fatigue?  Nope, not at all.  In fact I still catch him playing and goofing off in the pasture afterwards.  It's finally getting warm enough that on our two mile walk he's almost, but not quite starting to sweat lol!  You can't see it, but you can feel dampness on his neck and chest.  I don't remember the last time my spoiled boy has sweated!  It's no wonder he's so out of shape.

Has he lost, gained or maintained weight?  Since starting the workout routine, he has maintained, but he's at a good weight so I don't really want him to lose any.  I just want him to gain muscle.

 Goals: My goals for this month are to continue with his workouts every other day.  I want to continue to increase the distance we're walking on the roads and keep working on him staying calm when walking by other horses.  I also want to work on the CTR obstacles, but we will see if I have time.  We've been doing a lot of work on the house again since the temperatures are warm enough to paint again.  I also want to ride!!  Oh and I've been reading my massage book again too and I want to try to make massage and stretching a part of our daily routine!

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Now here is the video I mentioned above.  I'm giving Chrome the day off today since I was too busy with Faran (and helping hubby and dad with filling the raised flower beds, planting vegetables and moving manure out of the pasture with the tractor-we are finally cleaning up the pasture after winter and we now have a muck heap!).  Besides he self exercised himself so he'll be fine waiting until tomorrow hehe.  The video was taken this morning after I'd brushed Faran and left him in the front yard to graze.  Chrome was pissed that he didn't get to graze!  Notice the awesome lead change?  Normally he only changes in the front (because of his stifles) so the fact that he did a full change made me happy.  He got a bit warm, so I walked him out, but I didn't let him graze until later in the day after Faran had left for his new home.  I didn't want to reward him for being a nutcase lol!  Here's the video.


ETA:  I slowed down the lead change in the video and he actually changed in the front and then changed in the back!  At least he did change though.  Someday with lots of work he will be able to do a correct flying lead change. My question is, why did he change to his left lead on a right circle??

Chrome is so sheltered!

First I wanted to share a few pictures of Faran since I haven't posted anything about him in a while.  I brushed him for half an hour and I swear I got two pounds of fur off of him lol.  I don't mind though because I'm ready for him to shed out his sun bleached winter coat.

He lost a bit of weight over the winter (they all did actually), but he's gaining it back nicely.

You can see his ribs.  :(  His mane is pretty though. It took me a while to get the snarls out because the flies are out and he likes to shake his whole head which makes a quick mess of his mane!  I used some of the Show Sheen detangler on it, so hopefully it will keep some of the snarls out better.  Also I think that was the first time I've used a mister (instead of spray) bottle around him... he panicked at first, but then stood still on the second try.  He's so silly.

Oh I forgot to mention all of this was yesterday, I'm just posting a day late because I had to post baby Friesian pictures.  :)  So I did Chrome's workout yesterday (routine 1 with road walk, tail rotations, pelvic tuck, backing uphill and shoulder back and down stretch) and we went 1.84 miles.  By the way, for those of you who don't have fancy phones (mine doesn't have internet, just call and text) you can download and use Google Earth for free.  It has an Add Path tool that lets you trace out the route you took (use arrow keys to move around the map and mouse to draw path) and then it tells you how far you went.  This obviously works better on roads, but trails might show up pretty well too.  It's really great.

Anyway, I took a video of Chrome as we were walking past the neighbor's horses so you can see how he acts and why I'm a little nervous about riding him out totally alone just yet (and also why I called him sheltered in the post title).  :)  The video is below, but let's look at the pictures I took first.

It was around noon so the lighting wasn't great.

 I'm too tall!  If I forget to crouch, the perspective

 is off and he looks like he has short little legs LOL!

 All natural beveled edge from walking on pavement twice a week!  Yay!

 After we got home, he got a drink and this is him turning to walk back up the bank.

This isn't a great photo, but it shows his muscles (or lack of) fairly well.  Notice how he's getting the dip in front of his withers and developing the underside of his neck?  It's past time for some dressage to correct the way he carries himself, but that's what will make the assessments fun each month to see how his muscles change and develop.  :)

Now on to the video! Sorry I think it is about three and a half minutes long, but it's well worth watching it!!  I hope you can see it.  If not, let me know and I'll try to get screenshots.  So when we walked by the first time he was staring at them like he always does and wanting to get antsy, but he listened well and kept going.  You'll notice in the video whenever we get past them he wants to stop constantly and look back, but it's easy to get him walking again with a cluck and light tug on the rope.  After we went to the hill (which we walked back and forth over twice this time) we came back by on the way home.

On the way back the neighbor horses were amped up!!  They were galloping around, snorting, bronco bucking, just being total nuisances, so of course Chrome got amped up too.  They were all feeding off of each other I think.  So he turned on FULL ARAB MODE and oh my goodness he was GORGEOUS!!!!  I would pay money to see him in an Arabian Liberty Class because boy is he a show off!  That's why you have to watch the video so you can see the arched neck, flagged tail and floating trot hehe.  That is also why I stupidly encouraged him to behave this way when he was younger.  I'm dumb lol.  The good thing is that he's not out of control or anything.  I'm just worried how bad he would be under saddle since he has a tendency to be more nervous without me right there beside him.

Also I do not normally let him have the full length of his rope, but I did today so I could get the video.  He normally doesn't get this amped because I can keep him reeled in and get his attention better (even with his flat nylon halter, which I haven't fixed yet so I'm still using the rope halter).  So anyway I'll quit chattering and let you watch the video...


Isn't he gorgeous??  Or am I just barn blind?  :D

P.S. When I call Chrome an idiot in the video I'm using it as a term of affection.  I call my dog a dummy and my dad a butthead too.  It's just the way my family is. :D  I was never mad at him.  My voice sounds meaner in the video than it does in real life hehe.

My boys are so cute!

All three boys napping in the sun.  :D  Chrome spotted me, but he was asleep before I took the picture.  This is the first time I have ever seen all three of them lay down together!!  They are so cute!

Chrome got his hooves trimmed.  Good grief they were long!  They look so much better now.  My farrier said his hooves barely flare at all so that's cool, but his heels look like they are getting under run, so we're going to have to shorten the trim cycle.  His hooves grow so much faster in the summer... it's insane!

In other news apparently riding him bareback in loose sweat pants has made the inside of my knees tender.  When I went fishing and hiking today my legs started itching and I thought I'd gotten into a bunch of chiggers or seed ticks even though it's a bit early and cool for them, so I was rubbing my knees against each other since my jeans were too tight to pull up over my knees... The seam on my jeans rubbed the inside of my knees and caused a chafe rash.  :(  It burned for a little while, but I cleaned it and put cortisone cream on it, so it's much better now.  I don't want it to chafe again though so I'm going to be wearing my breeches and probably using the saddle this week when I ride.  The chafing was right where the leather is on breeches, so I definitely need to wear them!  I'm looking forward to seeing how he feels.  I hope having the day off and having his hooves trimmed helps his stride feel normal again.  Keep your fingers crossed!

Pretty Snow!

We got a little bit of snow (okay more like freezing rain, but it looks like snow lol) so of course I had to get some pictures of the ponies (yeah I know I don't actually have a pony, but that's what I call them anyways).  :D  It was sooooooo bright outside that I was totally snow blind so the pictures aren't great.  I could barely see the LCD screen to tell if they were in focus or in frame for that matter.  Here are the ones that turned out best.

We took a bucket of alfalfa chaff out and made little piles all over the snow for the horses to enjoy.  In the above picture Chrome is so focused on the bucket he didn't even notice the alfalfa on the ground.  Hubby showed him the pile on the ground and it was game on from there!

Faran says move it shrimp!  This is my pile!  They had so much fun.  It was great watching the silly boys licking the ice clean hehe.

 Yummy alfalfa!

 This is how hubby breaks the ice on the pond for me when it isn't too thick.  :)

I LOVE this shot!  Look at that gorgeous blue sky.  

Zep hates snow.  It balls up in his feet.  He wasn't caring too much while stuffing his face on alfalfa though lol!  Don't worry he didn't get much of it (too rich for donkeys) since he is the lowest on the totem pole the other boys kept him from getting much and that's why we kept each pile small.

 I like this one even though it's super blurry.  It looks like they are ice skating!

One more of cutie Zeppers.

I didn't take many because my hands were hurting soooo bad!  It's cold outside!

More Snow Pictures!

Did I ever mention that the gate in the above photo was made by me and dad when I was a kid?  We welded it out of black square tubing.  :)

Okay so my pictures of Faran still wouldn't upload correctly.  I tried everything!  So I finally gave up and went back outside yesterday to take more pictures.  They all turned out great and uploaded great, so I have absolutely no idea what was wrong with the others I took...  anyway did I ever mention that it's really hard to take pictures of a black horse in the snow??  It is! I hope you enjoy them.  :D

 

 A lot of them turn out as silhouettes because he's so dark.  

Oh well, that's a super gorgeous silhouette.  :D

 Hubby finally pulled all of his mane over to the side it normally lays on.  :)

Check out his muddy ear lol!

I tilted the camera again... :-/

Check out those tree trunk legs though (and his feathers)!

I love how much bone draft horses have.

I crouched down for the last one so I could get the trees behind him.

Eating snow from hubby's hand.

Impersonating a Friesian again hehe.

His back is so dirty LOL!  Mud doesn't stop this boy from rolling and scratching his back.  :)

It was funny because when I first saw how dirty his back was I thought someone had been riding him!  You know how if you ride a horse and don't brush it after the dirt comes to the surface on their backs.. then I realized that it was from rolling.  :)  I'm just paranoid because a friend of mine found out that kids were riding her horses...... that would make me so angry!

And because you're never lonely with a pocket pony, here are some pictures of Mr. Busybody.  :)

 Kisses!

 Yawning.  I love how you can see his dished face against Faran's black coat.

These next two pictures cracked me up.  My hubby was leaning against a tree and Chrome walked over to him and leaned his head into his chest for hugs.

 

 It's hard to tell but he has his forehead against my hubby's shoulder and his nose tucked back along his chest.  So cute!
 

 And last a sneak around pocket check!  Told you he is a pocket pony.  :D

And very brown in these pictures for some reason......

So I'm not upset that Faran's pictures messed up because these are even cuter to make up for it.  My boys are so handsome!  Now the snow is melting and turning into lakes of mud....... yay......not!

It's Snowing!

We've been having icky, icy winter weather for days... that's why I haven't been taking pictures, but when the ice and rain turned to snow I had to get a few pictures.  I didn't get many and they aren't great because it was too cold to stay out for long.  It looks like all we will get is a light dusting on the ground, but it's going to be cold enough to stick around a while so I might try for more pictures later.... but I doubt it.  I've been cold all day and I just don't want to be out in it anymore than I have to.  I'm so ready for warmer weather.  I'm just not made for the cold lol.  Anyway, here are my cute boys.

 Faran looks so much like a Friesian when he raises his head up!

 Chrome's mohawk is getting so tall and cute, but it's laying over in the middle where his neck touches the hay ring.  :(  I wish we could afford one of the horse hay rings that they don't have to put their head under the bar instead of the cow version we have.  Oh well.  I will probably have to hog it again when summer gets here anyway.  For now I'll just trim it back down a little.  I LOVE how it's black at the roots and white at the tips.  Coolest mohawk ever!  :D

The funny thing is that in all of these pictures there are snow flurries coming down, but it doesn't show up from a distance.  It only shows up in the closeups like the one above, especially with the shadows behind him.  

 Chrome and I were hiding in the barn watching Zep.  This picture is from over Chrome's back. 

 The snow on Faran's back.

 Faran looks like a bobble head horse in this one hehe.

I walked all the way back to the house and then the snow really started to come down, so I zoomed the camera all the way in and got this last shot above.  It's blurry, but still cute!  He looks frosted hehe.

Well I'm going back to curl up in my electric blanket and wait for spring..... lol!