So here's a story for you. I'm out at the barn today trying to de-shed my monster, when I hear a man call out from across the pasture. His daughter wanted to feed the horses treats so I invited her to come around and over to the barn. I had Walker in the entryway of the barn, and I knew Koby wouldn't go over to the fence without Walker.
She gives all the horses treats and all is well. I return Walker to the pasture and I'm just getting ready to leave when I see the girl's father at the pasture fence. I assume he has treats too so I turn to leave when he climbs over the fence and into the pasture through 4 feet of snow.
The next thing I know he's calling out "Here, horsey horsey," and tweedle dee and tweedle dum come galloping straight at him.
I'm sorry. Call me old fashioned but when is it acceptable to just crawl into someone else's pasture like that. Who does that?
Naturally, I'm a little nervous. I mean, 30 minutes prior, Koby had almost trampled me in that very pasture. I may be over cautious, but there 's something about watching a one-eyed OTTB ex-eventer come galloping at a man with zero horse experience that puts a girl on edge.
I immediately go over to the fence and say that Koby, in particular, is unpredictable and horses, in general, are unpredictable and he needs to be careful.
What I should have said was: "Get the hell out of the field". But I was just so surprised that people are that stupid.
The man says to me just as confident as anything: "Oh don't worry. He likes me. He follows me around and everything. Watch."
No. I will not watch you die. He is not a dog. He follows you because you have food. He is a 1200 lb animal who would sooner kick you in the head than get within a foot of your daughter and that plastic bag she's whipping through the air, which incidentally, will be the cause of your untimely death.
What is wrong with people?
Anyway, the man ended up leaving and we called our barn owner who said she will go over and talk to them. I guess she had said that as long as someone was around, they could give the horses treats as long as they were cut up, etc. I guess horses are still a novelty to this neighborhood.
Well, move along, folks. Ain't nothing to see here.
Sunday, 29 March 2015
Thursday, 26 February 2015
Snow! Glorious Snow!
To understand what's going on in Atlantic Canada right now, I leave you with this photo someone posted on CBC:
And this link:
I have very little to add other than that my City entered a State of Emergency a while back, we got something like 11 feet of snow in a couple of weeks, I had to be dug out of my apartment building (doors push out and snowbanks to my second storey window), and Walker no longer thinks snow is that fun white stuff he can run through.
Wednesday, 11 February 2015
Sunday, 1 February 2015
My Apologies to Winter
My last post clearly angered the snow gods.
I apologize. You have more than made up for it.
Last week Walker was grazing.
This week the phrase "80 cm in 5 days" is being thrown around.
I guess that's checkmate.
Sunday, 25 January 2015
Weird Winter
There's not much new to report. I saw Walker for the first time in two weeks on Saturday. I managed to get sick and just couldn't shake it for about a week and a half. Luckily, he seemed to manage just fine without me.
Other than that, we seem to be having a weird winter here. It is neither cold nor snowy, which puts me on edge. I mean, Walker is still eating grass. In Atlantic Canada. In January.
I keep waiting for Armageddon or the end of the universe or something. This can't possibly be our Winter...
And the worst part is that if it is our Winter, I'm kicking myself because I'm not able to ride him in it! Just. My. Luck. For the first time in my life, the perfect Winter comes around and I'm just sitting on a couch eating nachos looking at pictures of my horse when we used to ride. Sigh.
As for lessons, I'm on a bit of a hiatus from them as well. I figured that if I decide to commit to driving 1 hour to lessons every couple weeks or so, I should at least wait until the worst months of Winter pass. It would suck even more if I could only go infrequently and the few times I did go got cancelled because of a storm.
In the meantime, I am still loving boxing, and I have taken up adult beginner ballet. I kid you not.
I'm now an equestrian boxing ballerina. Major street cred.
Other than that, we seem to be having a weird winter here. It is neither cold nor snowy, which puts me on edge. I mean, Walker is still eating grass. In Atlantic Canada. In January.
I keep waiting for Armageddon or the end of the universe or something. This can't possibly be our Winter...
And the worst part is that if it is our Winter, I'm kicking myself because I'm not able to ride him in it! Just. My. Luck. For the first time in my life, the perfect Winter comes around and I'm just sitting on a couch eating nachos looking at pictures of my horse when we used to ride. Sigh.
As for lessons, I'm on a bit of a hiatus from them as well. I figured that if I decide to commit to driving 1 hour to lessons every couple weeks or so, I should at least wait until the worst months of Winter pass. It would suck even more if I could only go infrequently and the few times I did go got cancelled because of a storm.
In the meantime, I am still loving boxing, and I have taken up adult beginner ballet. I kid you not.
I'm now an equestrian boxing ballerina. Major street cred.
Sunday, 18 January 2015
As Expected
Walker won.
We did not successfully deworm him.
I will need to get him checked in a month or so but we're just going to drop it. He successfully evaded our every attempts, and we ended up squirting the dewormer into oblivion before even getting the chance to twitch him.
We had been at it for 40 minutes anyway.
He continuously put his head up and down, and then when we tried to grab his lip to twitch him manually, he used that strong quarter horse neck of his to resist us. Which was fairly impressive.
Then I resorted to using treats to coax him to get near my hand so that I could grab his lip.
He countered by coming down for the treats, taking them at lightning speed and throwing his head back up.
Most horses would shy away from the treats after the first attempt of us trying to take advantage of him. But not Walker. He knew, of course, that he could take advantage of us. So he did.
He got his treats AND he didn't have to be dewormed.
Walker - 1. Natalie/Barn Owner/Barn Owner's Husband/Child Down the Street Enlisted to Hold the Treats - 0.
We did not successfully deworm him.
I will need to get him checked in a month or so but we're just going to drop it. He successfully evaded our every attempts, and we ended up squirting the dewormer into oblivion before even getting the chance to twitch him.
We had been at it for 40 minutes anyway.
He continuously put his head up and down, and then when we tried to grab his lip to twitch him manually, he used that strong quarter horse neck of his to resist us. Which was fairly impressive.
Then I resorted to using treats to coax him to get near my hand so that I could grab his lip.
He countered by coming down for the treats, taking them at lightning speed and throwing his head back up.
Most horses would shy away from the treats after the first attempt of us trying to take advantage of him. But not Walker. He knew, of course, that he could take advantage of us. So he did.
He got his treats AND he didn't have to be dewormed.
Walker - 1. Natalie/Barn Owner/Barn Owner's Husband/Child Down the Street Enlisted to Hold the Treats - 0.
Saturday, 10 January 2015
Deworming Prep
My barn owner is insisting we deworm Walker this weekend. I tried to get out of it by telling her that I normally get a fecal sample done and then let the vet tell me what to do. She countered by telling me that she spoke with a vet who thinks that the three boys should get done now and then maybe we'll be able to manage them and the fields so that it won't have to happen again for another year.
Solid reasoning. Except she has never given Walker dewormer.
And neither have I. Ever.
This is not to say that I have never had Walker dewormed. Oh, he has been dewormed. In the first year, my barn owner helped me. Those were the easy days when you could deworm him without even putting a halter on, but for whatever reason, I never did it myself.
In the second year, he got sick. That's when he started getting oral meds 2x a day by the vet and when he not so secretly vowed to never let another human near his mouth with a syringe.
Since then, only one person has ever been able to deworm him, and folks, it's not me.
My barn owner seems to think that as a team of three, we can deworm this horse. I just laughed and told her I'm buying a twitch. I'm hoping it won't come to that, but - well - it's probably definitely going to come to that.
Updates to follow. Probably from the hospital where I'll be having them relocate my shoulder or fix my broken nose.
Solid reasoning. Except she has never given Walker dewormer.
And neither have I. Ever.
This is not to say that I have never had Walker dewormed. Oh, he has been dewormed. In the first year, my barn owner helped me. Those were the easy days when you could deworm him without even putting a halter on, but for whatever reason, I never did it myself.
In the second year, he got sick. That's when he started getting oral meds 2x a day by the vet and when he not so secretly vowed to never let another human near his mouth with a syringe.
Since then, only one person has ever been able to deworm him, and folks, it's not me.
My barn owner seems to think that as a team of three, we can deworm this horse. I just laughed and told her I'm buying a twitch. I'm hoping it won't come to that, but - well - it's probably definitely going to come to that.
Updates to follow. Probably from the hospital where I'll be having them relocate my shoulder or fix my broken nose.
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