artsiehorse

 I am sad. Very sad. I had to make the decision to sell one of my 2 babies.  Financial strain has forced me to make this tough decision. Making the choice of "who should go" is not one I wanted to make, but finally I just can't justify the expense anymore. The hardest part was pitting one horse against the other in my head while trying to choose.

Joker is a teddy bear who follows you around the field and would hold your hand if he could. Spirit is stand-offish in the field, kind of hard to catch, but sweet once she's haltered.  

Spirit is ultra-responsive under saddle, Joker is a bit of a lug.

Joker is taller and feels more like a horse when ridden. Spirit is handy and quick, really "fun" to ride.

I can breed Spirit someday, but, well, not Joker.

Joker is a bit accident prone, Spirit is sound as anything.  

Joker thinks things through, Spirit reacts.

The final verdict was that Joker costs more all around. He eats more, his supplements cost more, VET BILLS, broken fences, Ug! It shouldn't matter. But it does. I've had him since he was a yearling all gawky and awkward, and he's grown into a handsome "young man."

I just placed an ad on Equine.com. and keep looking back at it hoping I don't sell him to the wrong person. What if the person who buys him doesn't understand his need to look at things for a full 5 minutes before he trusts them? What if his new owner pushes him too hard and he gets sour? What if the new person doesn't have quiet hands and ruins his mouth? What if he ends up just another lawn ornament ignored and abandoned to the weather?  What if.......  I still can't believe I did it.

But then again, he may not sell for a reaaaaaaaaaaaaaally long time. Which would be good (for my heart) and bad (for my checkbook). 

I had to call the vet today. My gelding Joker got his leg tangled up in a barbed wire fence a couple of days ago. He has puncture wounds and a tear on the inside of his foreleg above the knee. I had flushed it with peroxide when it was fresh and wrapped it. Yesterday it was a little swollen, but not bad, so I did the same thing again. This morning it was oozing and swollen from the tear to his knee and he seemed to be limping a bit. I called the vet and we agreed to meet at my place at noon (my lunch hour). By the time I  got back the leg was swollen from below the knee to near his elbow. My vet gave him banamine, penicillin, and bute immediately and some oral antibiotics to put on his food for the next 5 days.

Before you say, "Don't you know better than to keep a horse in barbed wire!!". Yes, I do. We moved into this house (a rental) and property this summer. Before we moved in there was barbed wire above the sheep fence - a wonderful combination, I know. The landlords very nicely took down the top strand of barbed wire and traded it with electric wire. I was sure that would keep Joker away from the sheep fence. (yeah, right)

Joker's history with fences starts long ago when he decided he wanted to be a jumping horse. When I got him he was boarded in a big pasture with 2 other horses including my mare, Spirit. The dividing fence between their pasture and the next was a post and rail about 4 feet tall. Joker was only a yearling at the time but somehow he got the notion that 4 feet wasn't all that tall and kept jumping into the other pasture. Luckily the boundary fence was taller!

So, then they moved to another pasture that had sheep fence on the bottom and a wooden rail on the top. It was about 5 1/2 feet tall so I figured we were safe from his jumping antics. And we were.

But!  You know the grass is always greener on the other side. As he got bigger and stronger he repeatedly leaned on the wood rail until it snapped and then bent the sheep fence until he could reach the grass on the other side. I think I was fixing that stinking fence every other week! He even broke down the fence next to the stable owner's raspberry bushes and ate all the leaves off of one side. I was in the dog house for that one. I decided we should probably find a new home for my kids when after breaking the rail yet again, both Joker and Spirit pulled shoes in the fence!

When we moved into this house I thought I'd found the answer. Electricity! I just knew he wouldn't lean on an electric fence.....

I have seen him steal Spirit's hay from her side of the fence while leaning on the wire, bending it severely, while twitching! Occasionally he steps away to "shake it off" then goes back for more. I swear this guy is a glutton for punishment.

Back to the present. When I saw the marks on his leg I knew right away it was from barbed wire. But, all the barbed wire was supposed to be gone. I thought maybe there was a strand in the grass I hadn't seen before that he had kicked up. I walked all over the 3 acre pasture trying to find the barbed wire. There was none on the ground anywhere.

Then I walked the fence line. There it was. A six foot section of strait barbed wire along the back section of fence. 4 strands of it. I'm guessing he stepped through it to get closer to the "greener" grass.

How did I not notice this before? I'd walked that fence at least 4 times to check the electric wire when I thought it had been grounded out. I guess I just wasn't looking down. I don't know why it was left there when all the other was taken down. There's even an extra roll of fencing in the shed. I guess I'll have to fix that.

I can't wait to buy a place so I can get a 6 foot metal pole fence with diamond mesh reinforcement!  

Oh, and did I say he can untie knots and open stall doors?
 

Ok, so here's the deal. I am reposting what is on my bio for my first blog because... well I wrote a lot and it says it all about for right now. I'll be updating periodically  to let you know how our training is doing. (If anyone cares)

 I have been riding since I was itty bitty! I started when I was about 6 or 7 without proper lessons on a borrowed Shetland Pony that I rode in a halter and lead rope all over my parents friends field. (what were they thinking!)
Then I convinced my mom that I needed to ride a REAL horse and started taking barrel racing lessons when I was 8.
We move a year later and the closest place with horses was a hunter/jumper barn. So, that is where I was every weekend. I rode hunters until I was 18 with my gelding Barney, an appendix Quarter Horse. He was not exactly a conformation hunter! But he was an excellent eq mount.

Then college, and kids, and jobs.....

After 11 years off I now am ready for a new challenge..... Eventing! I've started riding and even training again 3 years ago and I am going to try a mini-event next summer (2008). Two years ago I was given a Quarter Horse mare named Spirit. She was a 4 year old, small(now only 14.3hh), skittish, unbroken thing. But I could see that she wanted to trust me. And she was gorgeous! She is going to be my Eventing partner.

When I got her we were both unsure of what we where doing. She has taught me a lot in the way of patience. She was deathly afraid of the brush bucket and would pull back when I attempted to comb her mane. The first time I longed her with the saddle on.... well lets just say I was left in the dust for about 10 minutes while she raced around bucking and streaming the longe line behind her. I knew she was going to be a challenge. Even her shoer said he had to tie her down the first time he trimmerd her! Luckily, her trust and tolerance have improved greatly. She's even a pretty steady trail horse now.

I had helped start youngsters before but never all on my own, and never from the ground up! The tykes I'd helped with before always seemed so sane compared to her as well. I've done all her training myself so far -with the help of many professionals by way of Practical Horseman, Equus, and various other books- so... any mistakes or bad habits we have acquired are surely my fault!
She has made me remember all the lessons my wise and wonderful trainers pounded into me over my teenage years. You know, the ones that make you roll your eyes and go, "Yeah, I know..." Children's trainers never get the "thank you"s they deserve.

As crazy as this all is, I also now have a 3 year old Appendix gelding named Joker that I'm starting as well. He is going to be a bigger boy than Spirit. The last time I measured him he was 15.3hh. He is such a apt student! It has been much easier going with him than it was with Spirit due to his calm easy-going nature. Though he does occasionally feel the Thoroughbred in him a bit much for my liking! They are so opposite it's unreal.
 
So, that's where I am right now....