A Tail of Two Horses

A Play Day

2010-04-11T11:18:00.003-04:00

Tha boys had a play day in the round pen. We are letting them out to get a little grass so they can build up to being in the pastures all day.

They love each other and love to play:)

Remember when I talked about Vinnie being a mud monster? Yeeesh...first thing he did was roll in the mud. hat a dirty boy!

HI MOM!

Playing...they really do like each other. Savy just likes to be overly dramatic

Pretty boy.

Free Horse Cookies!

2010-04-07T09:46:00.002-04:00

Ann over at one of my favortie coupon blogs, Coupons deals & more, posted about a deal where you can get a free horse treat sample. Click above and check it out. I was excited because free horse stuff doesn't come along very often and who doesn't like free horse cookies!

Grab this button

The Best News EVER!

2010-03-30T16:46:00.003-04:00

We are soon-to-be land owners! We put in an offer on a piece of property two weeks ago and they accepted!

This is the house that is on the property, it's not in great shape but we plan on fixing it up. We really bought the property for the land. It's 130 acres of pure bliss and nature!

It's a deep piece of property with some wetlands in the back. Part of the property is already planted in hay:)

The huge barn on the property! The boys are going to love this place when we get it all fixed up!

I love that we are going to be surrounded by fields I want to turn the one on that side of the house into a pasture.

I cannot even express how excited we are! It's going to be a huge project but we have the time to fix it all and do it right. Now we just have to think of a name for our farm!

We went trail riding today:)

2010-03-27T21:47:00.003-04:00

Vinnie and I went out on our first trail ride of the year and got really muddy! I went with my regular girls and Leah, one of the younger girls from the barn came along too. We had a really great time and Vinnie was only a little rushy for his first ride out. He loves trail riding more than anything and would fly over all the trails if I let him.

Dee on Katie....she is a brave lady to ride this crazy horse. They do well together though.
Leah on her horse Silver. He looked like an appy when we were done with out ride.

Joanne on Rocky. Joanne is my barn buddy and the only other person in the barn that has a gaited horse.

I love Farmers Markets!

2010-03-21T19:40:00.003-04:00

Yesterday, hubby and I went to the farmers market. We have one close to us that is open all year round but I don't usually go in the winter because it's outdoors. We have had beautiful weather so I thought we would check it out and see what was there. There were not as many vendors there as there is in the summer but we got some great deals.

5# potatoes $2
3# carrots $1
2 red peppers $.66
1 garlic $.34

If you live in New York, this website is great to find a farmers market near you. I barely shop at the store during the summer because I can get everything so much cheaper:)

Some new pictures for you

2010-03-20T21:16:00.009-04:00

Savy and Vinnie's Home - The Draft Barn

The inside of the draft barn. Vinnie's stall is on the right and Savy's on the left.

Riding in the indoor. That's Anna on Toby:)

Dave on Justin. Dave and his wife have 13 horses at two different barns!

Some pictures of Savy in his new gear!

A new pic of me and Savy. His perked ears are so cute!

You want to know how I know it's Spring?

2010-03-17T21:06:00.004-04:00

My goose couple is back! They come back to our complex every year. It's just the two of them and they hang out near the playground and behind one the buildings when it rains and creates a mini lake. My husband gets annoyed because they like to sit on the top of the roofs of different buildings and squawk at each other...for some reason they really like our building to do this at. They drive him nuts! It just makes me laugh:)

The other reason I know it's spring? My horse was COVERED in mud today. Ohhhhh he was so dirty! Last summer, I laughed at my husband all the time because his horse Vinnie loves to take mud baths and he is always a mess. I think Vinnie has been egging Savy on. GRRRR! How many of you have a mud monsters?

Oh and anyone have any cute suggestions on what to name our goose couple? I've been trying to think of famous couple names all day. I will take any suggestions you've got!

Ahhh what an amazing day!

2010-03-17T01:35:00.003-04:00

The beautiful Sunset Behind our apartment today

It was so beautiful out today. 50 degrees and sunny is such a perfect combination! I practically ran home from work, threw on clothes so fast my husband thought I had an emergency and was out the door before he knew what was happening!

I spent lots of time pampering my boy and really cleaning him up good today. I think he enjoyed it because he was so well behaved on our ride today. I actually got him to slow down his trot and listen to my legs. I think we have the whole I'm-going-to-stop-in-the-middle-of-the-arena habit broken and together, I think we got some of our confidence back. I couldn't stop smiling:)

I am not used to this time change though! I usually leave the barn when the sun sets but today, I forgot about it being and hour later and didn't leave until 8 pm. We ended up eating dinner at almost 10:00! I had a very hungry husband when I came home. Oooops!

2 riding lessons under my belt and some thoughts on fear...

2010-03-09T10:16:00.003-05:00

Sunday I had my second riding lesson on Savy with Alisha. Originally, we were supposed to do more ground work this week, but after I told her that I had tried to ride on Tuesday and it was a horrible experience, she decided that we needed to have another under saddle lesson to trump the bad experience for both Savy and me.

Last Tuesday, I decided to get on Savy and do some of the work I learned with Alisha the Sunday before. It was not good. Savy was being a jerk and I wasn't sure how to combat it so I would over correct and confuse him, we were having a lot of communication problems. It finally got to the point where I was so frusterated that I felt defeated. I made sure we did one last lap of the arena without fighting and I got off early.

Driving home, all I could think about was wondering if I was in over my head. Was I really a good enough rider, good enough horse person to handle this horse. Yes, I love him dearly, but what if I wasn't enough to help him. Then I read one of my favorite blogs, Green 'n Green = Black n' Blue and she was talking about getting dumped by her horse. She was having the same thoughts about her green OTTB Denali. I realized that our relationship with our horses is kind of like any other relationship we have: some days are good, some days are bad (ok really bad) but we can't just give up on them because you have one bad day.

I know how far Savy and I have come since I bought him a year ago. He has taugh me so much and I have been forced to become a better horse-woman because of him. I need to get rid of this fear of being inadequate (which really is a constant theme in my life) and become confident in who I am and what I can do - what we can do together.

My lesson on Sunday went so much better. Alisha helped me to work on some correction issues and I could already see a difference in how Savy and I were working together, even after only 3 rides, though it wasn't perfect by any means. I told her about my fear of not being good enough and she looked at me and said, "If I didn't think you were a good enough rider to do this, I wouldn't have you up there right now." It's nice to have someone else reaffirm what I had been hoping was true. I can do this.

Do you have a minute?

2010-03-02T00:01:00.001-05:00

I have been working on a proposal to start a community garden at the apartment complex that I run and have applied, through Pepsi, for a grant to begin the project this summer. If you are willing, I would greatly appreciate it if you could take a minute and vote for my project using the widget above. The voting started today (March 1) and will go through the end of the month. The top 10 projects will receive the grant and it is totally based off of the number of votes. You can vote once each day - but even if you just want to vote one day, it would be a wonderful help! Also, please feel free to pass this on to anyone else that you think may be willing to help. Thank you so very much!

Beautiful Bloggers

2010-03-01T14:22:00.002-05:00

So I was given this award by Gen's mom over at A Horse and a Half. She has an awesome blog so I hope you check it out!

So the rules for this award are simple! Write 7 things about yourself and then pass is along to 15 bloggers!

Here are seven things you may not know about me:

1. I love to design wedding invitations. I designed the ones for our wedding and for my best friends wedding. I am currently designing ones for a co-workers wedding. It's only a side hobby but I love doing it and would love to open my own business some day.

2. I am a coupon junkie. That is actually what got me into blogging and I used to be really into blogging about deals that I got but I didn't really find that interesting. I love talking about my boys and my life more. But I still use my coupons every time I shop and I try not to spend more than $50 per week on groceries. My husband like to make fun of me...but really, he knows that my coupons enable us to keep our boys:)

3. I am going to the World Equestrian games in Kentucky in October and I am freaking out about it already! I am so excited to go and be around so many amazing equestrians!!!!!!!!!!!

4. I hate spiders and bats and will cry if I see one.

5. If I could live anywhere in the world, it would be in Michigan to be near our families but the economy is so crappy there that it is impossible to be there and have jobs. Buffalo is about the closest to home we will probably ever be again.

6. I love to sing and will do it without noticing. My office staff says they know when I am in a good mood because I sit in my office and sing in the mornings.

7. I love people! I love to sit and get to know them and hear thier stories. I really think everyone has an interesting life and have never met a person without some sort of story to be told.

So here are the bloggers I am giving this award to. They are all pretty amazing so I hope you check them out:

Pariah Pony - Elvis is an awesome Saddlebred!

Adventures in Saddlebred Land

Coupons, Deals and More - Only THE BEST coupon blog out there!

Cracker Dreams and Singlewide Wishes - Kar is crazy hilarious and makes the best out of every situation

From Racehorse to Showhorse - Wendy has two beautiful horses and I am excited to hear about her move to Kentucky

I is Roxie! - Roxie is such a cutie!

My Two Red Shoes - What an amazing Photographer who now has a beautiful little boy!

More Green for Less Green - My favorite green living blog

One Krusty Mama - One of the strongest women I know

Saddlebred in the Making - Louie is such a cutie!

The Grey Horse - William Pendleton is a cheeky fellow

The Fourth Door - One of my favorite renovation blogs

Naughty Horse

2010-02-28T20:53:00.003-05:00

Today I had my first riding lesson. Before this, all of our lessons with Alisha have been ground work. Alisha got on Savy first and rode him around. She said that my saddle fit him really well and it was made very well. It actually puts your legs in the correct position rather than most western saddles that force your legs out in front of you. Mine forces proper position with your feet underneath your butt.

So Alisha got to experience my naughty horse that hasn't been ridden in over six months. When I got on him on Tuesday, he was pulling this little trick where he would stop in the middle of the arena and just start backing up for no reason. Luckily, he tried to pull this while Alisha was on him.

So after 20 minutes, I got on him right about the time that Savy decided he was done working for the day. He was so bratty! And you could see it in his face and ears. He wasn't pinning his ears back but they were definitely back in a very bratty way and Alisha said he had this mischievous look on his face. He kept stopping by the mounting block as if to say, "ok mom, we are done now." Alisha had me squeezing until my legs cramped up until we got some forward motion. Ooooo...he was being such a big brat! We decided not to stop working until he stopped thinking about stopping in the middle and after 45 minutes, we finally got lots of forward motion with no stops. What a little punk! We definitely have a lot of work ahead of us.

It is here and it fits!!!

2010-02-25T10:04:00.004-05:00

And it's gorgeous too! I got a plantation style saddle since it's about the closest thing to an english saddle I can get that will fit Savy well. It's really comfortable and it fits so well! The saddle guy suggested I get a skito pad that has 1/4" to 1/2" padding in the whither area just because of the hallows he has behind his shoulders. It is slowly filling in as he put on more muscle but the saddle tips forward just slightly when I sit in it because of that.

So what do you think? Anyone have any expereince with skito pads or know where to get one for a good price?

I just think it's awesome and I am super excited!! I rode Savy for an hour. I can tell he is pretty out of practice when it comes to under saddle (which is understandable) so I know we have a lot of work ahead of us. But I am totally ready for it!!!

Do you know what today is??

2010-02-23T10:31:00.002-05:00

I get my new saddle today!!!! After over a year, I should be able to ride Savy in a saddle that fits him for the first time!!!!! I can't wait!!!!!!!!! (can you tell I'm excited?)

What we did on Saturday!

2010-02-22T11:14:00.002-05:00

Kyle and I went to a winter festival on Saturday. The only reason I went? To go on the horse drawn sleigh ride of course! These two beautiful boys are Wooody and Charles. 18 hh, 2200 lbs and amazingly friendly percherons:) It was my first horse drawn sleigh ride. I have been on carriages and wagons before, but not a sleigh. We were given a big fuzzy blanket to cuddle under and it was just an amazing time.

I have an afinity to percherons. The summer of my junior year of college, I spent the summer as a bed maker at a bed & breakfast on Mackinac Island. If you have never been there, you should visit sometime. It is a horse lovers dream. It's an island inbetween the lower and upper penninsula of Michigan and there are no motorized vehicles allowed on the island, only bikes and horses. Everything is done with horse power from taxis to UPS delivery...it's amazing! Anyway, I also taught lessons to the 4-H kids on the island for the summer and all summer, I rode a percheron/thoroughbred name Sonata. She was an incredibly talented dressage/jumper. My best memories of that summer include riding her for hours around the island until sunset, going swimming with her and playing around on the jump trails on the island. It was such an awesome summer! Ahh memories....

Last But Not Least...

2010-02-17T13:40:00.004-05:00

Meet Harry!Harry is our Fancy Rat. We got him this past fall from my mom. She had been in a pet shop back in Michigan when a lady brought him in to be fed to the snakes. Apparently, he had been her mother's pet and when her mother was put in a nursing home, she didn't know what to do with him. (I won't go into how disgusted I am that this woman decided that her mother's pet should become snake food.) My mom took him before the people at the pet store knew what was happening and as she did her shopping, he just rode around on her shoulder.

He is such an awesome rat. He is incredibly smart and comes to his name when you call him. He loves to run around the in the kitchen when I am cooking and we are working on getting him litter trained. I love him dearly and am so happy that we got to give him a new home:)

Harry is offering you a piece of zuchini:)

Well Hello!

Happy Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras/Shrove Tuesday/Pancake Tuesday

2010-02-16T09:29:00.002-05:00

Which ever way you wish to celebrate today - it is a day of celebration all around the world! I bought my staff Paczki's this morning and half of them had no idea what they were. That's what I get for being from Michigan. Hamtramck has the largest paczki celebration that we used to go to. I miss the homemade ones that we used to get.

I assume that the Mardi Gras in New Orleans will be fabulous, especially considering all they have to celebrate with the Saints winning the suepr bowl. And at my Lutheran Church back home, they will have thier annual pancake dinner where they raise money for Lutheran Social Services. There are so many traditions that I miss.

So which ever way you choose to celebrate, I hope everyone has a very fun and blessed day!

Goals for 2010

2010-02-15T11:15:00.000-05:00

Being a Student Affairs Professional, I have had lots of practice setting goals for myself and helping students set goals for things they want to achieve. I like to make sure my goals are specific and I can outline what steps I will take to achieve them as well as how I will measure that the goal has been completed.

So with that in mind, these are my goals for Savy for this year:

1. At the end of this year, Savy should be able to do a walk to canter transition on the correct lead in both directions on the lunge line and under saddle.

How to Achieve: Continue to work on lunging transitions with Savy at least 3 times per week and begin to work on under saddle transitions at least 1-2 times per week. Under saddle transition work should increase to at least 3 times per week by July.
Specific Measurable Outcome: After a good warm-up on the lunge line, Savy should be able to do a walk to canter transition on the correct lead on the first request in both directions. He then should be able to be tacked up and asked for the same walk to canter transition under saddle and be able to pick it up on the first request.

2. By the end of October, Savy should be able to go on a successful trail ride.

How to Achieve: Continue to work on desensitization work in arena. By May, this work should be moved outdoors to the back field. Desensitization work should be done at least 2 times per week. In May, begin to take short trail rides, gradually increasing the distance and diversity of locations at least once per week.
Specific Measurable Outcome: By October, I should be able to take Savy on 2 - 3 mile trail ride without any spooking or refusals.

3. By the end of this year, Savy should have a noticable amount of muscle built up in his chest, shoulders and hind end.

How to Achieve: Continue to work on long lining and driving using techniques that Alisha has shown us. We should be doing a good work out in hand or under saddle at least 4 - 5 times per week.
Specific Measurable Outcome: Compare pictures taken in February to pictures taken in November. There should be a noticable difference in muscle mass and overall tone.

4. By the end of this year, I should be able to have complete control over Savy's trot speed on the lunge line and under saddle.

How to Achieve: Continue to work on the lunge line for responsiveness. Work up to responsiveness under saddle controling the speed with my seat and posting speed.
Specific Measurable Outcome: I should be able to control Savy's trot in time to the beat of music.

5. By the end of this year, Savy should be able to successfully complete a side pass.

How to Achieve: Continue to stretch out Savy's hips using different techniques on the ground. Introduce him to side passing under saddle and continue to work on understanding the commands.
Specific Measurable Outcome: I should be able to have Savy side pass under saddle down the long side of the arena.

So...let me know what you think. And if you have any suggestions or specific exercises that might help with my goals, please bring them on! We need all the advice and help we can get:)

Busy weekend

2010-02-14T21:07:00.002-05:00

Friday was my birthday so I spent the day getting pampered and with my favorite boys. I got my hair done - it had been soo long since I had anything done with it. Then I spent the rest of the day at the barn. That evening, Kyle and I went to the Buffalo Chop House for dinner. Absolutely amazing!! Best steak dinner I have had in a while! We also went to see Valentine's Day. Definitely a movie that would be good to rent if you really want to see it.

This weekend we went to Niagara-on-the-lake for a weekend of wine and chocolate. We went to 22 different wineries in 2 days! It was awesome and we came home today with 8 bottles of wine. So I think I'm going to crack one open now. Hope you all had a great weekend!

Meet Hermione

2010-02-10T11:54:00.004-05:00

This is Hermione

She is our Hedgehog. Hermione was born on our wedding day, June 16, 2007 and we adopted her when she was 3 months old. She is a love bug who likes to cuddle up with me on the couch and loves to nestle in our electric blanket. She can be a grump when she is first woken up, but hey...so am I. I love my little bug!

Eating some yummy meal worms.

Looking so cute!

Anyone know anything about real estate?

2010-02-09T17:26:00.002-05:00

So we found a piece of property that we were interested in going to see. It's being sold as two separate pieces but the owner wants to sell them together. I called the listing agent who enthusiastically set up a showing for us with the owner of the property on Thursday. After asking him some questions, it was clear that he was not very knowledgeable on the buying or selling of large pieces of property (we are talking about almost 130 acres).

I have been looking for a while for a certified land consultant because buying land is a much bigger process than just buying a house and I wasn't sure of all the right questions to ask. There are seriously none around here...zip, zero, zilch. I have looked, absolutely nada. So I expanded my scope and found someone 3 hours away. On the off chance that they might help us, I called him up. Very nice guy, very knowledgeable - exactly what we need and more than willing to help. I told him that we had a showing on Thursday and I would get back in touch with him if, after seeing the place, we were truly interested. You know, I didn't want him to have to drive three hours out here if we saw the inside of the house and it was in shambles and the barn was falling down and we hated it.

So the listing agent was sending me an email with more specifics on the property and when I got it, I asked if he minded if I sent the information on to this agent who was helping us. The next email I got said that he was canceling the appointment for Thursday and we could have our agent call and schedule a showing. WTF? Now I sit here dumbfounded. I mean, doesn't he want the place to sell? Anyone have any insight into the real estate world?

Savy's Progress part 4 - The Saddle

2010-02-08T14:00:00.007-05:00

Check out the withers on this boy! I have been fighting to find a saddle to fit him since we bought him last January. I initially tried my wintec with the adjustable gullet. It really didn't fit well, it sat very downward in the back and gave hardly any clearance in the withers. After the first declaration of soundness from Dr. Hunt, I searched for a new saddle. I found a saddle seat saddle and decided to try it out on him. It fit ok, but not great and I wasn't really happy with how far back it put me on his back. I don't think he was meant to be a saddle seat horse. This is where the trip down to the southtowns came in.

Myself and Joanne, another lady at the barn who had just purchased a gaited horse and was struggling with saddle fit, decided to trailer our boys down to this tack shop and have them fitted. The shop doesn't do custom down to the tree, but they have lots of options for different types of trees and have a good reputation for finding saddles to fit horses. We were concerned because we knew that fitting a gaited horse is very different than just a regular old quarter horse but were assured that the girl doing our fitting had gaited horses and was very familiar with fitting them with a saddle. Joanne took Rocky, a rocky mountain gaited, and I took Savy and we headed on our way down.

Rocky was fitted first. They had a really hard time finding a saddle that fit well and they finally tried a saddle that was one of thier own brand with a medium tree and they decided that it fit. Awesome right? Joanne wanted to try riding in the saddle but they said that they couldn't because the saddle they used had actually been sold already so she just had to go on faith that it fit and place the order if she wanted it. Next Savy came up. Miraculously, the same saddle fit Savy too! I should have known something was up when this happened because Rocky and Savy are two very differently built horses. I wish I had a picture to show you how different but Savy is a 17hh Saddlebred with high withers, a back that is lean at the shoulders and a lot wider at his butt, and hallows behind his withers. Ricky is a 15 hh Rocky mountain horse with a fairly even roundness all the way down his back and is significantly wider at his shoulders than Savy. But we trusted these people who were supposed to be the experts and placed our orders for our saddles.

Fast foward past the aginizing trailer expereince to the day before the clinic. Joanne and I were both taking our horses to the clinic and our saddles came in the day before. We went and picked them up and immediatly took them back to the barn. I put mine on Savy and immediatly knew something was wrong. The gullet was resting directly on his withers...there was no clearance at all! I didn't even bother to get on because I knew it would only cause pain for Savy. Joanne put her saddle on Rocky and everything seemed ok....until she got on him. Rocky started bucking and we knew that there was a problem with her saddle as well.

We both took our saddles to the clinic the next day to see what everyone there had to say and as soon as I put the saddle on Savy, everyone standing around said they could see it didn't fit him. Rocky's saddle wasn't as evident but it turns out that it was too narrow along his spine and was pinching and hitting in all the wrong places. Needless to say, Joanne and I were incredibly dissapointed.

Now a word about the place where we got the saddles. Luckily, they have a beautiful return policy on saddles. You have 10 days to return any saddle for any reason and that trial period can be extended if need be. I don't want to mention the name of the place because I don't want to give them bad press because of my bad experience. Another girl at our barn had a great experience with them and her Quarter horse who had really wide shoulders (the horse is a tank). Do I think that this tack shop can fit saddles? Sure...I have heard of plenty of success stories of people finding the right saddle for thier horse but I don't think they know enough to fit gaited horses. Do I think they push thier own brand of saddle on purpose? Definitely. I have it on good authority that they make 50% profit off of their saddles where as they might only make the standard 25% off of another brand. Would I recommend someone else going there? If you have a gaited horse, no. If you have a standard quarter, appy or something that is still a little hard to fit, maybe. Depends on whether you have the time to trailer your horse down there and it depends on the fitter. I would only ever suggest anyone use the owner or his wife as they seem to be where the success stories come from. Do I still shop there for other horse related items? Of course I do. It was a bad experience and I was mad but I understand that my horse is hard to fit and gaited horses specifically can be difficult. I should have found a gaited horse saddle fitter to begin with.

And that's exactly what Joanne and I did. A lady at the clinic has gaited horses and suggested a guy named John. He works with a company called Allegany Mountain Trail Saddles and actually lives only 10 minutes from our barn. John came out and measured both Savy and Rocky. It turned out that he had a saddle with him that already fit Rocky well so Joanne just bought that off him. John has lots of expereince with gaited horses as he owns a few himself so he taught about the fit of a gaited saddle and also worked with Joanne on learning Rockys gaits. He has been awesome to work with. Because of Savy's high whithers (need another visual?)....

.....we had to have a tree specially made. He had a tree form with him that fit is back but there still was not enough clearance for his withers. He made an order for the tree and had them add 2" to the fork to make it high enough for my funny shaped boy. The tree came in three weeks ago and John brought it out to try on him. First I have to tell you, Savy thought the tree was going to eat him and had a very funny reaction to it - but after the initial snorting and side-eye, John put it on him and it looked great. I got the chance to customized the saddle down to the color of the leather and the leather detail. It was pretty cool. I am getting a plantation style saddle without a horn and with english style leathers. It will be similar the the one below but in a chestnut brown.

I am still not totally convinced that this will fit him just because it would be too good to be true if it does, but I really hope it does because I am other wise out of options. The saddle should be ready sometime towards the end of this month so I will keep you all updated on how it goes.

And now, you are all caught up on Savy and my crazy ride with him over this last year:) I think sometime this week, I am going to make goals for this year because I have a lot I still want to acomplish with my crazy horse:)

Savy's Progress part 3 - The training

2010-02-07T21:58:00.003-05:00

Savy in one of our lunging lessons

So Alisha and I started this fall working with Savy. Each lesson, she would work with him for the first half hour and then the second half hour she would teach me the techniques to continue working with him during the week. Every week I had homework and I tried to make sure Savy and I worked 4 - 5 time per week on top of the hour lesson.

The first thing Alisha said we had to work on was Savy respecting me. Although we had a bond, he pushed me around a lot and had no respect for my personal space. We worked on the respect issues and that lead to the lunging issues. Apparently, when he didn't respect me, he decided what he wanted to do and when which was why I was having issues with the lunging. It wasn't long before we had him lunging and starting to build muscle. I also learned how to do long lining and driving which were basics that I could use for many different exercises to work on his hips and sacrum.

By the end of October, we had him to a point where he wasn't showing any soreness during our workouts and had built up some good muscle. I had Dr. Hunt come back for a follow up and she told me she never thought she would see him as sound as he was. That was the most awesome thing I had ever heard! She told me he should be up for some light riding to help continue with building his conditioning. I danced that day!:)

It was at this point that I decided to trailer Savy to a tack store down south of us to get him fitted for a saddle. (I'll talk more about my saddle woes in part 4). I went through the issues of getting him into the trailer, got him down there and fitted and went to get him back into the trailer to go home and he wouldn't get in. I don't know what happened but I think he had just had it with getting into the small two horse trailer. With the way he was acting, I was afraid to force him into the trailer again for fear of making the situation worse. After four and a half hours of trying everything I could think of, we had to leave him there until I could come back the next day with Alisha and a bigger trailer. This was the worst day I have ever had with Savy. As the hours wore on, I became a mess and felt like a failure. A failure to myself and my horse.

Alisha and I came back down the next day and she worked with him for two hours before we got him onto the large stock trailer and took him back home. The entire experience was expensive and exhausting. The next week in our lesson, we worked on trailering as I was supposed to be taking Savy to a clinic Alisha and her partner were doing the following week. She told me that we wanted Savy to feel like the trailer was a safe place so when we wasn't in the trailer, we made him work hard outside of the trailer so he would want to be in the trailer where he didn't have to work. Pretty soon, we had him walking on and off the trailer with no problems.

The day of the clinic came and it only took me 10 minutes of approach and retreat to get Savy on the trailer. There were no issues, no balking, nothing. Another victory! At the clinic that day, Alisha took it one step further and we even taught him how to self load. It was amazing to think that only two weeks ago he had refused for four hours. We also did a ton of desensitization exercises at the clinic which my high strung horse needed a lot.

Right after thanksgiving, Savy came up lame again. Dr. Hunt came out and said she thought he strained his stifle - probably running around in the field since he had been fine the day before. She did some chiropractic work and said to do some light walking. He was improving slightly and because it was around the holidays and we were going to be gone for a week, we decided to bute him for the week we were gone and put him on stall rest. I came back the following week and he seemed to be doing much better. Not 100%, but probably about 85% better. I had Dr. Hunt out again who was amazed at how quickly he had healed as a stifle injury can have a horse out for a few months. She did some aqua-puncture on him which is acupuncture where she inserted some B-12 in and left. Two days later, Aslisha and I had our next lesson. Savy was at 99%! It was amazing how well the final treatment had worked.

This leads us to where we are today. Savy and I have been working on more driving and long lining. We have just started working on transitions - specifically walk to canter transitions on the lunge line. He has an issues of misfiring while in the canter and has a very difficult time picking up the right lead from the walk. This is because he has a bit of a lazy right foot. Like I said, his movements were a mess when I first got him and we have basically had to retrain him to use his body correctly when moving. Our next challenge will be to start working with him under saddle. First, I have to get a saddle....

To be continued.......

Savy's progress part 2 - The trainer

2010-02-05T09:23:00.004-05:00

So when I said before that Savy would not lunge...I am dead serious. He would just stand there and look at me. I would crack the whip - no reaction. I would smack him in the butt with it - no reaction. It was the most bizarre thing I have ever seen. I do know part of the problem was with me as well, I honestly had never lunged a horse before (let alone long lined or drove) and after a few failed attempts by different people at the barn, I decided I needed to get some professional help. I stopped taking my riding lessons because, well, I wasn't really riding a whole lot anyway and I needed the money to hire a trainer.

I had lots of suggestions for trainers from different people but with all of them - I would have had to send Savy away to another barn to be worked with. Now I will admit something about my self here (a little real life confession) - I am a bit of a control freak. Ask my husband or any of my co-workers...it's true *hangs head*. So I didn't like the idea of sending him away for two reasons. One, I want to have control over Savy's training. Especially if I am working with someone I don't know very well, I am not just going to send my injured horse off to some other farm. I have heard way to many horror stories of issues with horses at trainers and although I know that not every trainer is like that, I also feel like the best way to combat that type of situation happening to you is to be overly cautious. The second reason is that I really want to be involved in his training. I don't like the idea of sending a horse away and then they come back all nice and ready to go. I want to put the work in, I want the sweat and tears to be mine. I want to put that investment into the relationship I have with my horse. And, I want to learn really badly.

So because of that and because I am not made of money to trailer my horse once a week to a trainer - I had the challenge of finding someone who would come out the the barn and work with us there. You have no idea how hard it is to find someone to do this. I contacted every trainer that someone suggested - I went online and started googling trainers in our area and email them. Finally a got a positive response.

Alisha came out to meet with me mid August. I told her about the issues I had been having with him and she listened. She spent some time looking at him and working with him. She was extremely gentle and Savy seemed to respond to her right away. She told me that her philosphy of training is based on natural horsemanship and she believes in interacting with horses based on thier natural instincts. I liked her instantly. I later learned that another woman from my barn had worked with her to help train a previous horse and highly reccomended her.

So we set up a time everyweek to get together. She understood my need to learn how to do the training techniques and actually encouraged it. She said she would rather see me become successful with Savy and felt like, because we had such a great bond, he would respond faster to the training. So beginning of September, Savy and I started our training.

To be continued.....

Savy's progress part 1 - the search for a solution

2010-02-04T10:24:00.007-05:00

Savy the first day after we brought him home.

I keep saying to myself everyday that I work Savy, "I cannot believe we have come so far." I mentioned to another blogger the other day that when I first bought Savy, I wanted a project horse but I really had no idea what I was getting myself into.

When we brought Savy home last February, we could not get him into the trailer. By the time we made the 50 minute drive home, he was soaked in sweat and a nervous wreck. Over the next few weeks, I came to a realization that this horse had never had any formal training and his movements were a mess.

Over the winter, I spent a lot of time just getting to know him and not riding. I really had no idea what I was doing because I had never trained a horse before but I figured it couldn't hurt to just spend time with him - he felt like a lost puppy who was just looking for a friend. Looking back now, even though I was clueless, I think it was the best thing I could have done because Savy and I are incredibly bonded and he trusts me instrinsicly.

In about April, I began to ride him more and realized that we had a bigger problem on our hands. I originally thought it was the saddle (which is a whole other story in itself) but after I had the chiropractor out, I realized that our problems were bigger than a saddle. The first chiropractor that I had out said that his hip was completely out of place. He did some adjustments and Savy seemed better.

But after a couple weeks, I realized that something was still wrong. A friend from the barn suggested a vet in the next county who is supposedly a leg expert and works on a lot of racehorses across New York state. She volunteered to drive Savy and I to this vet (he is only at his house 1 weekend a month and all visits have to come to him). This was one of the worst experiences that I have had with Savy since I have owned him. He was so worked up from being in the trailer (which we had to force him into again - another story for later) that he wouldn't calm down enough for the vet to look at him. The vet basically refused to do anything with him at which point I had a minor breakdown because I had no idea what I was going to do. I wanted so badly to make my horse better but he was getting in his own way. The vet allowed me to put him in a stall to try to get him to calm down. He did a bit, but still was so worked up that they vet ended up giving him a minor tranquelizer to get him to a point where he could approach him. Looking back on the situation, the guy was trying to work on the horses in his garage...with all this equipment and a car right there. I'm sure it looked like a horrible cave of doom to Savy with tons of objects that were going to eat him...not exactly the best enviroment for a high strung horse. It was also raining that day and there was no cover at this guys house other than the garage...it was miserable. I wasn't pleased with what this vet said. He said he didn't see anything wrong with him and that he might just be a bit sore. He suggested I put him on a regiment of Bute and also suggested that I think about putting him on a constant regiment of this mild dose tranquelizer to calm him down.

Leaving there, I was so drained and had no idea what to do next. I was hopeful that the vet was right and that he was just sore. Now, I have always been the sort of person to research anything that a medical professional tells me before I blindly follow what they say...and I am so glad that I did. Everything I read said that a constant regime of bute can cause stomach issues with horses. I decided to do a week of the bute and see how he was doing. No change. This is when I started reseaching his symptoms. I found information that I felt matched what was going on. It seemed that Savy had really never been taught how to use his body properly and being a tall, lanky 17 hh, he had been carrying himself inverted which had caused pain in his hind end. I decided to continue on my quest to find a vet or chiropractor who could help me.

I went with a different chiropractor (Dr. Hunt) who was recommended by another person in our barn. This was the second best decision I have ever made in regards to him. I love our chiropractor! She is an actual DVM (which the other chiropractor was not) but she also uses herbal remedies so her catalog of treatments is vast and varies. This is nice because if one treatment isn't successful, she usually has another trick up her sleave. Now, just a note about the other chiropractor that I used. I do believe he was correct in his diagnosis, but the more I learn and research about horse chiropractic, the more I realize that it is beneficial to have some who is a DVM. They have the knowledge and school to realize wether a problem is chiropractic or some other health related issue. They also the ability to prescribe medication, which is extremely helpful.

Dr. Hunt diagnosed him with a strained sacrum as well as his hip being out again (which is why I fell like the first chiro got it partially right). Holy cow! Doing more research, everything I read about a strained sacrum matched what I had observed in Savy. They did some adjustments and some acupuncture (which I swear by) and set up another appointment to come back in three weeks to take a look at him. Her instructions for me were to put some weight on him, put some muscle on him and do lots of hand driving to build up his back end. She said that if I expected it to heal at all, we had to build up those muscles to hold his hip in place because it had probably been out for quite a while and when that happens, it makes it easier for it to go out again.

I felt so bad for my buddy! I think he was in pain for quite a while and no one had noticed it until I bought him.

So now it was time for his rehabilitation/ physical therapy. Little did I know, not only did my bubba not want to do hand driving, he had no idea how to do it, OR how to lunge and would not respond to a crop what-so-ever. By the way, it was now July and I had only ridden my horse a handful of times.

To be continued....

Dream Barn

2010-02-03T15:52:00.002-05:00

Check out the barn with this house for sale. Now the house...I could leave it. Not really my style. A little to much mansion, not enough farm house (well really none at all). But the barn....ohhh the barn. I covet this barn. I would just buy the barn and live in it. Am I crazy? Yes but it's beautiful.

A Tail of Two Horses

2010-02-03T15:43:00.002-05:00

Something happened to my last two blogs and I kind of gave up on trying to fix it. Welcome to my new, less intense blog. Things have been busy around our house and there have been lots of changes and new things happening. Can't wait to get it all out soon.