Who really knows?

I know I haven't posted much lately on either blog about riding, driving or even the horses in general. Why is that? Well there are a number of reasons, one of which being time. Time to post, not much time to ride or drive and recently because a lot of things (life!) has been "a hot, sticky mess" (and not in a good way) that I haven't exactly wanted to share with the world. I just don't necessarily get into the whole idea of this being a blog about everything that happens in my life and all of the things wrong in the world or at least my little corner of it. No pity party or riding the whhhaaambulance here.

To be honest, when the girls and I moved to Houston back in February, horse and pony included, my mare didn't handle the trip all that well. Sure she was bred in Washington state and had traveled down to AZ to start her life as a race horse and after that didn't work out, she left the track to live with a new owner (K) who later sold her to (L) and she traveled from the Scottsdale/ Rio Verde area across town to Queen Creek to spend time there before I bought her. She made the short trip home with me 12 years ago this month, and pretty much never left. I did take her to a couple of schooling shows and had hauled her with Kat for those, but it was a short 20 minute trip on the road, 1 or 2 classes in hand and back home again. Nothing major, no big deal. For the most part she never left the property and she was comfortable there.

When traveling long distances, sometimes horses will go off their feed, they won't drink and they are on edge because they are stressed out about things. This was my mare. In the trailer, she didn't eat much and didn't drink at all the first day. I'm not sure if or how much she drank at the barn where I overnighted them, but it wasn't until late in the afternoon the following day on the road, that she finally began to drink again. By that point between not drinking, not eating and being stressed, she had dropped weight. I'm not going to guess how much, but it was enough that when we arrived and I got her off the trailer, her ribs were showing and it was pretty obvious.

We had gotten in late and after getting everything situated for the night, I fed and watered them one last time and went inside to bed myself. My mare tore up the grass in the back yard pretty good where she was obviously bouncing around quite a bit during the night. This didn't help with the weight loss either.

The next few months being at a new barn, my mare was quite wound to put it mildly. She paced in the stall and taking her out to lunge her or do anything really, she acted as if she had no respect for anything or anyone. Walking out to the grass area where I worked her, she tried to blow past me, circle around me, was constantly moving and never really quiet or relaxed.

She also had become Very attached to the pony. If I took him out, she literally wrecked the stall and screamed her head off the whole time he was out. If I took her out, she was constantly trying to look back to the stalls, get back to the stalls and screaming her head off the whole time. That shit gets old really fast. Even moving Kat to a different stall didn't help. He didn't care, but she never would settle down.

I had brought feed with me to hold them over long enough that I could not only find a feed store, but also to help transition the horses over to whatever new feed I found. I had a couple bales of alfalfa and several bags of alfalfa pellets. Finding a comparable and compatable feed to use- boy was I in for a surprise...

Strength

So in a few days is the 3 year mark of when my husband was arrested. After finding things in the email on the iPad his dad gave us, I was ready to pull the trigger on filing for divorce. Thing is, there was criminal content in the emails. Seeing that made it crystal clear to me, things were definitely OVER. I know I haven't really talked about much of this in the past 3 years and honestly there is still a lot going on. Some things I am not ready to disclose.

The end of the year has been a time of change for me for the past several years. One of my good friends and I joke about this to keep things a bit light hearted in the face of adversity. Things tend to fall apart for her at the beginning of the year. With all that has happened, and all of the comments about how strong I am for what I have been thru, there is still so much, that so many of you still have no idea about.

Yes I am strong. I am stronger than many may realize. Many times I have surprised those around me. There are times I am stronger than I may not even realize myself. With the things that lie ahead- yes, my inner strength will be tested again and again. I have no doubt I will get thru it, because I am strong. I'm not afraid, but those against me should be, because as we all know-> Karma is a Royal Bitch. People get what they deserve. Karma never misses her mark on that.

Movin' on

So the past few posts, I've won friends, influenced people and tried not to pass judgement on someone. Calling animal control on the person might seem like a good idea, but since then, the guy sold all his horses and moved on. At least they all have a shot at a better life now. I haven't seen him at the barn in a while so that's good. Makes me wonder how long until he gets another horse or several.

Another guy I've run into at the barn, has a stallion that's a really nice looking horse, but he will be gelded before long. Hooray! He was telling me the other day that he was watching one of the TV horse trainers the other night and how they were telling people how to determine if the horse is in charge or if you are. For a lot of us who have been around horses for a decent length of time, this is a no brainer, I know. He proceeded to tell me how he used the guys methods to see for himself if his horse was in charge or if he is? Watching them interact together, it's blatantly obvious what's going on. Then he asked me if I had ever done that to see if I'm in charge or my horse?


You can all take a few minutes (or ten) to process that. Try and keep your laughter to a dull, hysterical roar! Now imagine the look of surprise, shock and amazement when I told him that "No, I've never done that. I've never felt the need, since I go in knowing who's in charge and it is Not my horse." I went on to explain that the horses can size us up before we even get the stall door open. They know if we are a leader or a follower and respond accordingly. They also aren't usually wrong. When I explained to him that yes I've worked with a Lot of horses and yes a good number of them have been stallions, he looked like he was beginning to understand what I was saying. He also nodded in agreement and said that these were things the TV Trainer had also said too. When I told him that a lot of these things are based on common sense and typical animal behavior, he agreed with that too. Imagine that?!?!

He has yet to geld the horse and is waiting until after he is cut to really start riding him. He has had a saddle on the horse and worked him in the round pen, but that's about it. It will be interesting to see if he expects the horse to be magically trained or easier to deal with once his nuts come off. He may, but he also may not. I guess geldings never buck and somehow they just know to respect people? Yeah, that's it....