Pferdchen und Junge
The morning started out with a very lame Charm-N. I fed the horses loose so I could clean the stalls and she was hobbling pretty good from pile to pile. It looked like it was mostly her right fore, but she looked a little ouchy all over.
I went ahead and did the mucking. I Charm-N's stall was nasty per usual. When I have an extra set of hands I need to put a rubber matt under her feeder. She likes to pee, poop, and stand in the same spot, which compacts into nasty cakes of shavings and manure and dirt that takes some muscle to scrape out. She is the dirtiest horse I know when it comes to stall cleanliness. Chewy's a close second, but she at least goes in the half of her stall away from her food.
I filled four of the big cans. Charm-N's stall took up three-quarters of one of them. Messy, messy mare. I was feeling industrious and did about half the arena as well because it was just only 100 today.
After the cans I fed the herd their second half of breakfast in their stalls, though I played a little musical ponies and put Kitt in Charm-N's stall, Tru-D went in Kitt's with access to the small turnout, and Charm-N was in the arena with the small stall so she could move or not at will (and not be tempted to bicker at Ruby).
I cleaned out Charm-N's feet and they were just packed with a combination of dirt, manure, and ROCKS. So many rocks! There was no heat in her feet or pulses and there was no sign of swelling. I am hoping that it was the rocks and maybe I saw her just after a good thump from Ruby, who knows. She was moving about 90% better this evening. I may still have Chatham out for a look tomorrow and I sent Kevin a note that he may want to pick up some pads and shoes depending on how she hoof tests. I'm partial to thinking it's higher up as she allowed me to clean out all four feet fine, but we'll see. I hope she moves even better in the morning.
Saturday I had a cancellation so I pulled Tru-D out and played with some long-lining. I have re-watched both the Clay Maier Training Your Horse to Drive and Nate Bowers/Pat Parelli Driving Horses Vol. 1 (some day I may get the other two) in the last couple weeks and took a little different approach this time.
I started slowly with just asking her to move her forehand and haunches independently a step at a time before playing with a little bit of sidepass. She did very nicely and I was pleased with how soft and calm she was. I finished by double-lungeing and while she did zip off when I changed directions and asked for the trot she came down pretty quickly and stayed on the circle better than she has.
I don't know if I mentioned that we introduced the tire noise the other week, which she did really well with. I have a breastcollar on order for her so we can progress to actually pulling things as it cools down.
Today we had an assessment for Kelhan. He has a hard time with making consonant sounds and we were a little worried about him being behind. Our state has some awesome programs for early child development if you just make the calls (or at least have your pediatrician make the calls).
The lady who came out was really nice and tolerated the boys' attention-seeking antics well. Apparently Kelhan is at the top of the charts in everything except for his communication skills, however the communication is a grey area and he could go either way. She is recommending him for an evaluation with the speech therapist and we go from there. The speech therapist, even if he isn't behind enough to qualify, (s)he should be able to give us thoughts and ideas to help him along. After he turns three, if he is still behind the schools can pick up from there through their Pre-K programs and such.
Options are good. The woman today was very impressed with Kelhan overall in what he can do and his comprehension skills. We hope to keep that up and bring his verbal skills up to par.
I also can't wait to see my working students come back with the cooler weather because I'd love to be working horses for two hours Monday morning instead of mucking. I'd also love to see the arena and stalls completely clean the on the same day twice a week instead of getting the stalls clean one day a week and the arena clean the other. I don't like seeing fly maggots when I scrape up the manure. The birds (and sun) make short work of them once I move to the next area, but I'd rather get it picked up while they are still in their eggs.
I went ahead and did the mucking. I Charm-N's stall was nasty per usual. When I have an extra set of hands I need to put a rubber matt under her feeder. She likes to pee, poop, and stand in the same spot, which compacts into nasty cakes of shavings and manure and dirt that takes some muscle to scrape out. She is the dirtiest horse I know when it comes to stall cleanliness. Chewy's a close second, but she at least goes in the half of her stall away from her food.
I filled four of the big cans. Charm-N's stall took up three-quarters of one of them. Messy, messy mare. I was feeling industrious and did about half the arena as well because it was just only 100 today.
After the cans I fed the herd their second half of breakfast in their stalls, though I played a little musical ponies and put Kitt in Charm-N's stall, Tru-D went in Kitt's with access to the small turnout, and Charm-N was in the arena with the small stall so she could move or not at will (and not be tempted to bicker at Ruby).
I cleaned out Charm-N's feet and they were just packed with a combination of dirt, manure, and ROCKS. So many rocks! There was no heat in her feet or pulses and there was no sign of swelling. I am hoping that it was the rocks and maybe I saw her just after a good thump from Ruby, who knows. She was moving about 90% better this evening. I may still have Chatham out for a look tomorrow and I sent Kevin a note that he may want to pick up some pads and shoes depending on how she hoof tests. I'm partial to thinking it's higher up as she allowed me to clean out all four feet fine, but we'll see. I hope she moves even better in the morning.
Saturday I had a cancellation so I pulled Tru-D out and played with some long-lining. I have re-watched both the Clay Maier Training Your Horse to Drive and Nate Bowers/Pat Parelli Driving Horses Vol. 1 (some day I may get the other two) in the last couple weeks and took a little different approach this time.
I started slowly with just asking her to move her forehand and haunches independently a step at a time before playing with a little bit of sidepass. She did very nicely and I was pleased with how soft and calm she was. I finished by double-lungeing and while she did zip off when I changed directions and asked for the trot she came down pretty quickly and stayed on the circle better than she has.
I don't know if I mentioned that we introduced the tire noise the other week, which she did really well with. I have a breastcollar on order for her so we can progress to actually pulling things as it cools down.
Today we had an assessment for Kelhan. He has a hard time with making consonant sounds and we were a little worried about him being behind. Our state has some awesome programs for early child development if you just make the calls (or at least have your pediatrician make the calls).
The lady who came out was really nice and tolerated the boys' attention-seeking antics well. Apparently Kelhan is at the top of the charts in everything except for his communication skills, however the communication is a grey area and he could go either way. She is recommending him for an evaluation with the speech therapist and we go from there. The speech therapist, even if he isn't behind enough to qualify, (s)he should be able to give us thoughts and ideas to help him along. After he turns three, if he is still behind the schools can pick up from there through their Pre-K programs and such.
Options are good. The woman today was very impressed with Kelhan overall in what he can do and his comprehension skills. We hope to keep that up and bring his verbal skills up to par.
I also can't wait to see my working students come back with the cooler weather because I'd love to be working horses for two hours Monday morning instead of mucking. I'd also love to see the arena and stalls completely clean the on the same day twice a week instead of getting the stalls clean one day a week and the arena clean the other. I don't like seeing fly maggots when I scrape up the manure. The birds (and sun) make short work of them once I move to the next area, but I'd rather get it picked up while they are still in their eggs.