Your Drive Day

[jeanniecogan]

thank you,  Northwolf,  those are good tips.   Daisy almost always coms with Charlie and i , so their steps pretty much match.   You are an inspiration to us all as Marsha said.  love all your pics.   Also you are welcome in my home anytime.    AS ARE YOU ALL.

 

[MajorClementine]

Horses all headed south today. Loading was a bit tricky because Smokey is evil. Yup, he's evil. And because he's evil he's made Clementine hate him with a vengeance. My dad ended up feeling her vengeance in the form of a hoof to the kidney....

We had all 6 minis loaded up front in the trailer. Well everything was going fine until Smokey decided he wanted to flip around and start kicking everyone. This is his "go to" move. I've never had a horse that kicks like this one. Oh and Smokey is the one we were "babysitting" for a friend. He's not one of our herd. We've had him for the last 6 months. Anyway... He started getting wild so dad went to get him out. Well he got a hoof to the kidney in the process. So I made the decision that Smokey was banned from the front "mini compartment" of the trailer and had to ride with the big guys in the back. 
 

5 big horses loaded in the rear of the trailer with the two Fjords (who had lived with minis before we bought them) loaded in last with Smokey under their heads. So first photo is all 6 minis in the front with Smokey along the back as he was trying to back up to kick. Dad was hustling around the trailer while I tried to keep the baby from getting nailed. Second pic is Smokey with the Fjords in back. Last pic shows just how much more relaxed the whole herd of minis is with Smokey gone. Amazing how one horse can upset the whole balance.

Horses arrived at their winter digs safe and sound with everyone in perfect condition  I'm headed down next weekend to do some blanket clips since it's about 20 degrees warmer where they are now.

 

[jeanniecogan]

Boy, how big is that trailrer?  must be huge.  How many horses all together.   Thanks fo the pictures.

 

[MajorClementine]

24 feet long. It has a sliding divider which is great because it makes it so versatile. There were 6 minis and 5 big guys in the trailer. 

You can see how skinny Pistol got in that picture of the minis. And that's after we put some weight back on him. He was getting pushed around AND when we had the dentist come out he had HUGE hooks on his front molars. He looked like a vampire horse. He should be able to chew much better and get much more nutrition out of his feed.

 

[Cayuse]

I hope your dad is OK today.

Those dental hooks can raise heck with their mouths.  I had a pony gelding who had terrible teeth because he had a facial fracture at some point in his life, most likely from a kick. His teeth did not meet up and wore uneven.  I had his teeth done routinely by a vet who I thought was doing a good job but when we changed vets and the new vet floated him, she found a massive hook on his last molar that had grown back towards his throat and pressed on his tongue.  I felt pretty awful about it but I had trusted the other vet to do the job right.  Now they all get sedated and floated with a speculum holding the mouth open so that they get a good view.  Pistol should feel much better now that his teeth have been "polished"!

 

[Marsha Cassada]

24 feet long. It has a sliding divider which is great because it makes it so versatile. There were 6 minis and 5 big guys in the trailer. 

You can see how skinny Pistol got in that picture of the minis. And that's after we put some weight back on him. He was getting pushed around AND when we had the dentist come out he had HUGE hooks on his front molars. He looked like a vampire horse. He should be able to chew much better and get much more nutrition out of his feed.

I had the same experience with teeth.  Thought I was doing the right thing with my horses.  Then I got an equine dentist and Dapper Dan had big hooks in the back.  Another older mare I got was worse; her owner had regularly had her teeth looked at by a vet who was supposedly so good.  She had hooks going up into her sinus in the back.  I think a lot of the vets don't go all the way to the back, either because their tools are not correct or their hands are too large? 

I agree; one animal can cause such discord.

 

[Cayuse]

OK, so here is the tale of Peanut and the ADT.  We went to his second ADT on Sunday.  Got there early, did a lot of hand walking and ground driving early on before the instructor arrived.  He was better than he was at the first ADT, sort of.  Still lots of drama, but it was of a shorter duration.  He did decide to buck while I was ground driving, but he got right over it and went on nicely.  So we hitch him and my instructor gets in the cart to take him to the dressage arena.  She gets about halfway there and he has a weird bucking/stamping tantrum.  I snap the lead on him and lead him to the arena area and then let him go. All of a sudden he is fine. He goes into the arena.for his test and looks really good, until he doesn't lol.  He got his tongue over the bit.  Never did this before, so its a new wrinkle.  We are able to go into the arena and fix it as it is a schooling show.  One we fix it, he is a ROCK STAR.  Yay Peanut!

So then it was time for the cones part of the test and did a very nice job. Go Peanut! 

At lunch we work on manners around other horses and we walked and walked and walked until he relaxed.  He was much better about the big horses this time.

Then it was time for the obstacles.  We managed to get to the obstacle course without incident and he kept his tongue in his mouth so even though he was slow, I considered it to be a very successful part of the day.

And then I drove him back at the horse trailer area and had fun.

He was last place, but Peanut thinks his green, sixth place ribbon is a blue one.  I don't have the heart to tell him otherwise.  

We all slept well that night!

The End.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Way to go, Peanut!  Love those first place ribbons.

 

[jeanniecogan]

great job, glad you had  a good day.   im so jealous in a very friendly way.

 

[MajorClementine]

Hey, I'm with Peanut, a ribbon is a ribbon. How cool that you got to go participate and Peanut is working through his excitement at events. 

 

[Cayuse]

MajorClem, did everyone get settled into their winter home? Did you bring Clem this year?
What has everyone been up to?
Not much new here, it has rained for 7 days. Some days wetter than others. I ground drove Peanut once.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

MajorClem, did everyone get settled into their winter home? Did you bring Clem this year?
What has everyone been up to?
Not much new here, it has rained for 7 days. Some days wetter than others. I ground drove Peanut once.

I hear you on the rain! We are a swamp and my usual unpaved roads are impassable. I'm taking mine out on the paved road at least twice a week just so they can walk on solid ground a little.

 

[Cayuse]

Marsha, I think we have had three sunny days in the past month, it is awful. I am watching feet daily as mine tend to get a bit thrushy (well, not mine, but nothing would surprise me in this waterlogged mess).

Last weekend we had a northeaster and lost power, tonight we are supposed to have a repeat performance​

We have new emoji thingys.

 

[MajorClementine]

The horses are all settled down south. I did take Clementine as all the hay got hauled down there and that left us with none for the winter. Hubby and I weren't happy about that but it was one of those family battles that wasn't worth the hurt feelings to fight. Clem has some serious food aggression. She's perfect unless its feeding time. I think the problem started when the friend that was supposed to feed a few days last winter starved the horses for about 60 hours. That's the first time she got the attitude. I think she had gut problems for a bit after that and between guarding her food and being in pain she was a mess. Then having to deal with Smokey for the last 6 months and fighting him she's learned some really bad manners. We are working on it. She doesn't get away with it with any of us but she still tries it. But while she was eating her hay I did a trace clip on her clipping around and under her belly with zero problems. Anyone else had food aggression problems towards humans? If it is time to eat and you go poking around and pestering her she gets ticked. Once she's eating she's a lamb.

We drove the Fjords last weekend but no minis. It was a crazy whirlwind weekend. I went to bed after midnight 4 nights in a row and got up before 6AM. I wasn't in the headspace to hitch up.

We aren't getting the rain some of you are getting but it's windy windy here which is pretty unusual. Sadly I'm not going south until December. November is slammed. I'll catch up on our driving hours soon I promise!

 

[Cayuse]

MajorClem, Peanut has had aggressive tendencies related to food. I can't feed my minis together as it gets really ugly. I gave up after Cappy flipped Peanut over (so I guess!Cappy is a little aggressive about his vittles, too). Peanut was so worked up about gaurding his food when he first came to us that he would paw his hay under himself to guard it, then pee on it so no one else would want it. Seeing that happen every night made me sad for him. But now he is much more relaxed now about his hay and will let me work around him when he is eating. It took awhile to get to that point.

 

[Northwolf]

Minis are so amazing!

We had a 6-hours-tour yesterday to visit someone. I hitched Moony with the sulky and the girl who is helping me with grooming the horses drove Teddy the half way and the other half with Massai. We did 22 miles. We passed many roads and railroads on our way and the boys were very tough.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Amazing! Did you pony Massai the first half? How did their boots do the whole way?

 

[Northwolf]

Yes, Massai had to follow the sulky the first half, and he hated it! He always wanted to pass by the cart... he was happy as we switched place for the second half with Teddy
We did not have any problems with the boots. Teddy and Moony wore Easyboots and custom leather boots and Massai had his Equine Fusion Allterrain. No rubbing or injuries!

 

[Cayuse]

Northwolf, Sounds like your minis are very fit! I wish I had the ability to get mine out on longer drives more often. We have been doing lots of ground work with Peanut working on flexibility and it is keeping him in shape better than I thought, but driving would be great for his wind. I have done a lot of running with him in the last six weeks so the ground work is probably better for me than sitting in the cart.
Cappy has started work again, lunging and ground work. He was not worked with much this year and has gotten a pot belly, so it is boot camp for Cappy. He lost his manners somewhere along the way, too! He quickly turns into a "bull in a china shop" when left to his own devices.

 

[Cayuse]

Marsha, do you have a Holiday Parade to take Dapper Dan to this year?