Another award!

The award came from Twinville this time! Thanks a bunch! I've found a great online community this time around with my blog. Everyone is so friendly and encouraging.

I think that there are alot of awesome sites out there - so I don't know who to pass it to. I think everyone on my blog lists deserves this award. We all work hard with our horses and our lives, so we should all get a nice award. If you read this post, consider yourself awarded!

Vets are costing me a fortune!!!

Not much of an update on Rusty today - he seems to be doing ok. He still isn't gaining any weight back, but the vet hopes that should turn around in the next week. The big milestone for him Monday was solid poop. What a lovely topic. lol. I don't think I've ever been so excited to see solid, normal horse poop as I was on Monday night. Up until then, his poop looked more like cow patties than anything. People with pets and kids care more about poop than the average person, I think. ;-p Rusty is now on a second medication that gets injected every 4 days. I haven't got the bill yet for all of this, so I'm hoping it's not so bad.

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My dog Max is at the city vet today having his teeth cleaned. That costs a small fortune! He has terrible dog breath and lots of tartar, so we asked the vet to check his teeth at his annual check-up. Turns out they are in bad shape even though he is only 8 years old! I guess some animals have better teeth than others. Guess we should stop feeding him chocolate? I kid, I kid.

He doesn't need any teeth pulled right now - just got off the phone with the vet! *phew*. As I was typing this post, I hadn't heard back from her yet. Between Max and Rusty, I'm pet poor! Not that I'm complaining that much - I would pay alot to keep them healthy. I feel that if you have pets you should do your best to keep them happy and pain-free.

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I've been quite the "Laura-homemaker" the past few days - I've been buying fruit and freezing it. I just bought a bunch of fresh corn and after I eat a few cobs, I'm going to bag some up and freeze it for soups and things in the winter. I have a ton of basil out in the yard to pick - I'm going to try making pesto out of it. I'm not sure what it is about summer that has me wanting to get local fruits and vegetables and preserve them for the winter - I guess my childhood training kind of takes over. Thanks Grandma! :-)

I'm going to start bringing home a few containers of horse manure for a spot in my garden that I'm going to try and grow vegetables in next year. I think it will take a few loads of manure plus some nice soil to get the ground good enough to grow a few vegetables. I like mucking around in the garden, so it will be a fun little experiment. I'm going out to the barn anyway, so might as well bring a bit of the barn home with me. ;-p

Browneyed Cowgirls - thanks so much for the senior feed tips - I've made notes of your recommendations and will be asking my vet once ol' Rusty is cleared to eat a few more foods. Right now it's hay, grass and beet pulp only. I'm sure the oats and ground soy meal would help with weight gain.

I'm loved! :-)

My fellow Canadian - Cdncowgirl gave me my first little blog award thingy-ma-jig! Right back at ya' Cdn! You, Steph and Denise were the first 3 blogs I read! Keep up the writing.

How cool is that?

I'd like to pass it on to:

Twinville - love all of the cool photos she posts
Sidetracked - our brave hunter rider!
20 Meter - for tempting me with expensive saddle pads. ;-p

Rusty - another update

Rusty seems to be doing a bit better today. He is a bit brighter-eyed and not as lethargic. He gobbled up a big dish of beet pulp, got his medicine and then was turned out with some hay. He was actually eating the hay and not just pushing it around. I stuck around to watch him for about an hour to make sure he was eating a bit... I quite enjoy the sound of a horse munching on hay. I should've brought a book out with me. lol.

He still seems to be dropping weight though, so I've got a call into the vet to see if there is something else we can supplement his feed with that won't irritate his stomach.

I've been to two tack shops today to try and find a reasonably priced pair of black reins. I didn't think it would be that hard! I finally found a pair I liked at the tack shop that Iwas trialling saddles from. I also returned the saddle I don't want, as Iwas starting to get worried about having a new expensive saddle just lying around. I haven't paid for the new-t0-me saddle that I have, since the owner wasn't there to calculate the trade on my old saddle. This whole process seems to be taking a while, but the shop is quite local, so it's not that big of a deal.

More updates to come as I learn more. Hope everyone has a nice weekend!

Rusty - update

Rusty is doing ok - no real changes - better or worse. I went out to check on him last night and he seemed a bit less lethargic, but still not himself.

I brought him in to the barn and groomed and fussed over him a bit. It has been raining lately, so he kindly covered himself in mud. His feet are looking good - they were a bit of a wreck when I first got him. At least I don't have to worry about that right now.

The vet thinks he has an ulcer - but the only way to determine that 100% is to do an endoscopy - a tube with a camera down into the stomach. No vets do that here, so he would have to be shipped to a veterinary hospital about 5 hours away. I'm not going to put him through that, since he is older. If I had a young performance horse, I would probably get all of the tests done to make sure there was nothing bad going on.

We are starting treatment for the ulcer today - I rushed to the vet's after work to pick up the medicine. It is in a tube like dewormer, so it should be easy to give. The barn owner will give him his dose today and I'll do it on both weekend days. The vet said that if it is an ulcer, we should see improvement in about 48 hours and then we continue the treatment for 2 weeks.

She thinks there might be a couple of other minor things at play, but we won't worry about those until we try the ulcer treatment. His blood tests were a little off - particularly in the proteins, but the wonky levels could be caused by the ulcer. Poor Rusty - I feel so bad for him - he is such a nice quiet boy. I wish they could talk when they were sick so we could know more.. :-)

The vet also suggested trying to find him a better turnout situation. She said that it would be best for him in the long run to be out in a small herd of nice gentle horses. She is worried that if he stays in his bigger herd, the problems might keep recurring. I've asked my barn owner if there is a way to switch some horses around, but haven't heard back from her yet. I'm hoping there is something she can do, as I don't want to have to move Rusty again. I really like this barn. There is a slight chance we will be moving to the other end of the city next summer, so I may have to move him anyways, but I would prefer to do it once, instead of a bunch of times.

Nothing much else going on in these parts - I'm disappointed that I can't ride, but his health is more important. I think I have my saddle situation sorted out now - I found a used one from a local shop. I have to go out to the tack shop at lunch and buy some new reins to replace the ones I broke last weekend. I only have a set of brown ones at home and my bridle is black. Matching a little bit is very important! Although - I have a dark brown saddle... Does anyone else get all caught up in trying to match their tack? I shouldn't care because it doesn't really matter, but sometimes it gets to me...

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Cdn - I changed my blog colours - I was getting tired of reading white text on a dark background! I think the white/black is a bit easier to read... ;-p

Rusty is sick :-(

My barn owner left me a message on Sunday afternoon to let me know that Rusty seemed a bit sick.

I immediately panicked - thinking colic or heart failure or something bad. I couldn't get a hold of her until Monday mornning and she told me that he stopped eating most of his grain and seemed a little lethargic.

I was home sick on Monday and without a car, so I had to wait until 5pm to go out and see him. The vet had been at the barn for another horse, so she checked poor Rusty while she was there. His heart, lungs, gut sounds were all good and he didn't have a fever (she checked twice). Her first reaction is that he might have a stomach ulcer! Yikes. Apparently they are fairly easy to treat with medication for 2 weeks. She took blood work and a fecal sample (fun job). They were supposed to call me yesterday with the results, but I haven't heard from them yet!!

I'm trying to wait patiently, but I'm not doing a good job. I thought I'd write a post about it to sort out my thoughts. If Rusty does have an ulcer (poor boy!) I'd like to get the medication going asap to hopefully have him feeling better. I've been out to check him every night - he is ok, but fairly lethargic. I've been handgrazing him, as the vet recommeded as much grass as possible.

Apparently sweet feed is the worst thing for an ulcer, so he is off that for now. He is eating a small amount of beet pulp twice a day, as well as being out on pasture all night. He has dropped at least 200 lbs in the past 2 weeks - it wasn't that noticeable at first, but this week the barn owner and I really noticed it.

I feel so bad that I can't do much for him until we hear from the vet. He is such a sweet boy, that I feel extremely negligent that I didn't notice that something wasn't quite right. I'm not there for his feed times usually, so I rely on the barn owner for stuff like that. This is definitely one of the downsides of boarding. My barn owner is great - she held Rusty for the vet since I couldn't be there and didn't charge me for it. She is also willing to try any options that might help a horse, whether it be feeding, training, etc.

I'm still recovering from my sickness - I had tonsilitis or something. I lost my voice and sound like a squeaky little mouse - or maybe an elf??? Most people find it funny, but I've had a couple of people look at me like I'm a total weirdo. Nice. This latest round of illnesses has made me realize how lucky I am to be in very good health normally. I have been taking it for granted that I can speak, hear and move around without any limitations.

Some people aren't so lucky - have you guys read about Mikael's daughter's head injury? That was the scariest thing I have read in a long time. It sounds like her daughter is recovering, so that is good news. I'm really going to make an effort to live a healthier life - watch more closely what I eat, get more exercise, etc.

I'm also staring down a list of about 19 things I need to do - none of them are urgent or life-threatening, but it is stuff that I have been putting off and need to take care of. Hopefully I can make a dent in it by this weekend. I've added one thing to the list - research horse feed needs for senior horses - maybe there is something that ol' Rusty can eat that is easy on his stomach, but will help keep his weight up.

Meme, back from road trip

I'm back from my short road trip to visit my family in southern Ontario. It was a short visit, but great to see my family. I don't get home often enough. I didn't take a single picture while I was there since I've been sick with a nasty cough and cold since last week. My Mom is a nurse, so I had her fetching pills and juice for me. :-)

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I guess the meme is next - my post today is a little disjointed, thanks to the many versions of tylenol I've been taking lately! lol

Cdncowgirl tagged me this time and I'm happy to participate, since it is a fun one.

Six Things You Don't Know About Me

1. The origins of the nickname "littlekeebler" - since Cdn requested that - here is the kind of boring answer. I'm quite short - about 5' even. Waayyyy back in university we were out with a group of friends and the weather turned cold. I didn't have a coat or a sweater, so we stopped by a friend's place and he lent me a hoodie. This friend was about 6'2"... Another friend laughed about how big the sweater was and they flipped up the hood - and someone shouted - "hey, a keebler elf!". And the name stuck. I always seem to have some sort of nickname - half-pint, littlekeebler, keeb, shorty (real original...).
2. I am a total shop-a-holic. I love shopping and spending money on expensive things - horse related or not. I was practically raised in a mall - so I'm blaming my family! hhahaha - just kidding (sort of). I try very hard to resist my shopping urges, as I would like to save up money for my retirement!
3. I looooove to travel. I daydream about all of the trips I could take if only I had more time off work and more money. I don't do budget travel well, I like to be in clean and safe hotels. So far, I've been to England 2x, Scotland, France, Switzerland, Mexico, Aruba, Alaska and many other parts of the US, as well as lots of places in Canada. Places I'd love to go: Sweden (a friend of mine breeds Lippizzaners!), Russia, Italy, Germany, Peru, Brazil, Costa Rica, Vietnam, anywhere in Africa...
4. I studied five different languages in university. French, Spanish, Russian, Italian and Polish. I don't remember much anymore, except for French. I use French about 40% of the time in my day-to-day work. I love being (almost) bilingual. I think it is good for the brain.
5. I collect information - books, papers, magazine clippings, how-to's, recipes, etc. on all of my favourite hobbies. I also don't like clutter, so I have binders for all of my different collections. A horse info binder, a workout binder, several binders of recipes, etc. Instead of keeping piles of magazines around, I rip out all of the stuff I want to save and put it in my binder. I also have tonnes of electronic files - pdfs, digital photos, web links. I tend to gather lots of information and then not do anything constructive with it, except organize it!
6. I'm a "what you see is what you get" sort of person - I'm an introvert, so I'm not a big social butterfly. If you are a friend or acquaintance and I tell you that you look nice, I mean it. If I offer to help you move or something - I mean it. I can often be quite blunt, but honest. I try to be diplomatic if I can - I guess it is the libra in me. The one contradiction to this is that my sense of humour is very sarcastic and this often confuses people. Once they get to know me, I've been told that I can be quite funny.

*Phew* That was harder than I thought! I tag anyone that reads this and wants to participate. Leave a note in the comments to your responses in your blog...

Headin' Down South

I'm going to be heading home for a few days to visit my family. They live about a 7.5 hour drive south west of where I live now. I grew up about 2 hours north of Detroit MI, for reference.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend!

Saddle testing and broken reins

As part of the great tack clean-up of '08, I have traded in my old English saddle and I have 2 used saddles on trial.

I actually wrote out a bulleted list of all my tack, but it was just too long to post. On the weekend, I sorted and cleaned all of my tack. I sat outside the barn in the sun and laid everything out on the grass. (Guess I should've taken a picture of that!) I have a small pile of stuff that I'm going to try and sell locally.Then, it was off to the riding ring to test saddles. I brought everything outside and put both saddles on the fence, to save me going back into the barn later to switch saddles. Here is Rusty in his first saddle - this saddle is so comfortable and balanced - I'm totally in love with it.

After I rode around for 20 minutes or so, I decided it was time to switch saddles. It was really hot out, so I didn't want to be out for much more than an hour.

Rusty is very quiet and calm, so I didn't bother taking his bridle off or anything - he just stood there patiently...until he noticed the little bit of green grass peeking under the fence. I let him graze because it wasn't a big deal. As I took the first saddle off and stepped to the fence, I thought that I should watch my reins - wouldn't want them stepped on and broken...

As I turned back from putting the saddle on the fence - 2 seconds later!!! - the reins were looped behind his ears and dragging on the ground - just as I was about to reach and drab them, he stepped on the rein, scared himself and BAM - broken reins. D'oh! The reins were old and needed to be replaced anyway, so it wasn't a big deal. With all of the tack that I cleaned and sorted, did you think I would have extra reins there???? Nooo, of course not they were all at home. I could've used a set of yours, Cdn! lol.

So, my second saddle test was put off. I decided to turn Rusty loose in the riding ring to get him used to have a lead line drag behind him - he is scared of that for some reason. I led him down to a big patch of clover and walked away. Can you see him standing way down there? He stood perfectly still for about 10 minutes while I put away my tack.

After a few minutes he started grazing - you can see a bit of the evil lead line in the grass.


He lifted his head as I got closer - probably wondering what the black thing on my face was! (the camera...) He posed for a couple of good pictures, but I deleted about 20 that had his ears going in all directions and him moving around because of the flies.
I can see his little brain working here - "um, do you have treats?" or maybe "she's coming to rescue me from this evil lead line"

This shot cracked me up - he was slowly getting annoyed with the bugs and the fact that I just kept walking around him taking pictures. Too funny.

"Are you done YET?"

That was my weekend - nothing too exciting. I've been sick since Sunday evening, so I haven't been back to test my second saddle. Hoping to do that tonight...

ETA: Does anyone know the settings in Blogger that allows larger views of your pictures when you click on them?? I work with web sites and HTML all day and I can't get it to work!! argh.

Tack, tack and more tack!

I seem to have accumulated a lot of tack in my 14 months or so of (recent) horse ownership. I have a huge jumble of english and western tack- breastplates, halters, polo wraps, saddle pads, bridles, bits, etc. etc. It's amazing how much stuff I end up with - I'm a bit of a shopaholic!

I had horses growing up and while I sold most of my tack back then, I kept 2 english saddles, a bridle and a martingale. I recently donated all but 1 saddle to a riding school that does summer camps for underprivileged kids - along with a pair of paddock boots and some old show clothing - I'm sure it will be put to good use.

I can't seem to pick either english or western riding, so I'm just going to do both! :-)

I wasn't sure that my western saddle fit my horse, but I've ordered a cashel reverse wedge pad specifically designed for western saddles, so I'm hoping that will help. I'm just planning to use the western saddle for trail rides - I find I'm much more relaxed riding western - I don't worry about leg position and posture as much as when I'm riding english.

I just need to find a solid coloured wool blanket to go over the Cashel pad. I'm hoping one of my local tack shops has something - the biggest tack shop around here only has patterend navajo style blankets and I just don't want that right now.

I have 2 english saddles on trial from another local english tack shop - so I'm hoping one of them works. I know that both fit Rusty well, I just need to ride in them and make sure my short stubby legs end up in the right position!

The saddle fitter that came out to help me took my Stubben saddle (that I bought from him last year) and has offered to give me credit towards my new saddle of the same price I paid last year! That is pretty much unheard of in the saddle world - another shop offered to take the saddle on consignment and their cut was 40%!

In addition to testing my new saddles this weekend, I'm going to do a major tack inventory and clean/sort/organize everything that I have. Stuff I don't need will get cleaned and photographed and then posted for sale on a local message board. Hopefully some of the extras will go and I'll have a bit of cash to spend on new stuff! LOL. I already have new stuff in mind that I want - how terrible is that???

As much as I like buying stuff online, I feel quite lucky that there are 3-4 good local tack shops that have a fairly wide range of products. Although, the thinline pads that 20 meter mentioned the other day have me drooling. I think I will save up for one next year and try them out.

Good boy Rusty, gooood boy!

I haven't done much of anything exciting over the past few days. Well - that's not entirely true - I did spend all day Sunday volunteering at a local horse show. It was fun - a couple of acquaintances were there, so I spent a bit of time gabbing with other horse people. I'm not a hugely social person in my day-to-day life - I tend to like to spend time alone, but every know and again I get the need for some human contact. Horse shows seem to be a good place for that as most people are friendly.

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I've been riding Rusty a fair bit. We are staying in the ring for now, just so I can continue to get used to him. He is a pretty steady guy - even after not being ridden for a few days, he is exactly the same as the last time you had him out. I like that consistency right now - I need to rebuild my confidence and get my position and seat nice and solid. I'm sure in a few years I'll be ready for something with a bit more spunk, but right now I'm happy with my old man! :-)

I even put 2 total beginners on him recently and he didn't bat an eyelash - he did try and cut corners a bit, but that is to be expected. He does try and get away with little things, but he is very passive about it.

My hubby Richard got on first. He rode a little bit as a kid, so was more comfortable.

After a couple of laps around the arena, he was asking "how do I make this thing go faster?" lol. I told him he wasn't ready for speed yet, because his hands weren't quite right. Patience grasshopper.

My step-son got on next - he was a little apprehensive, but I convinced him to just sit on Rusty and see what it was like.

Oh great, another beginner to bounce around on my back. There'd better be carrots.So, rider #2 was up. I tried to explain how to shorten and lengthen the reins, but it fell on deaf teenage ears, methinks.

Am I done yet? This is getting old fast.

Max was tied to a fence because he rolled in something nasty. Good thing there was a hose and horse shampoo nearby.

Rider #2 decided to try walking around on his own. Same question as his father: "Can this thing go any faster?" Luckily Rusty is lazy, so he just walked. Neither rider was ready for any speed. If they are still interested, we can try speed on the longe line someday. Interestingly enough, both riders disappeared when it was time to untack and clean up! Bums. :-)
That's about it for me - time to hit the hay. 0600 rolls around pretty early in these parts and the tack and grain don't buy themselves, so it's off to work!

Important Papers - Do you know where yours are?

Recently Richard was required to fill out forms to get a security clearance at work. They ask all kinds of information - including dates of weddings/divorces and addresses of relatives, etc. Richard couldn't remember the date of his 1st wedding or divorce, so being the helpful wife that I am, I made a snide comment about it must be on a form or certificate somewhere. Richard laughed and said that he had no idea where such a paper might be hidden, if he even still had it.

This led us to a major search of our house - we found it eventually. Stashed away in a box in the back recesses of the basement. I think I need to re-organize our storage area! I also found cans of tonic water - time for a g&t! :-)

This led me to a mini-panic about all of our other important papers - marriage license, mortgage documents, work related documents (pension, insurance, etc.), life/house insurance forms and contact info. My plan for the weekend is to organize all of this information into one location so that we can find it in an emergency.

I do have a horse related twist to this post - don't worry! This also led me to realize that my horsey papers were strewn all over the house. Bills of sale, vet records, association memberships, etc. were in piles and some in unopened envelopes!

So, I'm going to put together a binder for Mr. Rusty - so that everything is organized - just in case.

Here are a few things that will be in my binder:

• Rusty's bill of sale
• Printed emails from previous buyer with notes on Rusty's past
• Vet pre-purchase certificate
• Vaccination records
• Vet records
• Ontario Equestrian Federation membership card/contact info - they provide insurance to members. This might come in handy if something were to happen to me
• RideOntario time log (some associations have logs that allow you to accumulate hours working with your horse that in turn equal prizes)
• Receipts from expensive tack purchases (stubben saddle)
• Membership information for local horse clubs that I belong to, along with contact info and passwords

I was at a show recently and some owners were really organized - binders seemed to be the most popular. Others had no clue where their forms/insurance/registration papers were.

Other things that could go in your horse file system are:

• breed registration certificates (you'd be amazed at the number of local horse for sale ads that go something like this - "this horse is registered "x", but we lost the papers!
• breed organization member cards/member pin numbers/passwords
• futurity nominations/forms/results, etc.
• breeding information, as well as photos of offspring
• show records/results - might come in handy if you were to sell your horse
• photos from shows/events/phases of life (ie weanling/yearling/2yr old etc.)
• trailer safety documents/bill of sale/insurance info
• horse insurance papers

I'm sure there are more things, but that's all I can think of for now. Does everyone have a binder/book/box for their horse(s)?