Product review, a blogger meet-up and a vet visit, oh my!

The weather has finally cooled off a bit around here, so I have been able to get some good rides in lately.  That is, until Rusty started having a major drooling problem!

Last Saturday, Rusty started drooling out copious amounts of saliva - probably a few cups worth in the 20-30 minutes he was on the cross ties.  This went on for a few days - he was fine otherwise - no obvious discomfort, still eating/drinking/pooping, etc. so I wasn't terribly worried. 

One person suggested to me that maybe he was anxious about riding, hence the drool.  Nope. Don't think so.  Another person suggested it was just because he was old.  Nope, not buying that either.  I thought it was either something he ate in the pasture, or a tooth problem.  I caved and called the vet out yesterday to have him checked.  His teeth are fine and the vet was 99% sure it was something he ate.  Turns out the clover in his pasture is covered with a white fungus (sort of like black patch fungus - same effects on the horse).  I guess Rusty was the only horse hungry enough (or maybe not smart enough) to stay away from that clover.

The fungus on the clover causes excessive drooling. Apparently it isn't as dangerous as alsike clover.  I think the clover is all red and white clover, although I'm going to check again this weekend for alsike, now that I did some research.

The fungus was on white and red clover in several sections of the pasture and I found in a couple of other spots as well. Rusty is due to be moved to another pasture today (which I walked yesterday and didn't see any fungus) so hopefully that is the end of the drooling problem!  (Unfortunately it took me calling the vet to get people to believe me!)

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On Sunday, I had my first ride with a fellow blogger!!! Ruckusbutt of Food, Life leases a horse near where Rusty lives and we went for a nice hack on Sunday.  She is a great person and we had fun (I did, I hope she did too!) and her horse was really great as well.  He seemed ok with walking slow to match Rusty's slow walk!  Neither one of us brought a camera, so unfortunately there are no pictures to share!

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Now for the product review - The Cashel Crusader long nose (with ears) fly mask!  I bought one for Rusty for a few reasons...

• he has a pink nose and muzzle and I'm not there to put sunscreen on him regularly, so the long nose protects his face quite a bit;
• the long nose also doesn't have a fuzzy band on it that would rub his nose like some of the other masks do;
• the other horses haven't managed to rip it off yet - probably because it secures with a huge velcro strip on the back;
• it seems to have good clearance in the eyes as well. 

It isn't the cheapest fly mask on the market, but it has been well worth the money for me this summer. 

I'm mmeelllltttiiinnggggg...

So, it's been kinda hot here.  Don't know how you folks from the deep South deal with this all the time.  It's been 43-44C (110F) with 100% humidity since last Saturday.  And it is gross outside.

We are supposed to get a reprieve this weekend, so I'm hoping that the weather guy is right this time around.

I had Monday off, so I went out super early and took Rusty on a short ride. We made it about 30 minutes and I just couldn't do anymore.  When I got back from my ride, the barn owners were unloading some hay into the barn, so I decided to help.  I love doing hay. I guess I'm weird that way, but the one thing I miss about having my horses at home is the work. I actually like cleaning stalls and doing hay and all that stuff!  Anyway, I helped them for about an hour or so and was pretty hot and sweaty by the time we were done.

All of that said, I have no interesting riding news to talk about this week!  I was reading through some of my old posts and came across the post I wrote in early Janaury about my goals for 2010.  I had to chuckle as I was reading it, since I haven't done so well on most of the goals.

So, for lack of any better things to write about, I've decided to do a mid-year review of my goals and realign them with how things are going as of today. (Can you tell I work for the government?  A boring mid-year goal review?  Yikes!)

• During the winter months, make it to the barn 3x a week to ride or work on clicker training - this one was a big FAIL.  I probably made it out 2x a week if I was lucky and it was mostly on the weekends. It is so cold and dark in the evenings here in the winter, that even with an indoor arena, I really just didn't want to ride much. I feel better going into the winter this year, because there is no indoor, so there is also no pressure to ride if I don't want to.
  
  
• In the spring/summer/fall (April – October), ride or work with Rusty 4x a week. - I'm actually doing great on this goal since we have moved to the new barn. I have my joy of riding coming back along with a good dose of confidence!  Riding is fun! Who knew?
  
  
• Attend a hunter pace or an organized trail ride.  - This one is a scratch.  Trailering is so expensive and I have no one to go to one of these events with. I also don't feel the need to go as much now that I have lots of space to ride on...
  
  
• Continue weekly lessons starting in Feb or March (often too cold in Jan) if financially possible, if not lessons twice a month will be a good alternative - This one was scratched too, since my hubby was out of work for most of the winter. (He is working again now - yeah!)
  
  
• Maintain my emergency vet fund (for all pets). I have a decent amount set aside and I need to make sure not to touch that money… - Somehow, I have been able to maintain my emergency fund - needed a bit of it to take the cat to the vet a few weeks ago, but that is what it is there for.
  
  
• Avoid buying any tack, riding clothes or anything from a tack shop (except in case of emergency), in person or online until June 2010 - This one makes me laugh! Who was I kidding??? LOL  I did ok until March, then I caved and bought a couple of pairs of riding breeches and a few other things here and there. 
  
  
• Start a contingency fund for a new horse and/or for retirement board. - I put this on hold once we found out that hubby lost his job.  Probably a smart move.  Now that he is working again, we are working on getting our finances back in order, so I can start saving money again.

So, there you have it - some goals are moving along well and others, well, not so much. I'm ok with that though - that is how life works. Not everything goes according to plan.  I'm trying to be flexible and let my goals flow with how things in my life are going - much less stressful that way!

Stay cool kids!

Laura 2, Appy-tude 1 (for those of you keeping score at home)

I went out to the barn for another ride last night. The weather was a bit iffy, but I knew I needed to just go and get out there.  I don't want to use "a chance of rain" as an excuse to not go out. The weather can be drastically different 30 minutes in any direction around here...so it is worth trying.

I actually managed to get a few pictures for you guys - just to show you a bit of the area where we ride.

Looking back towards the barn.  There is a round pen to our left

The farm is 100 acres and the barn in plopped right in the middle.  We are heading toward the front of the property here and the grass and other plants are very tall.  This section is also home to several deer.  The skies were starting to get very dark.  It had been raining on and off all day, so I was expecting to get a bit wet.

Sure enough, it started to rain pretty hard. That's when the appy-tude hit!  Apparently, once it started to rain, Rusty thought we should head back to the barn!  I gently reminded him otherwise and we kept going.  After a few minutes, it really started to pour, so I decided to head back, hoping that maybe it would let up a bit.  Sure enough, by the time we got back to the barn, it had almost stopped raining. I made an executive decision and decided to head back out.

This time, we went down the laneway and back.  Rusty was not amused.  I was willing to forgive one bit of attitude, but now he was starting to annoy me. So I decided we would ride past the barn several times, until he decided to relax and then we could go home.  He finally relaxed after another 20 minutes and we headed in.

Hey! There's the barn!  Let's go back!

I learned a few things on my ride tonight:

1. Contrary to popular belief, Appaloosas DO NOT melt in the rain;
2. I can be more stubborn than Rusty;
3. Riding in a light summer rain isn't that bad after all...

Rusty's "appy-tude" problems aren't that serious, they are just a bit annoying.  He just tries to turn for home by stopping and doing a slow turn on the haunches. There is no jigging, head-tossing or any dangerous behaviour (luckily!).  

I have two days off work and I'll be able to ride during the day (today is Canada Day!) so I think a couple of sessions with lots of trotting and cantering is in store for Monsieur Rusty.  Some good, old-fashioned exercise should help him out a bit!

Happy trails everyone!