Alright, so August started off great in the horse world with the whole Oleander poisoning event in California.  Now, I came across this post on another horse blog, Enlightened Horsemanship Through Touch (which, incidentally, is a fantastic source of well written horse information).  My view on humanity just keeps taking the hits. 

Has anyone in Florida here heard about this?  I know I tend to be a bit behind the news and all, but really.  This has been going on for some time and I’ve heard nothing about it.  Apparently horses are being stolen from private properties and slaughtered for horsemeat.  Check out the link for the full story.  Right now, I’m just speechless.  I can’t even count the ways that I find this disturbing.

What on earth are people thinking?  I mean, seriously.  When I heard about the 23 American Saddlebred horses that were poisoned with oleander in California, it made me crazy.  In our current environment of war and financial troubles, why do people feel the need to further contribute to the negativity by attempting such a cruel and pointless act?  Thankfully, it looks as though the horses will survive.  Check out the link and let me know your thoughts.

Courtesy of Lotta Adehed

After much speculation and several extremely unscientific trials, I have determined that Tiny is, indeed, a rain goddess.  How do I know this?  Well, not once, not twice, but FIVE times now the rain has chased me off my horse.  Each time I have left my house to sunny blue skies.  How likely is it that each time I finish grooming and saddling her, the skies open to a downpour?  Literally.  As I’m leading her out of the barn to mount.  (To be fair, I did throw her off her game on Saturday when I showed up EARLY in the day to ride!  Ha!  I got her that time!)

Ok, so the other day when this happened AGAIN Tiny and I had a little chat.  I told her since she now demonstrates amazing abilities, she can start paying her own way.  As such, I am now renting out my little pony to anyone in need of a bit of rain.  Are your fields parched?  Flower beds drooping?  Never fear – Tiny is here!  And all you have to do is *pretend* you’re going to ride her.  The rain dance will commence and you’ll have more rain than you could ever need or want.  Just like magic! 

*Results not guaranteed* =)

After almost two weeks of packing, moving, and settling into my new place, I was itching to get back to my regular riding routine.  So I was thrilled when I got home from work on Friday to find the weather clear and my animals comfortably settled into our new place.  Off I went to the barn to see my girl.  It was a bit of a questionable start to the afternoon – I arrived and no more than got out of the car to a sudden downpour of showers.  Okaaaayyyyy…. alrighty, well I’m tough and I won’t melt, right?  So I went to the back pasture and started calling Tiny.  Of course she had suddenly become deaf and refused to even turn her head.  Guess she didn’t miss me much over the last two weeks.  Ok, so off I went into the pasture through the rain to fetch her (she had just been turned out and was in no way coming in on her own terms).  When I finally reached her, I saw a sight I certainly wasn’t prepared for:  my normally water-phobic mare standing in an enormous puddle of 5 inch deep rainwater, wildly munching at the submerged grass .  There was NO WAY she was coming to me, and she called my bluff.  There was NO WAY I was going to trek through shin high water to get her.  We had a standoff, I won, and eventually I finally got to ride for what felt like the first time in ages.  In the end, it was a good ride.  It felt so good to be back in the saddle again.  There is nothing in the world quite like the view from a horse’s back.

Oh dear.  This gorgeous Wednesday came and went and I didn’t even see my little pony.  I did, however, clean the house AND the car (which was about 1 year overdue) so I feel somewhat productive.  I have to admit though, during these summer months it is HARD to get motivated to ride.  Maybe not in many parts of the country, but here in Florida it’s miserable from June to September.  Even I was shocked to hear that with the heat index it was nearly 100 degrees at 6 am yesterday!  After a long day at work, it’s often hard to face those kinds of temperatures and the sweltering humidity, even when I want to.  Does anyone have any suggestions on how to stay motivated and on a riding program during harsh weather?  This issue is one that faces many of us, regardless of where we reside.   Although it is easy to hibernate during summer’s blistering heat or winter’s bone chilling cold, it is important to remember that it is our responsibility as horse owners to maintain a consistent workout schedule for our animals.  Consistency is key to maintaining a healthy, happy horse.

In other news, I saw Abby last night and she is feeling much better!  Although she is still on pain medications, she is showing significant improvement and there is hope that she may recover from her founder episode last week.  Keep her in your thoughts – she’s not out of the woods yet.

Unfortunately, this is not the week of the horse.  At least not here in sunny Orlando, FL.  I was on my way to work a couple of days ago at 6 am and the traffic report came on the radio.  Imagine my surprise to hear that the only congestion on the roadways was a collision in south Orlando between a car and two horses. 

How does this keep happening?  Oh yes, this is the 3rd time that I’ve heard of horses being hit by cars in the same general area over the past 6 months!  I certainly hope that these horses aren’t coming from the same place each time… How tragic for all involved.  Let’s hope that bad things come in threes and horses in Osceola County will stay on their properties from now on!

In other sad news this week, I just heard from a friend that her horse has foundered.  Really shocking as there is no obvious cause.  Right now we’re hoping that she can be stabilized and kept comfortable, but she’s most unhappy about spending the next two weeks in her stall!  When I heard the news, it inspired me to start doing some research.  I must admit, in recent years I have not kept current on treatments for many horse ailments unless they have directly affected me.  It has been a long time since I’ve dealt with founder, and I realized that apart from those classic facts most of us know (pounding pulse in the heels; the stretched-out, awkward pose they adopt caused by too much grain or new grass, among other things), I have forgotten many of the nuances of diagnosing the disease and know nothing about newer treatments and prognosis.  Check back soon for a detailed article on diagnosing and treating laminitis (founder) and prognosis for affected animals.  In the meantime, check out this link for more information:  http://vet.osu.edu/assets/pdf/hospital/equineFarmAnimals/equine/articles/2008/laminitis.pdf

And please send some good juju for our girl Abby as she limps down the road to recovery over the next few weeks!

There is nothing quite like the Zen state of mind achieved by cleaning horse poop. I think any horse owner would agree with me, right?  Right?  Ok, some horse owners might agree with me. Maybe it’s just my nature to feel most comfortable in a dusty, dirty barn or maybe my obsessive-compulsive tendencies are satisfied by the methodical act of picking a stall. 

Right now, I’m in horsey heaven because Tiny’s surrogate mom is at a volleyball tournament with her daughter.  Enter Michelle, Stage Right.  Under the guise of “helping Emma” while she’s away, really I’m just scratching a long standing itch to clean poop.  I mean, cleaning stalls has been part of my life for many years, up until I moved to Orlando and started boarding my horses 6 years ago.  Don’t get me wrong, it is a relentless, thankless task.  There are days when you come home and the last thing you want to see is horse poop. 

But for the most part, there is nothing in the world like barn tasks.  Each horse has their own poop style and each one warrants a different approach to poo picking.  Tiny is a litter box pooper.  She poops in the corners of her stall and covers it with shavings.  Cute, until the entire contents of her stall is layered amongst neatly stacked piles of poo in the back.  Abby is a pile pooper.  She likes her poo in piles around the edges, carefully placed to appear as though she doesn’t care where it’s landed.  And then there’s April….the classic known as the “Poop Walker”…the whole center of the stall is a soup of poo and pee and shavings, all stirred together.  Guess which one’s my least favorite?

Ah, I digress.  So anyway, as I was cleaning stalls this evening after a long, stressful drive, I realized how wonderful it is to come home to that task.  The sound of the horses nickering for their feed as I arrived, the sound of them munching on their grain as I puttered around the barn.  The smell of the fly spray and the hay.  The comfort of being surrounded by animals; horses, dogs, cats, chickens…. My stress and anxiety melted away with each pile of poo I picked, each clump of dirt that I swept.  I love watching the transformation of the barn into readiness for the next day’s events.  So as I gathered up Grady and Bella to head home, my blood pressure back to normal and my road rage diminished, I remembered once again why I love horses so much.