We have a new boarder.

The lady seems nice enough. She made a good first impression, and she seems to really care about her horse. Her mare is REALLY cute (tall, well built, bay roan appaloosa). They just got here yesterday and I was told it took them four hours to get the mare into the trailer. O.O That's almost worse than Norman. lol

I don't know how long she'll be staying, however. I think she's already unhappy. She's paying full board and I don't think she was informed that she has to clean her own stall and whatnot. I hope it works out because she's really friendly and we could use more reasonable people there.

It'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

I will never cease to be amazed.

I've found that most horses generally fall into one of two categories. You have the saintly, almost irrationally patient horses, and you have the ones who aren't so tolerant. I find myself shaking my head all the time at what some horses put up with.

Norman, for example, is one of the super-tolerant horses, and I really wish he wasn't like that. A lot of it is his breed. He has a very high pain tolerance and he's hard to read because of it. Just last week, I was lunging him and when I put the side reins on, I noticed he was playing with his tongue and the bit looked... weird. And then I saw that the bit was under his tongue. O.O His mouth was closed and he was bright and alert for the whole ten minutes before he finally opened his mouth enough to see it. I felt horrible. It must have been uncomfortable, but for some reason, he just put up with it.

If that had been Victor, he would have been gaping and tossing his head the minute the bridle was on. That's one thing I'm grateful for. He lets me know right away if something's wrong and he isn't about to suffer a fool (good thing he's not Cynthia's horse. She'd be six feet under by now). I will say that I prefer the intolerant horses for that reason.

On the other hand, Reba would definitely fall into the irrationally tolerant category. She gets ridden into the ground and handled by ignorant people/inexperienced riders regularly and she never puts a foot wrong. Horses like that are worth their weight in gold. It's worrying me more and more because of her age. She's noticeably more sway backed than she was when I first met her and I've noticed that she's stiff when she comes out of her stall. It's more prominent in the winter months as well, and I think she might be a little arthritic. Not that anyone who rides her is likely to care.

So, what are your stories? I'm interested to hear from you. Have you ever encountered one of those amazingly kind horses and if so, did they have good or bad owners?

Post- lotto dream barn?

We all fantasize about our perfect barns. Here is what mine would be:

Situated on 30-50 acres with state-of-the-art facilities. I'd have an indoor arena with two sections of the barn on either side. The whole building would be heated and I'd have at least 30 stalls. It would be a training/boarding/lesson facility and all my lesson horses would be feedlot rescues and ex-racehorses. I'd have a few grooms and trainers on staff that specialize in rehabilitation and retraining.

I'd have two tack rooms, wash racks, and feed rooms (one for each section) plus a lounge, an office, outdoor arena, and a little store. The barn would be open to all disciplines but specialize in jumping and dressage. The pastures would have a creek running through them and lots of trees. I'd have a long, asphalt driveway that led to the main entry and an area with a fountain and benches. I would also take in auction horses and get them back into shape, retrain them, and sell them to good homes. I'd also put Norman in dressage training and have someone give him some show experience.

I want to make a blueprint of it sometime... I have it all planned out, just in case I get lucky.

I want to hear from you-- what would you do if you suddenly came into a lot of money?

I love our farrier.

Norman was scheduled for a trimming yesterday and our farrier pointed out that he didn't really need it. It's a small fortune to have a draft trimmed ($50 without shoes) so that was cool. What an honest guy. He did trim up some uneven edges and only charged ten bucks, and he took the time to explain how winged edges effect soundness and how to tell exactly when a horse needs to be trimmed. I luffs him.

I was also pleasantly surprised when he said that Norman has exceptional feet.

Usually the drafts you see at shows have huge, square shoes that are heavy and make the horse lift his feet higher. The farrier told us that horses shod like that usually have arthritis by age six. Now I know why the horses I see at the fair have such hideous feet. And I thought draft people were generally decent folks. :( Just goes to show where the horse world is going.

Mud... ugh.

The paddock is like a swamp and it's supposed to rain for the next three days. Most of the horses are in their stalls, except Jack. Cynthia and Mitch have this weird thing about stalls and they don't want their horses in them unless they absolutely have to be. I think it's because they don't want to muck them.

Mitch's TWH mare had a swollen foreleg and fluid all the way up to her knee, plus a cut on the inside of her leg that probably got infected because of all the mud. I guess Cynthia noticed it before I did but didn't do anything about it. Nothing surprising. But Jack has been lame for a couple weeks now, and it's probably from standing in eight inches of mud and shit 23 hours a day. They drove him out on the trails the other day and I seriously doubt that she even knows he's ouchy. His fetlocks were hot a few days ago, but now he's just tender on his front legs. It must really suck to be him. They feed him brittle, moldy cattle hay that's yellow and gray and stinks to high heaven. His muscle tone has deteriorated since they bought him and his coat is dull. The poor guy is going to look like an old nag by the time he's fifteen.

I worry about Reba, too. The BO is really stingy with her feed.

I'm all about longevity. I want my horses to be as healthy as possible for as long as possible. Beezie Madden's horse, Judgment is 17 and still clearing 6-foot oxer combinations easily. That's pretty sweet.

The key to longevity is to maintain, maintain, maintain. That means the harder you work a horse, the harder you take care of him. It's a foreign concept to some people I know. I see Reba being worked to a sweat and then tossed into her stall or paddock. They just ride and leave. Reba's about 25, and she looks every day of it. I don't know how much longer she can keep going at this rate. Actually, there are several horses out there that look like shit.

On another note, Levi is calming down a little. He still hates Victor and Victor avoids him at all costs. I haven't found any new wounds on him, though. The other day, Levi decided to go after one of the older horses, but Norman was between them. He turned around and nailed him four times in the chest. Now all the horses hide behind Normy. XDDD I think that's what Vic's been doing.

I'm beginning to think that Levi is more of a dumb brute than anything. A very handsome one, but still dumb. He hasn't really learned his place in the heard and he just doesn't know when to stop once he starts pushing the others around. Norman is the only one that will stand up to him. He's a slow learner. Or very stubborn. He really needed to have his ass kicked, though. I think that's what finally calmed him down. At least he isn't as much of a pain in the ass as he was.

Victor colicked last night

I got a call from Cristy at about 8:30 and said he was acting funny. So my mom and I went out and one of the other boarders was walking him in the arena. He was all sucked up and wanted to roll. Lorena came right out with the medicine and I walked him for a good 2 1/2 hours until he started feeling better. We were there until 11:00 pm. But he seems to be okay now.

Colic is always scary. My trainer lost her hunter/jumper to colic and he ruptured his colon because nobody did anything about it for five hours. Very sad stuff.

I went to an auction last night

And I should have slapped the guy who was selling most of the horses. I think he was a broker. All of his horses looked pathetic. They were all dirty, and there was one skinny dun mare who hadn't had a hoof trimming in months and was lame. I should have slapped him. I wasn't expecting any good quality stock last night, but it upsets me every time. There was also a chestnut overo filly who was broken to ride and only two years old. You could tell she had tons of growing to do. She was cute, though. I'd say she was the best one there.

The saddest part was the last horse, also belonging to the shitstick broker. The horse was filthy, shaggy, thin and sway backed. They claimed he was in his upper teens, and I believe it. He certainly looked old and defeated, and I'm sure he's had a hard life. He looked awful. There are 30-year-old horses that look better than he did. They had the bid all the way down to fifteen bucks, and nobody wanted him. I was an inch away from taking him... but then the broker offered to give him away, and a girl took him. Which worked out for the best because I didn't have a trailer and I don't know what I'd do with another horse. lol The girl was well-dressed and she seemed nice, so I hope she'll take care of him.

I'd like to go again. I might not be able to keep myself from buying a horse, though.