Can I choke her now?

Cynthia feeds the horses in the morning on some days (she switches off with Cristy). I've discovered that she doesn't give them fresh water when she puts them in the pastures. I don't think her mind can wrap around the fact that horses don't drink water that isn't fresh. So there were five horses that went all day without water on Sunday. I know because when I went out to do the pm feeding, the water was stagnant and (shocking!) untouched. Awesome.

So yesterday, Cynthia did the am feeding and put Victor, Levi, and one other gelding together in the SMALLEST PASTURE ON THE PROPERTY that's barely big enough for two horses. Everyone knows that Levi hates Victor. There was no excuse. The BO's husband happened to walk outside later that day and guess what he found?

The electric fence was completely torn down and Victor was standing in the adjacent pasture covered in new wounds. Apparently Levi went after Victor and pushed him through the hot rope. Now he's scraped up all over again and he's got some new cuts on his legs and hips. He barely tolerated it when I was dressing them, so it's obvious he was hurting. I understand that the injuries aren't serious, but they're painful and that's what upsets me. I can't put a saddle over those raw spots, either. Just when the old owies were starting to heal, this happens. Thanks to Cynthia.

If this was the first careless thing she's done, I could forgive her. But she does stupid things all the time. Stupidity is her MO. If she ever used that lump three feet above her ass, this wouldn't have happened and I wouldn't have so many issues with her. This is just the first time her dumbass-ery has affected one of my horses directly. You know what she did when she found out? She called Cristy and apparently apologized profusely. I find that amusing that she called Cristy to apologize for MY horse getting hurt. Is she trying to avoid me until I cool down? She probably didn't want to be the one to tell me what happened. Or maybe she didn't have the balls to apologize to me directly. Not that it would help her case if she did. "Sorry" isn't gonna make those wounds go away. And it could have been avoided so easily.

I really want to know: Am I unreasonable for being upset? I mean about Victor getting bullied. Lorena thinks I'm being ridiculous. She is not willing to believe that her horse is dangerous and she seems to think it's perfectly normal that he chews Victor up. I don't think it's going to stop. They're okay if they're in the big drylot because Vic can get away from him, but otherwise, no. Also, Lorena and Cristy don't seem to understand that the problems are one-sided. Vic doesn't fight back at all. Levi is the instigator. How do I know? I've seen it happen many times in the past two weeks. Plus the fact that Vic is torn up and Levi doesn't have a scratch on him.

The wounds themselves don't bother me nearly as much as the idea of something happening and going unnoticed for hours. What if he'd gotten tangled in the hot wire? That's what bothers me. The scrapes and cuts aren't the worst that can happen. And it's that much worse because I'm paranoid.

I have more bad news. Rumor has it that Cynthia found two new boarders. One doesn't have a horse yet but wants one, and one lady wants to bring her horse in. If they're Cynthia's acquaintances, it can't be anything good. I don't think I can take more Cynthias. I'll go crazy if they end up being like her. My mom found a place that offers board for $100 a month, but there's no barn and it's just a pasture with a shelter. If these new people end up being bad, I think I'm going to bite the bullet and try to get my mom to move them to a place like that. I'd rather give up a nice barn and facilities than endure being around shitheads. For now I'm just praying that they end up being decent.

Victor got beat up again. D;

Levi is a bully. Vic had new owies on him when I went out yesterday. And Levi went after him (again) when I put them back out after feeding them. Lorena seems to think it'll blow over. I think not. But I've been wrong before, so we'll see. The way I see it, a horse is hard-wired to be the way he is and you can't change it any more than you can change someone's personality. I hope I'm wrong because I do not want to have to put up with my horse getting chewed up every time I turn around.

Ugh.

We had some problems last night.

When I went out to feed yesterday, eight horses were in the front pasture. That included Victor and Levi. I brought the horses in and I noticed that someone had beaten the living shit out of Victor. He had bite and kick marks all over him, especially on his neck. That has never happened before. All the horses were stressed and upset, and Levi was driving Doc (older gelding) away from all the other horses. It wasn't typical dominance behavior. Levi wasn't even letting Doc rest, no matter where he went in the pasture. I had a feeling Vic and Levi got into it, but I wasn't 100% sure is was Levi.

However, when I put the horses out that evening, Levi went after Victor again. Again, it wasn't just asserting dominance. Vic's been the dominant horse until now, so I think that's why the two of them are having so many problems. They were on opposite ends of the paddock, and Levi took one look at him and charged him. Vic got chased into the hot wire and Levi wouldn't leave him alone. So I brought Vic in and left him in his stall overnight. I might have been making myself paranoid yet again, but I kept having visions of him being driven into the fence and getting a leg caught in it or getting tangled in hot wire or kicking a hole in the metal shelter and slicing a hoof off... It's not the scrapes and bites that bother me. Those are superficial and they'll heal. It scares me to death what could happen if he and Levi were left unattended and I went out there the next morning to find a dead horse either beaten to shreds or tangled in a fence.

Levi was showing a lot of stallion behavior. Even though he was supposedly in a pasture with mares and geldings at his old place. I honestly never thought he would be like that since he's so docile with people. Pretty stupid of me, I know. I know stallions who were gelded as adults and they calmed right down and never had a problem. I'm positive that Levi still has a stallion's mentality. He herded Reba off by herself and won't let any other horses near her. He was patrolling up and down the paddock and going out of his way to chase other horses away. Vic and Doc especially. He just won't leave anyone alone. One of the mares nailed him in the jaw and now his cheek is swollen to twice the normal size. He's getting the shit beaten out of him too, because he's harassing everyone else in the herd. Vic is terrified of him, and I have NEVER seen Victor run from anyone. It was pretty brutal.

But I really don't want Levi to be sent back. I know how much Lorena and Cristy love him and I really like him as well. Just because he doesn't get along with a few of the horses is no reason to send him back. The problem is, all thirteen horses are together in one paddock. I HATE that. It's dangerous and I've nearly gotten run over several times while bringing horses in. They charge the gate because they're not being fed sufficiently and the BO is hellbent on keeping them all in "one big, happy herd", as she put it. It's ridiculous. When I first came to the barn, the drylots were separated into sections and there were one to three horses in each enclosure. The pastures were all separated, too. It was so much easier and safer. But the BO had the brilliant idea to tear out all the fencing and make the whole thing into one big paddock. She doesn't understand that some horses just do not get along. And she refuses to separate them. Now, the older and more timid horses don't get enough to eat and there's no way to assure that each horse gets the amount of hay that they're supposed to.

Lorena is extremely upset about the whole issue and I feel really guilty. She thinks the aggression would blow over eventually and they would be fine. She's mad at me for bringing Victor in because she thinks that that took away a chance for them to establish the pecking order. But I saw it and it wasn't normal. Was I wrong to take Victor out? I know the difference between asserting dominance and stallion behavior. And Levi was a breeding stallion up until last year. All I know is if I hadn't taken Victor out, I would have been up all night worrying. It felt wrong to leave him out there, and I'm sure many other horse people can relate when you just have "that feeling". Plenty of people end up losing their horses when they ignore that feeling.

I'm rambling. I'm just stressed out and guilty and I don't know what to do. I do not want to get in a fight with Lorena and I definitely don't want Levi to be sent back because of me. I have a serious headache right now.

Better photos of Levi

Lorena is absolutely head-over-heels for this horse (so am I... hehe). We're pretty positive that she's keeping him. These pics are horrible for any conformation critique, but at least it's during the day and you can actually see his beautiful blue eyes. =) He needs more muscle tone in his hindquarters, but he's solid as a rock.


I'd like to get pictures of him all tacked up. He looks pretty sharp in English equipment. He's a dream to ride, too. Victor might have some competition...

Eeerrgh. I'm going to steal their pony and give him to a little girl that will love him.

I don't know how Jack puts up with it. You should have seen what a brat Cynthia's daughter was being today. I wanted to slap her naughty little mouth. Like they say, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

I was riding Vic when Cynthia came in and started lunging Jack. It was horrible. He' can't even trot rhythmically and she's pushing him to canter. She had him cantering on the wrong lead and didn't correct him. Then she had her daughter cantering on him. And her daughter shouldn't even be trotting. She doesn't even know how to hold the reins right. I'm not surprised, seeing as Cynthia is the one "teaching" her.

Her stirrups were about three holes too long, her feet were shoved into the irons to her heels, her toes were pointed down, her legs were flopping all over the place, she was leaning forward, leaning on the reins. No wonder poor Jack got fed up. He didn't do anything really naughty, but he crow hopped a few times. And the worst part is, the girl was whining because she wanted to jump. And Cynthia is going to let her. I don't know when, but she told her daughter that she might jump next time they're out there.

This is coming from the woman who didn't even know what a diagonal is. There's no way she knows what a release is. Someone's going to get hurt and it's going to be either Jack or her daughter. Or both. It's especially sad because if Jack got really naughty, they're blame it completely on him.

Cynthia had a trainer coming out there for a while who was absolutely crazy. I disliked her from the first time I met her. She was the kind of person who just rubs you the wrong way, y'know? She had rather questionable training techniques and she was bizarre to say the least. The BO realized this (shocker, I know!) and she actually had the 'nads to tell Cynthia not her have her out there anymore. I have to give the BO a brownie point for that one. One less nutjob out there to deal with.

Now if we can just get rid of Stank Bitch.

Horse festival photos!

I went to a horse event recently and thought I'd share some of the pictures. My two favorite stallions were there. *squeals like a fangirl* Santiago and Fandango. Andalusians. They're like the ones you see in baroque paintings, only much better because they're real and standing right in front of you. Lookie and enjoy. Click for larger views...

First we have Santiago:

And the ever lovely Fandango:

This was all during the baroque presentation.

The vaulters were awesome.

This was when the mare spooked. Fortunately they all managed to stay on and it wasn't a big deal.

Friesian mares with their foals. It was adorable to watch.

And last but not least, we have the mini pulling the chariot. It was hysterical. XD They were tearing around the arena and the music was all dramatic and it was just hilarious. lolz

Aaannd... a picture of Annabel because she's cute and fuzzy. You can tell she has such a hard life.

*pulls hair out*

I did it again. I cleaned up after Cynthia. She had a bunch of kids riding Reba again last night and as expected, she wasn't groomed. I wasn't there, but Lorena was and she told me Cynthia also had her five-year-old son riding the barn owner's Thoroughbred mare. Who had also not been groomed afterward as she had a dirty, sweaty saddle mark on her when I went out this afternoon. And the BO didn't seem to care or even notice. I would have knocked her ass through the ceiling if that had been my horse. I'm assuming she had permission, but Cynthia's got some nerve treating the barn owner's horse that way.

So anyway, I took some pics of Reba after she got all cleaned up. She's pretty cute when she's clean.

Sorry for the bad lighting. Photos don't come out that great in the barn. XP

She's a gorgeous color. I love roan horses. You can't even see her skinny-ness in the pictures. Her ribs stick out and you can feel all the vertebrae in her spine. Her dock sticks out as well and her hindquarters are really sunken in. She's be really cute if she gained weight and filled out.


You can kind of see her ribs in this one. She's a bit sway backed, too. But still irresistible. She's so patient and forgiving. Probably way too patient, but a lot of horses are. And unfortunately those are the ones that most frequently end up with bad owners/riders.

She's another reason I really hesitate to move. No one would look after her and she'd probably never see a curry comb again. Stank Bitch Cynthia would continue to use her as a play toy and no one would care. If I moved, Lorena and Cristy would probably come with, so Reba would definitely have no one (can you tell I really really really like this horse? lol).

IF I move, I might call her owner up and fill her in on everything. And possibly ask her if she would consider moving Reba to the place I go. I'm sure she would at least consider it if she knew what was going on.

Lorena and I went to look at this therapeutic riding facility today and it was absolutely gorgeous. It's on 20 acres, the barn being remodeled, there's a pond and a creek that runs through the pastures, indoor/outdoor arenas, and all the horses were in great condition. The people there were nice and they really care about the horses. It's a boarding facility as well as the therapy riding. We want to do volunteer work there, and we could eventually become state certified instructors. And if I worked out there, they might let me keep my horses out there for a lower fee. It's a huge "maybe", though. So we'll see.

Finally, as promised, I got a picture of Levi. It's not very good, though. It was getting dark and you can't see much. I brightened it a lot, but it's still yucky. I'll get better ones as soon as I can. I apologize again for the cruddy photos. :/