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.

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...