Monday, June 27, 2011

Have you ever heard of Neck Thread Worms?

It's just beginning to be continually hot where I'm at and Sugar and Rally have been ITCHY! Rally scratched spot on his chest so badly it was raw skin. Sugar had a spot on her chest that was bleeding slightly. This took only 2-3 days to happen.
So off to the internet I go for research on the first day of scratching. First of course there's Sweet Itch, but after more research I come up with Neck Thread Worms. Nasty little things, here's a thread on COTH about them: http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?t=155469
So I email the resident COTH expert and get the exact treatment, and reassurance that it will not kill my horse, or Rally. Then I go trucking off to Tractor Supply for Equimax wormers and medicated shampoo.
The next morning we bathe both horses and worm them. By the next morning, it was obvious that no more scratching had occurred and it looks like the chest scratches are healing. Sugar has a scratch on her neck which I am concerned about, but have been medicating. It appears to be healing.

I have taken pictures on my cell phone of their chests, and I will post pictures as soon as I am back home with my phone to computer cord.

I just had to share this because I learned that many horse owners have never heard of them. If your horse is rubbing all his hair off his body, or especially mane and tail hair, this is worth looking into. Rally has always rubbed his tail, I am excited to see if this "cures" it. Rally has also rubbed his belly a good bit. Sugar rubs her mane occasionally, and has recently developed a cut on her neck, I believe this is due to her scratching her neck on the wooden wall. Her chest looks worse than his however, and it starting to heal up.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Sugar won something!

I entered a photo of Sugar in the dirty horse contest on DressageMom and she was one of five winners!!! The prize is the new ShowSheen product, Finishing Mist. I will do a blog on it when it gets here!!

Patty Lynch, the wonderful amazing trimmer was out Friday and I had forgotten how much fun it is having her out! I always learn something and enjoy talking to her. Sugar and Rally's feet are doing much better, Sugar stands still for her now and she absolutely loves Rally. I've been working a bit with Sugar on standing still when things are being done to her...brushing, feet trimming, mane braiding...and she's doing much better. This is courtesy of Patty's first visit, when I was appalled by my little mare's behavior.
She commented on how perfect Rally's feet are and she really enjoys him, she even kissed his nose. Rally is a gelding, about 12ish and has always been barefoot since before we got him. Everything about him is easy. He doesn't need special feeds or anything to maintain a plump, healthy figure, sturdy hooves, or a happy demeanor. He's the first to greet you at the gate and is very respectful of your space. He ground ties and picks up his feet with ease. Everyone that meets him loves him. He makes a great role model for Sugar :)

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Check out the followers, friends...11!!! Welcome Mare & Deanna!!! I enjoy reading about your teaching posts, Mare and I thought your mare's roached mane looked adorable, but looks really cute growing out as well!!! Deanna, I LOVE your Fjord. You'll have to share some of your tips on teaching her to neck rein!!!!

I attend school in the evenings as I work full time. I go two evenings a week for four hours. I also do two online classes, which I do all the work for on Saturdays. It seriously cuts down on ride time. However, other than tomorrow, I have three and a half weeks off of school...YES!!!!

Miss. Sugar better get her workout clothes on!
#1 thing to work on: ground work. She's getting pushy and I've got to put a stop to that, other people do handle Sugar, so pushiness is simply not allowed. It's hard to work on this, because she's fine in the arena where it's easy to work, but outside of the arena, she's not so fun.
#2 thing to work on: trotting, trotting, trotting. We both need it and if we ever hope to canter nicely again, we've got to get on it.
#3 thing to work on: ask for the canter after two weeks of trotting, trotting, trotting!!!

I found this little cat in the barn and took it to the York County SPCA. Her tail was badly injured or she would have been able to stay at the barn. I dropped her off on Saturday, but I might call back and see if she's still around. My friends randomly offered to donate to her adoption fee...

Monday, June 13, 2011

Ow!

I got my arm stuck between Sugar and her wooden stall gate this weekend...ow. Just a bruise and massive swelling, but not broken! It's on the part of your arm right below the wrist, where it's bony.
We are cleaning up from another massive storm, trees fell on three different sections of fence, and the boys were chopping them up, it just so happened that the stars aligned and Sugar spooked, I was not paying attention because I had brought my aunt to visit my "super calm, laid back, sweet mare". Sugar was the antithesis of calm, sweet, etc. with those chain saws running!!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

9 Followers!!!!

Dear people who care about Sugar's life,
THANK YOU FOR CARING!!! We now have 9 followers here at Minus Pride :) Can you believe it???!!! I can't. Almost to the double digits!!!

Welcome, ToCatchAPony!!! Regarding the literal meaning of your name, I never had a pony personally but an old Quarter Horse mare I had once upon a time, named Annie gave me a run for my money several times!!!

Also, the Equestrian Ink blogger, Francesca Prescott follows now as well!!!! If you don't already, you just have to go over to Equestrian Ink and read about Qrac. Make sure you bring tissues to clean up your drool afterwards...he is GORGEOUS!!!

And one more thing...have any of you been over to Dressage Mom's blog?? Absorbine has given her 5 bottles of Show Sheen to give to her readers...you either have to e-mail or Facebook the dirtiest picture of your horse!!! I looked and looked and realized I try not to photograph Sugar when she's dirty!

PS- I figured out how to add the blogs I read list to the side!!! It's at the bottom of the right side. If any of you followers have a blog that's not on there, please tell me. I want to read it!!

Monday, June 6, 2011

7 Followers!!!! :)

I just realized I have a new follower!!!! YAY!!! Welcome Dreaming!!! That makes seven total. Sugar has seven fans...she is at attention hog and I can tell she loves to know that seven people read about her.

I've been busy yet again so my blog posts are intermittent. I did hose Sugar off last week and she appeared to appreciate it. She didn't dance or jig, but just kept grazing. She didn't really enjoy the water dripping down over her back legs, but tought ta-tas Sugar!!

What a weekend. It was beautiful, perfect riding weekend. We rode on Friday evening, got rained out on Saturday, and rode again on Sunday. Sugar has seriously limited trail experience, and she needs miles. To set the scene: the barn is fairly close to town, on a dead end road that is right off of a very busy, very loud road. So, there's a trail that goes around their pasture, which takes about ten-fifteen minutes to ride, and that's about all there is on the property. We have permission to ride through a neighbor's yard to a quieter road.
There's a perfect farm behind us, but the owner is worried about liability. I keep urging the boyfriend to go over and talk to him and tell him about the Equine Law in PA...if you post the two signs you are released from liability and the Equine Council will fight any legal battle that comes out of it.

Sugar has no on road experience, at all. She is fine around the farm's tractor, implements, four wheelers, etc. but they have never come up upon her in the manner that a car would on the road. Also, she spends little to no time walking on paved roads. Rally used to trail ride every day when I had Pride (Pride was a master of trails and any off farm experiences as long as it was me riding him) but Rally has become less immune to the sights/sounds/etc. involved in riding off farm.
So I think we will slowly expand our horizons until we are able to go anywhere. On friday we rode to the lower barn, and out on the dead end road the barn is on from the driveway of the barn to the driveway of the house (a whole 40 ft. :)As luck would have it, a car did come up behind us and slowed down and drove behind us for half of this little jaunt. The car was new and shiny, but very quiet. Sugar was unaffected and I assume Rally was as well because he didn't go flying by us. I did open a gate from her back as we rode around the farm, and she wasn't bothered by that. I also got down and back up at another gate and she didn't want to stand still for me to get off, but wasn't exactly bad either.
On Saturday, we went over to ride, but a thunderstorm happened while we were there, so we decided to brush Sugar & Rally. Bryan came up with the idea to braid their manes, in the Arabian type manner, I had never done it before, but I had the concept :) Excuse the blurry cell phone pic, but here are the results:

A little wavy, but she's so cute!! She's bothered because Rally was getting a treat where she's looking and all I want her to do is stand pretty!!

On Sunday, we went the whole way to the dead end and around the little cul-de-sac circle and back, and also the little trail around the pasture. Rally spooked once while we were on the pasture trail, but Bryan is so unflappable that he calmed right down.

All in all, our first "trail" riding weekend was a success. Sugar generally leads because she is so curious and Rally is much more timid. Sugar's curiousity really helps us because most times she is much too curious to be bothered with spooking. Rally is willing to lead when he is familiar with the territory.

The only trouble I really have is Sugar trying to trot off every so often instead of just walking along. I have tried jiggling the reins to get her attention back on me, but that didn't work. I thought maybe she's just nervous/excited and then just sat through it, but that didn't work. So then I squeeze back with both reins. I think I will try doing some circles when she gets like that. If anyone has any suggestions other than that, they would be much appreciated :)