Kiss & Show

This is actually a trick I taught Greta. I don't think I ever teach another horse this, but Greta is one of the few horses I've met that's not mouthy. If only they could all be this polite! She also picked up on in less than a day, and will do it without any treats, just me asking. Love that pony!

OMG as for that last picture: either I look like Justin Bieber or Justin Bieber looks like a girl. Please God be the latter!

Girl Crush?

...and don't tell Greta, she might get jelly.

So, I have a secret girl crush that I'm going to come out with. I've known her for several months now, and she's beginning to really grow on me. She's really brave, she's got an attitude, and she's very bold and curious. She's a lovely brunette, and she's also two years old.

I'M TALKING ABOUT A HORSE, SILLIES!

If I had the resources to get Greta a playmate (well, something to nanny and mommy over, really) and to start up (with help) for myself (eventing prospect anyone?) I would totally go for it. Seriously, this girl is not scared of anything. She'd much rather play with the bright blue tarp or plastic bag or rake dragging across the ground than run from it. She would much rather fervently destroy it, really.

LIZZIE! She's by Contucci and the last foal out P's beloved TB broodmare Tobin Or Not Tobin.

OMG CUTE BABY PICTURES! You could this "athletic" I guess. I just call it adorable.

She's not as tall as she looks in the picture, P is just short ;) But Lizzie should top out around 16 or 16.1 hands. She's still at that awkward my-front-end-is-catching-up-to-my-hind-end phase and everything is discombobulated, as yearlings do, but she should grow up to be a lovely (if not snarky) young lady. She already stretches like a champ on the longeline (nose on the ground, overstepping) and is picking up ground manners very quickly. P and team definitely did a good job of deterring the orphan baby syndrome before it did anything permanent. She still has her arrogant, bossy moments, but has never done anything harmful by it. She doesn't have a super flashy trot thank goodness, but it still has some nice suspension, and her walk and canter is lovely.

I have the fortune to know (and currently exercise for a week, which I'm still quite flattered about) her half-brother, and he's super awesome, super trainable, and super athletic.

Wow, half-brother Stilts. Could you jump that a little higher? You barely cleared it. This guy is by Art Deco, but also out of Tobin. We all speculate Lizzie will be a bolder, more "wired" version of Stiltsy.

Lizzie's full brother, Flash Forward, who is in training with Robert Dover and is shown here being ridden by Jenna Wyatt. He and his owner, Jodie Kelly, were reserve champions at the 2011 GAIG/USDF Region 3 Dressage Championships at Intermediare I.

And Lizzie's other full brother, Nightlife. He was champion at Pre-Green Hunter 3ft' at a few 'A' shows (don't know which, but oh well!)

And Lizzie's other half-brother, Artistic Impression, by Art Deco (Stilts' full brother). He's also rocked the Houston hunter circuit, which is a very competitive regional circuit.

So, there, a little info on my GIRL CRUSH :) I really can't wait to see how she turns out, and I hope whoever buys her makes an eventer out of her. That girl is bold and fearless and SMART.

Butters Video 2-27-2012 + Greta update

Enjoy another fun bop-around on Butters. He's SO CUTE! And by the way, for all you South Park fans, his show name is now officially Professor Chaos haha!

Greta is doing fantastically by the way. I was freaking out a bit yesterday and today during our ride because her trot felt very discombobulated (yes, that's a word) and it has for the past few weeks, but it was especially noticeable yesterday. So I was concerned that I was trotting around a lame horse and not fully realizing it. Her problem?

She too out of shape to make her hind end connect with her front end. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, it took us a long while to get her into that shape. DUH. Poor pony, what with me being a helicopter mom and all. But I guess being a helicopter mom is not so bad when you're in a careful rehabbing program ;)

Cutie

Greta was cleared by the vet to go back into the mare pasture, which will do awesome things for her hooves and legs (hopefully). Like a good child, she made friends without a fuss.

To Breed or Not to Breed?

Since I can't do much of anything with Chemistry until my appointment with friend/tutor/future-male-Abbey-Sciuto later tonight (believe me, I've tried it... it's not clicking... because it's chemistry, and apparently my brain is not as mathematical as I thought, call me conceited... thankfully I will only need basic chemistry for conservation biology, even at UT) I will type this up because I have been going on and off on typing this up and on the whole breeding thing in general, and I need some honest opinions. Don't rip me apart, I do have feelings afterall, but please be honest.

To breed or not to breed? That is the question. Am I in my right mind to even think about breeding Miss Golightly? I am not thinking about this just because she has a uterus. Believe me, I've met plenty of horses who happened to have a uterus, and I am not stupid enough to think that said organ automatically makes for breeding material. So why do I love my girlie so much that I feel the need to make sure half of her chromosomes get passed on and hang around in this world for a little while longer?

1. First and foremost, this is one of the smartest, most caring, bravest, energetic, pleasing, tries-her-heart out horse I have ever met, and I would like to think I've met enough after twelve years (though I'm no expert). It's like she has all the good qualities of mares times 10. She has never offered to bite at, kick at, charge at, or any other way act dangerous or extremely aggressive towards any person, under saddle or on the ground int he three years I've had her. To other horses in the pasture maybe, but once that lead rope is clipped on, it's YES MA'AM. About the worst she has done is get into my space on isolated accounts and do that naughty I'm-feeling-great jump the other day that I blogged about, and even that was moving away from me. She has an opinion, but tries her damnedest to figure out what you ask. But she's smart enough to take over if she absolutely needs to. She's a good boss mare if she needs to be. There have been several times on the trail we would've both ended up hurt if she hadn't have stepped in. She's complicated, but there are more good personality traits to her than bad, far more. I don't know if personality is for sure genetic, but if it is, then this is one personality I would like to keep.
2. She's a piece of heart horse. I feel like I really want to have a bit of her when she goes, even if that won't be for a long time. Enough said there.
3. She's quite hardy. She kept on trucking with a suspensory strain with minimal "off-ness", and it could've been much worse at the rate I was working her while she had it (unbeknownst to my silly self... don't think I don't still feel stupid about that). When the vet did x-rays on her legs, she was surprised at the very minimal amount of arthritis she had for a 14-going-on-15 y/o horse who had done quite a bit of activity in her lifetime (from dressage, to jumping, to almost a year of polo and ranchwork, and who-know-what-else before I got her).
4. She has awesome feet. She was able to keep on working the day her shoes were pulled, no transition time needed. And she has yet to have a hoof-related lameness *knock on wood*. The looks on people's faces when they would see us galloping on a rocky road without a hitch.
5. She has good breeding. None of her siblings (that I know of) have shown any major health or lameness issues, and her sire is still a Grand Prix schoolmaster at age 23 in regular work. Bothersome, but I do not know anything about her dam beyond her registered name, who owned her dam at the time of the breeding , and the dam's breeding. But her grandsire, an Appendix QH named Azure Request, has had many offspring very successful in the racing world and who are sound enough to race for many years and then transition into other intensive sports like eventing. Not bad.
6. She has an awesome walk and canter. Always at least a 7, usually an 8, the few times we have shown or ridden in front of judges and clinicians, and she scored high on them on her inspection papers. I will admit her trot is nothing spectacular, but it can become nice with some elbow grease, and she shows the same ability when she's feeling really special out in the pasture. Can she trot like Ravel? No. And I'm glad because I couldn't sit that. But she can get some nice loft and elevation and suspension and impulsion in it.
7. She's got a great shoulder and a pretty decent build. She has some conformational issues as far as her back legs go, and that did contribute somewhat to her suspensory strain, so that is something that worries me as far passing on.

And here are my conflicts with the whole thing:

1. There are so many horses out there. Granted, not all of them are nice, and certainly not all of them are what I am looking for (which, deep down inside, I realize is another Greta haha) and they are certainly not in my budget nor ever will be unless I get a very well-paying job (and who knows whether or not I will).
2. If I breed her relatively soon after I graduate, then I should have enough money to cover stud fees and basic vet fees. This will also leave me enough time to have enough money to put a solid under-saddle start on the baby once it is 3 or 4, if all goes well. But here's the big what if: what if all doesn't go well? Pregnancy or labor complications (I would never forgive myself if I lost Greta or the baby or both) at the very least would throw the whole budget thing out the window. If the baby ends up with a defect, it would be my complete responsibility for the rest of it's life, and once again, if that defect(s) entails maintenance medical expenses, then the whole budget thing is once again thrown out the window. Not to mention personal things: what if the economy takes another lovely spin and I lose my job or can't find one? What if something happens to me and I cannot put basic work on a yearling? What if I hit a major unseen financial expense that I will not easily recover from? Those among so many other problems have always kind of scared me away from the whole pregnancy thing (and not just for horses) and I know it's all one big what-if no matter how you spin, but how many risks would I be willing to take? By the time I am old enough and in stable enough work, Greta might be too old to be bred.
3. Finally, is Greta really nice enough to breed? Or am I just so endeared by her that I am perhaps a bit conceited?

Opinions? Be honest. I will get professional opinions, but seeing as it is a big plan, I like to get as many opinions as possible.

EDIT: Another reason for breeding is the ability to be able to start from scratch. Having worked with so many rescue and owner-to-owner horses, it begins to wear on you having to fix all these problems, some of which you just have to live with, and could have been totally preventable if people knew how to raise a horse! The good thing is that I can also do that with any super young prospect, and they're usually cheaper that way than buying them after they're trained. Still the same amount of risks as far as injury at a young age, etc. goes, but I don't risk the chance of anything happening to Greta.

AND I won't be doing ANYTHING as far as breeding until I'm at least fresh out of college. People tell me that now is time since I won't have a whole bunch of time for 4 years so the baby can grow, BUT... who has money like that in college? I don't and I'd rather my parents be funding education than a baby. Decisions, decisions!

Meds for Headshaking

The vet came out today, not only to do a follow-up lameness exam for Greta pony (she is to be on ten minutes of trot per week for the next four weeks, and I can move her back into the mare pasture, which will do wonders for her feet and legs and will get her out of the mud) and then... I asked about her headshaking.

Symptoms:

-Very itchy nose, side of face, ears

-Greta never really rolls, especially in mud (I never said she wasn't special) but when this time of year hits, she rolls with a fervor. An itchy fervor.

-Head-flicking, especially when her respiratory rate increases, but she will do it out in the paddock (the only headshaking symptom shown)

-Only shows up in early spring to mid-summer, and when allergies peak

Vet's response:

Photic headshaking does have some allergenic qualities to it, and can be so mild that it is not triggered by extreme light-to-dark situations. It is often an inflammation of the trigeminal nerve, the main nerve that comes out of the skull below the eyes along the side of the face, along some main blood vessels. This inflammation will express itself as itching and headshaking, and is often seasonal. I could go into knitty-gritty details of how the allergies relate to the nerve inflammation, but it would be A) rather confusing, and B) not very accurate as I'm not even entirely sure of the knitty-gritty details. Stupid complex multicellular organisms: they just have to be so complicated!

Compare it to something like, say, photosensitivity caused by hay fever (or any other bad allergies) in humans. Or people who compulsively sneeze when they get too much bright light in their eyes (like me, I'm a freak... good thing it's a common genetic trait among humans).

So, what are we going to try?

A combination of the medications cyprophetadine (an antihistamine and anti-serotonin) and possibly carbamazepine (an anti-seizure drug). I say possibly to the latter because a dosage usually only lasts for two hours, so it would need to be given immediately before riding. They're relatively inexpensive (I can get the former for less than $5 a month on SmartPak, and in alfalfa, peppermint, and apple-flavored!) and have been proven by clinical studies to improve headshaking (call me a non-believer of anything not clinically tested, but what can I say? I'm a science major...).

The term "improve" always does bother me. Does it "improve" by stopping entirely or just reduces the occurrences? It's such a vague word.

Cyprophetadine, however, means that Greta cannot compete in sanctioned competitions, as it is a Class 4 drug. Because we were totally going to HITS or Devon or the FEI Cup or the Pan-Am Games, and maybe the Olympics in August. Totally. Not.

Anyway, be on the look-out. I'm rather excited to get this show on the road, in a ways.

The Awkward Voicemail to the Farrier

Roll with me on this one. One subject leads to another. Whoa.

My farrier was late today. This never happens. And my family and I have been using him for seven years now (and yet to go wrong, no joke). He's usually a bit early, and I'm the one that ends up being late, even though technically I'm on time. But I'm not the most punctual person known to man anyway, but I digress....

He was LATE. I was seriously worried that something might have happened. It was very weird.

So I let Greta grazed while we waited. It's the time of the appointment, I thought I would make a polite call just to see if everything was okay. Before the message tone rang, and I figured I wouldn't bother him with a message since he would probably be rolling up any minute, so I let it pass.

Fifteen minutes later. Greta is feverishly grazing (ground manners needed revisiting aka "*in death tone* OUT OF MY SPACE... sweetheart, good girlie, YAYYYYY, pats for pony!!! *big smile*") and I decide I call and actually leave a voicemail this time seeing if everything is okay if we're still on for the appointment today.

Message tone beeps. I think I wasn't paying attention to the lead rope, and somehow it got wrapped around her leg. She didn't totally flip out, but she was backing up quickly, and instead of standing still like the sane pony she normally is (she was very full of it today, could be anything, don't really care now, and I do like to see some life in her) she decided to back up quicker and quicker. I was calmly reaching for the end of the lead that was attached to her halter, telling her occasionally to whoa, keeping my energy chill as I didn't feel any need to flip out.

Well, Miss Full-Of-It decided once I got the lead and was pulling it away from her leg that it would be great fun to - get this - rear at me. It wasn't a big rear, but it had a lovely undertone of marish-ness in it. Oh, this just got very serious.

Oh, and meanwhile the voicemail is still recording.

So this is what the voicemail ended up being:

"Whoa-ohhhhhhh..... whoa-ohhhhhh..... whoa-ohhhhhhh...... whoa-ohhhhhh..................................... good girl- OH YOU DID NOT. KNOCK IT OFF YOU *poopy face*. TRY THAT ON ME AGAIN *female canine*. GO ON, TRY IT.................... oh *feces*, it's recording."

If only I had used that nice of language :(

Animal abuse, caught on tape. She was a very good girl after my outburst (no physicality involved, mind you, just a mere... intense vocalization). I had touch of bad-mommy feelings, until I realized that it was quite uncalled for, the whole rearing thing. I think it's that time of the month for Miss Greta.

I followed this voicemail up fifteen minutes later with a final check-up call in as sweetly sane of a voice as I could come up with: "Hey, J--, hope everything is okay, just wanted to make sure the appointment is still on for today. Let me know! Bye!"

I laughed then (after I ended the call!) realizing how insane I would sound to whoever found that string of messages.

And on the whole issue of "whoas"... I'll get back to that.

It's back....

... Greta's headshaking from allergies is back with a vengeance, poor girl. And the nose net is not helping in the least bit. It was relatively mild Thursday, but Wednesday when the sun suddenly came out and it was nice and muggy, she was headshaking so violently that she couldn't even walk straight during episodes.

It completely disappeared over the winter, which once again confirms it's allergenic. She also does it without anything on her head, and it's not light-related.

So, a question to you guys (and I will be asking the vet): are any of you familiar with allergenic headshaking? Was there anything (besides nose nets) that helped significantly?

I'm looking at Shake No More Gold, but before I spend that money I want her checked out and get some opinions. I also heard good things about giving an antioxidant with MSM.

Allergies suck. PLEASE GIVE ME SOME ANSWERS!