Ways to entertain yourself and your horse when you can't ride..

Aj and Sterling Soda Testing, Summer '11

Throughout the crunch that was finals this spring and repeated set backs of my film sets, I thought about my 'foster child.'As many of you know I'm a bit of a sap for the skinny cribber, Sterling. He proved to be my inspiration through the (many) sleepless nights and frenzied scribbles to meet deadlines. I day dreamed about him in times of crisis like fat girls have food dreams. I plotted his schooling for the summer and my goals for him (cantering a perfect circle consistently!) and with the help of the other girls I was confident he would be ready to show successfully next season. I was crestfallen to say the least when I came back from vacation to find Sterling was under the 'broken pony' list.  The prognosis was either a stiff stifle, or a small hoof abscess. Or both. Either way the best thing for him was rest. For the summer.

I was a little devastated.

Although he shamelessly responded to his new nickname "Broken Butt" quite well, he much preferred his new butt and stifle massages that came with my appearance. Now not only has he learned that he can scratch his head all over me when its itchy (I let him do it when he was having a little colic and he was convinced he was dying...now I insist he can only do it when no one is looking) he also became quite fond of turning his butt to me once I walk in his stall. I get a gold star for teaching ground manners... not : )

The first week was the hardest I think, for both of us. It made me feel supremely guilty inside when i would zip up and down the drive fetching horses for lesson kids. If he saw me walking by his pasture he would neigh at me like 'um, aren't you gonna come get me? I have a lot of stuff I need to work on!' I'd put my head down and pretend to be invisible. I decided to chronicle my journey through my mostly riderless summer with my chum, to share with everyone that life out of the saddle is not all that boring.

1) The first week was groom-a-poolza. Sterling was bathed, rinsed, shampooed, conditioned, trimmed, brushed and hand grazed six days out of the week. By sunday it occurred to me I could brush him bald, and as much as the attention getting might please him, I decided to look for alternative things we could that was constructive to our time.

2) The following week I established a goal. That was to make my friend the dressage whip and Sterling, the nervous thoroughbred, friends. This goal was relatively met. I entered his stalled randomly and placated him with carrots if I could tap him with the crop. He's a smart young chap and he liked this game of tapping his legs with the crop, lifting his leg, and getting a treat. Eventually I'm thinking I can justify buying that bejeweled black and white dressage whip at tag-a-long tack. (it's so garish, I love it!)  Cannot wait to ride with a dressage whip in the future and play 'blast-off' every five strides : ) Wheeee

3) At one point I just missed seeing him move. With Aj's permission I took him into the arena to let him stretch his legs. He essentially walked from K to F selecting the various hay from the subsequent stacks. At one point he felt inspired to 'lunge' around me at a few circles at the trot, I felt quite honored. It was beautiful and he was floating and his coat was shining : D .... and then he cantered off lame. Ugh.

4) Still a bit stiff a few weeks later I opened a new career before Sterling: soda connoisseur. Since he is always in my business now that he has that cribbing collar, and I'm frankly going against everything I've ever believed.. but I decided to share a few coca-colas with Sterling during his initial pitiful days of downtime. You know.. like finish off the bottom of the cup for me buddy, thanks. What we have discovered thus far is: Coca-cola and Dr. Pepper are fantastic, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, and black coffee, not so much. If you're holding a solo cup across the aisle and Sterling is halfway out of his stall stretching out his neck with a crazy look on his face twitching his lips... just ignore him. He'll be fine.

5) Fear of the clippers/ hair cutting of any sort: Stay tuned! No respectable stoner is clean shaven, he argues.

6) Got one or two rides in with some trotting and a few circles. Was still stiff but no severe lameness. Felt good to be reunited : ) Felt great to watch him behave somewhat in a lesson.

7) Cleaned my tack! Whenever you're bored is a great time to clean tack, boots, and wash your pads and polos!

8) Taking nature walks. We've walked up and down the driveway a few times, we're about to begin walking up and down the golfcart path up to Beverly's house as part of his stifle strengthening. He could also do with a walk down to the creek, I'd love to see his brain wrap around the concept of running water. But basically walks over hills.

9) We have also walked Into A and Intro B dressage tests in the arena. Not particularly fascinating but I'm counting on him to memorize it better than me.

10) Practice that grooming stuff! Now that I'm working as a show groom i need to re-learn that stuff from 4-H, like braiding and polo wrapping legs. It's a good idea for everyone to practice this stuff, especially if you have a sleepy patient buddy like me : ) I know he will be thrilled to let me do his hair.

Feel free to suggest what you and your horse do on rainy days or down time. There really is lots to do! All the same I'll be happy when Sterling is fit, muscly, and showin' the kids what he's made of.

What makes a good Stallion: They really exist!

Artrageous, Standing at stud at Fox Haven Farm

Alright, as some of you might have known I've been a little scarce at the ranch and scanty with my blogging. In all fairness I have started another full time quarter in college, and being the workaholic I am I opted to take on an additional job. While I was nervous about talking to my superiors at the Blue Skies staff  about this, (barns have a code of conduct, one is don't cheat on your barn.) anyone who knows me understands I have a powerful drive to learn. Synergy Performance was just one of those places that I would be crazy to pass up because owners Kristina and Richard Ginn hold a wealth of knowledge that many 'professionals' in this industry could stand a lesson or two from.

While they are not specifically a breeding facility, they have three studs on property. To an outsider that might sound ostentatious, wild, and daring. Mention the world stallion and your mind may form the stereotypical image of wild screaming muscular beast. I certainly recall working at a warmblood facility with a 'renowned' trainer who rode internationally, and handeling her stallions was a matter of life and death. I was pulled out of my boots on multiple occasions, dragged down aisles and ate my fair share of gravel. Eventually, I got pretty good at digging my heels into solid concrete and pretending to be an ancor. But honestly, I'm 105lbs wet, and when a 1400lb stallion wants to turn me into his personal kite, he probably can. In one particularly rank display her 17+hh stud nearly dislocated my shoulder, the trainer asked me if I had 'even handled stallions before,' in a very mocking tone.

Truth is I had, a few stallions. Stallions around mares even. Baroque stallions, thoroughbred stallions, quarter horse stallions. While they were often noisy and easily excitable, they were nothing like the aforementioned demonic dinosaur hybrids priced at $35,000 and up. A good stallion will not only have outstanding conformation that best fits his breeds' standards, but he should be a shining example in personality as well. Sure said self proclaimed world famous' trainers' stud passed on wide chested foals with great shoulders... they looked great if you rode through the bucks and temper tantrums. Being unseated by the young horses at said nameless facility was more common than it was uncommon. A good stallion will in effect, with good handeling, behave exactly like a gelding. I am pleasantly surprised with each interaction of Kristina's studs. (still mentally recovering from the last batch of stallions like some horrible hang over) Kristina's stallions are polite and have a great sense of space, with puppy dog affection. They are walked to and from their stalls with cotton leads and not stud chains. Her stallions are well aware they will be 'disciplined' if they act negatively, but it is always fair... and honestly I have yet to see them cause a ruckus. Less can be said of the mares... : ). Mares...

For visual proof watch this video of Kristina's four year old saddlebred stud on his fourth ride, ever. If I didn't tell you, you wouldn't know : ) 

Sure he's poking his shoulder out and moving like a baby, but he's not careening out of control by any stretch of the imagination, despite mares being within earshot. It's just so refreshing for me to see. 

A lot of times when a colt is on the ground, horse owners have a decision to make. A lot of times, I believe, their emotions get the best of them because they want to make the boooouuttiful horses in the whole wide sunny world. All I can ask of horse people is to be rational. If your colt lays in your lap but is cow hocked with weak stifles and a back end that can be described as concave, don't allow it to continue in the gene pool! There are too many horses in the world being laid to rest because they were not bred carefully.

Lets say you end up with a stud who has wonderful conformation and its so sweet your grand kids can ride it bareback in a halter. Unless it is truly a miraculous gift sent down from higher powers and angel trumpets toot every time you open its stall door; I maintain it should only remain a stud if you compete with it. That way the horse will have a reputation, and documents its abilities so you know what to expect from its offspring. If you have a hunter derby warmblood mare, she should be breed to a stud of equal or approximate level of skill AND conformation, and not a grade quarter horse cross because it's a krazy kewl kolor. That's how you end up  with all these wacky backyard friesian rocky mountain walkaloosa crosses you see at every auction. Sure they're friendly, but what are you going to do with a half ostrich, half goat creature?

My last tidbit is be a responsible stallion owner. Know your conformation, your horses' specifically, and the advantages and disadvantages it brings. Let's say, for instance, you are contacted by a client who has a long backed broodmare he wants to breed for a show jumping foal. If you have a long backed stud, you might want to point out the implications, because you will more than likely end up with a foal that more or less resembles a bus. Which is not totally undesirable for some dressage people, but still, not ideal. More about conformation in a later blog! : )

ps: For all concerned I am not leaving blue skies anytime soon, I love my extended adopted family far too much. : ) However I am thrilled at this opportunity presented to me, and I look forward on translating the knowledge I've gained from riding their more advanced horses to our young tbs and rescues. Huzzah for my awesome jobs.

Katie's Story

Here's an article written by Nancy Reece about another one of our successful rescues, the fabulous Katie.

Furlong Transition Center acquired Katie Sought Out after quite a harrowing ordeal on her part. Originally a group of rescuers were networking to rescue a horse that was auction bound. When the network dispatched a local resident to evaluate a nice large gelding of possible thoroughbred breeding she arrived to find he had already been sent to auction. Very upset she called Wendy O’Hara-Mickels at Furlong and another group in the network, Diana Baker. Diana in turn sent one of her friends to the suspected auction house Marshall Auction in VA; it was a hot Saturday afternoon. While we all waited and called the offending owner it was too late and our target horse, a bay gelding, was sold and gone from the auction yard. Never one to be out done Diana asked her person on the ground, Jan Snodgrass, to see if any other TBs needed rescuing. Jan saw 2 mares go through the auction both very skinny 1 with a terrible scar on her back leg. Since the better mare was bought by a mother/ daughter she set her sights on the other mare. To her horror she was tied to the trailer of one Jessie Austin known meat dealer sometimes hauler. After speaking to Diana they agreed on a budget and $150 was spent to save Katie, as she became known from another trip.

Katie was slaughter bound and her last ride was going to be to New Holland for gathering a load before going to a Canadian or Mexican slaughter house. Katie loaded and went home with Jan and began a 6 week recovery. Katie was approx. 250+lbs underweight. Her back leg scar ran from her hock to her fetlock and was 2x the size her leg should have been. Everyone involved was nervous of the extent of her apparent injury while it appeared to have been 6 months old and was healing, the extent of scaring lead many of us to believe she had minimal care. In Late July early Aug it was determined Katie needed a more permanent solution. Jan did a great job of getting weight on Katie but she needed a family to complete the recovery. Furlong transition had been contacted by the rescue network to take in 2 thoroughbreds from Charleston. When 1 horse was placed ahead of the shipping schedule Katie was chosen to fill the spot.

Katie was shipped with Rodeo Reba a huge beautiful homeless thoroughbred mare to Furlong Transition in the middle of the night. Katie however had other ideas about this trip. She was no way going through the auction again or with another scruffy man. Katie proceeded to demolish the hauler’s trailer and injure Reba physically and mentally on the trip down and had to be sedated for the rest of the trip. We were all very surprised and could only figure she was traumatized in her previous experiences.

Katie and Reba arrived at 3am to begin their new lives at Furlong Transition. After a few weeks it became apparent Katie was top horse in the pack composed of Katie, Reba and resident guy, the Biggie. She and Reba both had scrapes and scuffs but would be ok. For the next year and a half, Katie was in a stall with adjoining paddock during the day and out at night with her buddies. There is little activity at the barn apart from feeding, cleaning and petting. The farm is very secluded on a pretty hill top with mountain meadow pastures. Katie only had to eat, sleep and socialize with her pasture mates.

In the beginning, Rodeo Reba was the top attention horse in the barn; the few people welcomed to view them for adoption always went to Reba with her huge brown eyes and perfect form. No adopters were ever qualified enough for a mare with Reba’s issues, so she remained here. Katie’s scar was better but a big red flag for most horse shoppers. Her mane was fuzzy from malnutrition and she was shy and would not let people handle her head. Katie’s feet were shelly and she did not like to be bathed or fussed over. After about a year, Katie’s realized that the farm was going to stay under her feet and she started to warm up. The older son was comfortable turning her out she always had perfect manners.

In time, it became apparent Katie wanted more from life and she began to show off whenever company came to the barn. Katie would run, buck and come to the fence over and over again. For anyone who knew what to watch for, she was saying I am ready. Blue Skies heard that she was being started again in the fall of 2010 by Furlong and that Wendy’s neighbor, a very experienced dressage rider was working with Katie. When pictures were sent of her under saddle Blue Skies just had to come back for a 2nd visit. Gone was the scruffy necked mare in her place was a confident rose, a lady in hand, shiny and ready to move on to her next chapter. After Sami and Ashley rode her and everyone saw the pictures there was no denying Katie was going to be the next addition to Blue Skies.

 Since arriving at Blue Skies Riding Academy, Katie has come even farther down the road to recovery. Under the patient tutelage of Senior Trainer Mary Hahn and loving working students, Katie is working well in hand under saddle and is blooming under the attention (and treats) always found in abundance at BSRA. The horse who was once tied to a kill truck is now winning fans with her boundless grace and willingness to work.

On an additional happy note, the original target horse from the auction was traced down to New Holland the following Monday, was purchased and shipped to Kentucky by a group of very determined women in rescue. He became the pasture mate of Mohamed’s Dream who was adopted to the farm previously and was pasture mate to Those Bailey Blues (Bailey who belongs to Sami Malik), in her original transition and time here at Furlong Transition Center.

Feel free to share any special moments you've shared with Katie! (there must be plenty) 

West Virginia Rescue Update: Conor's Story

Conor was the youngest of the rescues we obtained from the seizure at Hidden Meadows back in September 2010. The healthiest of the bunch, he bounced back the quickest with an earnest and devoted attitude... towards food. Despite his three years Conor quickly established himself as a barn favorite for his un-flappable attitude and calm disposition. Falling trees, storms, nothing really seemed to faze this brave little guy in a strange new world. While not graced with the most desired confirmation, Conor was a breeze to start under saddle. He approached the concept of lunging and working under saddle as lazily and slowly as possible. He was often incited to travel a bit more of a clip if he was able to pony behind his best horsey friend, Sterling the thoroughbred. In fact since they stepped off the trailer from West Virginia  together Sterling and Conor formed and solid bond. They're they type that would share a stall and feed bucket if we let them. 

We had high hopes that Conor, with his level headed attitude would grow up to be an excellent candidate for our lesson program. However this is an industry where you don't make big plans. Despite spending a couple thousand on new fencing for our new property,  Aj woke up one week ago to find Conor had severely injured himself on our fence overnight. Really illustrates there's no such thing as a perfect fence. The fist size wound on the right side of his chest is healing well thanks to Aj's and our volunteers' diligence. While our vet assured us he will not be in chronic pain,  Conor has lost so much muscle in the injury that it's doubtful we'll be able to use him in our lesson program in the future. 

But that's not to say that Conor doesn't have a place. True to our creed Conor is free to roam our pastures for the next twenty years or so, however long he needs. He'll join our other sanctuary members Sneaky and Soleil for good times for many years. At present I'd say he's enjoying the high life with a barrel of hay parked at his feet at all times and a high blast fan. If you'd like to donate some hay to Conor as a 'get well soon' present, or assistance with his antibiotics, please consider checking out our paypal link to make a donation. Let's keep our thoughts on this little one and hope for the best! 

Gonna toot a horn for a second...

Just want to re share an article written by one of our patrons at Blue Skies. Thanks so much Julia!!

Breed Spotlight: Pony of the Americas

We wouldn't be Blue Skies without our POA's! These tenacious little packers have larger than life personalities and seem to rule the roost. But since there are a lot of ponies born in america each year, what makes a POA a true Pony of the Americas?

The breed got it's start in 1954 with Leslie Boomhower, who was breeding shetland ponies in Iowa.  A friend offered her a free Arabian/ Appaloosa mare who had accidentally been bred to a shetland stallion.  The colt was born with distinctive appaloosa markings, and became the foundation sire known at Black Hand. Over time the added influences of the american quarter horse, mustang, arabian and welsh pony breed enabled the Pony of the Americas to become one of the most versatile breeds on our continent. 

Originally bred for a rider that is too large for a pony but not large enough for a horse, the current height range is from 11.2- 14.0 hh. They boast large expressive eyes, dished faces, with a miniature quarter horse foundation style body. The breed registry encourages a level head set and movement that mimics a forward moving quarter horse or Appaloosa. A notoriously hardy bred they are plagued by few health problems, although some lighter coated POA's might be prone to sunburns and might require some sun screen. It is not unheard of a POA to live to thirty or beyond. Chances are with over 50,000 registered POAs in America today, you or your equestrian children have spent some time astride a POA. Don't forget to give your favorite POA a hug today!