What A Wonderful Day for a Hack

Finally, a day off of work! I actually really love it that I don't have to work Sunday's much. Gives me a day during the weekend to spend with the hubby. And seeing as I haven't been out to the barn lately, I decided to go see my boys and ride.

Left the house around 11:30 and quickly got out to my parents place. Didn't see anyone around, so I went to the back to grab Dollar from the holding pen. And man, was he MUDDY!!!!! I almost thought I had a black horse instead of a chestnut. Sheesh Dollar. Just because there is mud around, doesn't mean that you have to roll in it ALL THE TIME!!

So I got him out, tied him up to the fence and got to scrubbing all that mud off. Luckily, it wasn't caked on too bad. Once he was all cleaned up, I threw my English saddle on him, got him out of the arena and off we went!

Decided for today that we were going to do a 4-mile hack with basically just walking and trotting to build him back up and build up his feet. So out on the road we went. Started out casually at a walk and then progressed to a trot to let him stretch out. He seemed to be moving out OK and had energy, even though he's FAT! Oh Dollar. Actually it doens't bug me that much because he'll be staying outside during winter (and it gets frigid up here in Winterpeg, Manisnowba), but on the other hand, it doesn't help his heaves. What to do, what to do. I guess we'll stick with doing hacks right now, just to keep him moving until spring comes and then we can get to working really good. I don't have an indoor arena, so that means we'll be doing a lot of work in the snow. See what happens.

Anyways...back to the hack. Once he got trotting, Dollar had figured out that we were going in the direction of another place that's just down the road from us and used to go there all the time when he was younger. Well, we weren't going there today. He was moving pretty fast and tried to get me to go there, but once we past the driveway, he knew that we weren't going, although he was still trying. Once we got past there, he slowed down and was a bit hard to get back into the trot again. Old Man, why do you have to do this to me??

We continued alternating between walking and trotting for the next mile and half. And we did get some walk work on pavement done! There's a stretch of paved road about 1 mile from my parents place, so when we got to said stretch, I let him walk it (which was about 1/2 mile), turned the corner and back into a trot.

Now, about this 3rd mile. He actually did really good. He managed to stay trotting almost all of the first half and then when we got to the 2nd half, I decided to ask him for a canter. This part of the 3rd mile is really packed down and hardly any cars go on it at all. It's actually situated between 2 fields of cows, so it's basically a farm road that's really packed. So Dollar picked up his canter right away and then decided that he wanted to stretch his legs. And of course, I agreed. He started gathering speed faster and faster until I realized that he was doing a medium-fast gallop. And he did that for almost the entire half mile! Once we started getting closer to the intersection, I just lightly pulled and asked him to slow down. Which he obliged like the gentleman that he is. He was huffing and puffing and wheezing a bit, but he felt so good!!

We walked/trotted the next mile home (he knows that he's not allowed to run home at all) and once we got home, I untacked him, checked him over and put him back into the holding pen. Lovely ride!!

Hacking and Winterizing

Another lazy day today. I did have plans to go ride both my horses, but as always, plans never really work out. I was getting ready to leave my house when my Dad called, asking me to do some stuff for him on the interwebz. Turns out that his "stuff" took me close to an hour to do. Not happy.

After all the stuff was done, I quickly high-tailed it out to my parens place to quickly ride the Old Man. Got there in no time and went out into pasture to find him. Luckily as I was walking out there and calling his name, he started coming towards me, therefore no need to hunt for him (sorry to make you jealous Kelly!).

I quickly got him tacked up and headed out for a 2-mile hack, seeing as I didn't have time to do a 4-mile. Grr... He did pretty good throughout the 2 miles, but I could tell that his steroid shots had worn off. He was weezing at the trot, but it also doesn't help that he has a nice big grass belly on him. I really do need to come out more often and ride him. Stupid work. I did get him loping about 1/4 mile, and as usual, he was lazy.

Out on our hack

Once we got back home, I untacked him and got to work winterizing his tail. I'm trying to make it grow longer, but with him living in the bush, it's not working. That and I'm not down there everyday to comb it out. although I do everytime I ride. My friend Kelly had given me a good idea on how to winterize his tail.

Basically it was to put leave-in conditioner in there, comb it out to get rid of all the dreadlocks, braid it like normal and then wrap it up in vet wrap. Sounded simple enough. So I did. And yes, that is purple vet wrap. I made sure that it wasn't tight around the tail bone and I'm hoping that it will stay on.

The newly winterized tail. Lol. Love the purple.

After I was done with his tail, I decided to take some photos of how his feet are looking. It's been about a month and a half since his trim and they're looking really good. See for yourself!! The only crappy thing is that it's been really wet out here adn he's out in pasture, so it's not the most ideal conditions for his feet, but it's all I have.

Left front

Left back

Right bck

Right front

Sigh....gotta love my old man. Lol.

A Little Hack

Had the day off today and seeing as my Dad and sister Sam weren't going to CWHA finals, me and Sam decided to go for a ride.

Had to make a quick stop at the pasture where Dollar was because we moved them, but my stuff was still there. So I grabbed my stuff and then went to my parents place. Sam and Dad had just gotten home, so while they were busy unloading the trailer from the show yesterday, I went into a different pasture and brought out Dollar and Mars. * sigh* Dollar's getting a grass belly. I kinda giggled when I saw him and called him Fatty McFatso. Lol. Oh well, he'll be going on a hay diet soon. That should help. He's on grass 24/7 so no wonder he's got a grass belly. So does Mars, and Reno.

Got the two out that we needed and closed the gate. Sam was coming out to bring water to the horses (the horse to the water tub is shot) and so as I was closing the fence (it's a stubborn one), Sam grabbed D & M and took them back. Actually she grabbed Mars while Dollar decided to walk himself to the barn, promptly away from Sam. She was yelling at him to stop, but he had her on ignore and just kept walking. Oh boy. Sam caught him and then I grabbed him and brought him up to the barn.

Started getting him ready to ride and noticed that he was breathing a bit heavy today. I let him stand there for a bit while I grabbed his bridle and his bit from the tack box. Remember when I changed the bit last time. Well it turns out that the bit was way to big for him, so I found a dog-bone snaffle that fits him perfectly. While I was changing the bits around, my nephew Brody came up to me and asked to sit on Dollar. So of course, like a good Aunt, I obliged....

Yes, I'm teaching him young. Lol. Don't worry. He's already learning how to ride and has his own Western saddle already. Once I got him off, I continued to switch the bits and finish getting Dollar ready for our ride. Once we were ready, I hopped on Dollar and we headed off down the road.

We were going to do a 4-mile ride, but Dollar was breathing heavy and being really picky over the rocks, unlike last time. He was actually fighting me to go into the ditch because he was starting to stumble on the rocks a bit. When we got about 1 mile into our ride (coming up to an intersection), I stopped him, hopped off and took a look at all his feet to see if there were any rocks in there. There was nothing, so I told Sam that we'll cut it down to a 2-mile hack instead because Dollar wasn't doing good.

We basically walk/jogged the rest of the ride home. Sam turned around when we got about 1/2 mile from home to take Mars for a run. Dollar didn't even bat an eye at him.  Got home all safe and sound and checked his feet over again. Nothing in there, so I'm guessing that his feet are just a little sore. Untacked him and gave him his grain and some supplements and then kicked him back out into pasture. Hopefully I can get out to ride again soon....

Just Another Hack in Paradise....

Hack day today!! Lately when I've been riding Dollar, I've been staying in the arena to work on some dressage. In theory it works, but not for him. After spending a couple days in there, I decided we were long overdue for a hack day. Once he's spent too long in an arena, he gets very slow and lazy and just plain down. So when I got out to pasture today, I brought my tack along with me, caught him (although he was more interested in eating) and tack him up quickly.

Before our hack, he looks like he's not sure what we're doing

Went out on the road and he changed from a slow and lazy 18-yo to a feisty 2-yo. I had my spurs on just for encouragement, but didn't really need them. Set out at a brisk walk down the road and I'm proud to say that there were no feet issues!! They're toughening up!! Of course, Dollar being Dollar likes to walk on the side of the road where all the rocks are. And no issues at all!!

We started out at a brisk walk and then progressed into a jog/trot. He was moving quite nicely, so I just let him have loose reins while we were hacking. He started out at a jog, but then quickly proceeded to take advantage of this and stretch his legs out into a trot. Why doesn't he do this in the arena?? Because it's Dollar and he's a gentleman.

Surveying his surroundings

We headed down the road just going along. Dollar was looking all over the place since he was on a loose rein. When I moved him into a trot, he actually started to stretch out a little and gave me a little bit on an extended trot! We alternated between the walk and trot just to get him working a bit. Once we hit some pavement (about 1 mile from our place), I moved him onto there to help toughen up his legs. He didn't seem to keen on that at first, but still went trotting on there. He was feeling awesome so I asked him for a canter. He went into his canter (again on a loose rein). I let him canter for ½ mile and brought him down to a walk when we reached the corner.

We walked around the corner and kept walking for a while. OK, walking for a while was in MY mind, not in Dollar's. He decided that we should keep trotting (he figured out that we were going home) so I just let him. As long as he's not running home (no more of that EVER AGAIN!) he can trot home all he wants. While we were going down the 2nd mile, we found some cows!! Yes I took a picture. Lol. Dollar wasn't interested at all, he was focused on his mission.

Cows!!

We continued on our way and when we got to the ½ mile marker, I let him canter the ½ mile to the corner, while doing a little bit of sprinting. He loved that! Trotted around the corner and alternated between walking and trotting home. We were on the 3rd mile and into a head wind (which was extremely cold!) so Dollar walked home as fast as he could. Turned the corner for the last half of the 4th mile and extended trotted back to pasture.

When we got there, he was doing pretty good, not breathing too heavy and still looked like he could keep on going. I untacked him, put my stuff away and pasture. Going for another hack tomorrow!!

Dollar Has Gone Barefoot!!

Today Dollar is going barefoot!! Yes!! Ever since I've started reading the Eventing-A-Gogo blog, I have been contemplating going barefoot with Dollar seeing as he is getting old and really has no use for them anymore. I mean, he's not showing all the time now and there's no need to be throwing money away on his feet, when they are such low maintenance.

So I headed down to my parents place today, went to pasture to grab Dollar, bring him home and start cleaning him up. I really need to work on his tail more. It's so full of knots and everything, it really does need a good combing out. I attemtped that today, but even sprayed with Konk, he was not standing still (it didn't help that we were outside either. He always has to move). So I combed out his mane and left his tail alone. He was just swishing it way too much for mne to be able to do anything to it. At this time Keith had called me and said that he was ready to be picked up from work. I reminded him that I was at my parents place, waiting for the farrier. He didn't sound too happy. *Sigh* 

What was supposed to be a 3:00 appointment turned out to be a 3:30 appointment. Yes I know, farriers and vets are always late. I'm just a punctualisist, so I'm always early or on time and it irks me when other people aren't. So Bonnie showed up around 3:30, got all her stuff ready and Dollar was the first one up. I told her that we're pulling Dollar's shoes and he is going permanetly barefoot. She actually agreed with me that he should. So she pulled off all his shoes, fixed up that one that he took a chunk out of and trimmed him all up. And his feet look way better!

Front Left

Back Left

Back Right

Front Right

Front feet

Back feet

While we were trimming up Dollar, Mom decided to hop up onto Hunter, Sam's barrel racing Percheron. Even she agreed that he was very tall (he comes in around 19 hands) and Sam took her around for a little walk to let her feel what he moves like. Mom just looked at Sam afterwards and told her that she was crazy to be riding him. Lol.

Mom on Hunter

Once Dollar was all done, I brought him back to pasture and let him get re-adjusted to his new feet. He hasn't been barefoot since he was 5, so he'll be getting some days off to get used to them again. He was pretty good on the way back to pasture, didn't see him limping or anything associatted with newly bare feet, so we'll just have to hope for the best and make sure that everything's going smoothly. Hell probably get off until next week Wednesday (that's the next time I can make it down here. Stupid work), so hopefully his feet will re-adjust.

Oh, and if anybody has any suggestions on how to toughen up his feet now that they're not protected by shoes, feel free to send them my way. Always looking for new stuff for him.

Welcome!

Welcome to Quarter Horse Dressage!!

This blog is going to follow my journey, travels and adventures in my new world of Dressage. Oh, and my horse of course. Our journey will cover a lot, including getting my 18-year-old QH back into shape to start showing Beginner Dressage next year, our newly-started Barefoot Journey and anything else that happens in our life together.

Thanks for reading!