My Horse is Odd....

Since making the decision to put him down, I've been going out to see Dollar a bit more. And I think he's enjoying the bonus attention, but also likes to make me pull my hair out and make me sad at the same time.

When I went down there on Monday to see him for a couple minutes (I had V with me and nobody was home), I put V in the house while she was sleeping and went into the pasture to see him. Now Dollar is pretty content in pasture, but when he saw me, he started ambling his was back to the gate because in his train of thought, when Mom shows up, it's time to work. He did let me pet him a little bit, before marching off toward the gate and just standing there waiting for me and basically going, "Mom's here, work time!" I felt so bad telling him that he no longer has to work. He looked a bit dejected :(

Eating trees

My Old Man leading the way to the gate, followed closely by Mars

Then, when I went down today, I was with my niece and nephew, so they came with me to get him from the pasture and bring him up to the barn so that I could pamper him a bit. He seemed to enjoy that, and also toted the kids around a little bit. At least I can take solace in the fact that my Old Man can still haul the kids around, even if it's not real work for him.

What To Do...

Well, since the decision was made about Dollar, I've been humming and hawing over what to do with all my tack. I have 2 saddles (1 Western and 1 English), 2 bridles (Western and English), grooming tools, halters, etc.

I talked with Keith and decided to keep all my tack. I may look into getting another horse in a couple years (when I don't have a little kid(s) demanding all my time) and that way I don't have to re-buy all my stuff and spend a whack-load of money.

Sigh. And now everyone is having their spring sales and as much as I want to go a buy stuff for Dollar, I know it's pointless. Sheesh. Why does this have to be so hard??

Oh, and for this blog. I've decided to leave it up as a memoriam to Dollar and (maybe) start up a different horse blog for any that I ride and any possible future horse.

Not Good News (And Why I Spent the Day Crying)

So I got some not good news from my Dad today about Dollar. He had the vet down sometime last week to pull wolf teeth on the youngsters and had him check out Dollar because it seems as though his Heaves are getting worse. Well, the vet checked him, had Sam jog him in hand, and checked him again. Turns out that he only has about 1/4 of his lungs left to use (the tail end of his lungs), the rest has totally congealed (basically turned to meat) and that I'd probably have to put him down by summer-time, otherwise he might not make it through summer.

Sigh. Not the news I wanted to hear, ande especially not now. I was hoping that he'd make it at least until 25 and that V would be able to ride him. I felt so bad for him and I know it's selfish of me, but part of me really wants to keep him around. The other (logical) part of me knows that it's time for him to go, that he's lead a good life and needs to be free of his pain.

Luckily Hubs was there when my Dad told me this, and while I was crying away, he just looked at me and told me to saddle up Dollar. Which at first didn't make sense to me as I had just ridden him before getting this news, but then it clicked it. He was gonna let me take V for her first ride on Dollar.

So needless to say, I went back into the pasture to get him, with the niece and nephew following me and calling for him. He didn't seem impressed that he'd have to work again, but still came and let my niece ride him back to the barn.

Put my Western saddle on him, hopped on and then got V on with me. And off we went....
Dollar just walked ever so slowly while I held V as we rode. Sigh. Just tearing up looking at the video again. Dollar did awesome with her (duh, when is he not awesome?!?!) and even backed up and spun with her. Such a good Old Man.

Me and Keith decided later in the evening that we'll wait until after his 20th birthday in June to put him down. I know it's selfish, but I want him to see his 20th before he goes to greener pastures. I basically spent the rest of the evening in tears.

So not ready for this....

Easter Ride (Somewhat)

We went down to my Dad’s for supper and got there early enough that I could get a quick ride in on Dollar. So I made sure that V was fed and then ran to the back to get in a quick ride. Gave him a quick grooming, tacked up, hopped on and did some work at the walk/trot with some collection and bending in there to mix it up for him. I tried to get him to canter a bit, but he was dragging his lazy but, so I decided not to push for it. He was being really willing, so I was just happy with that. After I was done riding, I gave Madison a ride and had to bargain with her to get her off. She’d stay on her horse all day if she could.

Once I got her off, I decided to do some ground work with Dollar, making him do his showmanship stuff, but without me holding him. And good thing I had my crop with me as he needed some reminders about what I was asking him to do and being stubborn about it. He was being lazy when I asked him to jog beside me, but after a “reminder” all of a suddenly we remembered what we were supposed to be doing. Same thing with the pivoting. After a couple minutes of doing this, I had him beside me (without me holding him), going up and down the arena, doing what I was doing, when I asked him to do it. Yeah!

Good Citizen Pony Training has commenced. J

Teaching The Young Guy

Another beautiful day to go riding. Keith was working overtime again and had the car, so Sam came to pick up me and V so that I could go ride Dollar and V could spend some time with Poppa.

The Old Man showing off his 'hawk.

Got to the house, dropped V off inside and then went to go ride the Old Man. I realized that I had forgotten my saddle pad at home so I just grabbed one of the Western pads for today. Brushed Dollar up as best I could, but he’s starting to shed like a mad man. Which is a good thing, but he’s got a lot of hair! Got him tacked up while Sam was tacking up Buster, Natalie’s new horse. He’s quite good looking, just needs a lot of ground work done and today would be his first day out on the road to see how he does. Sam had a couple issues with getting him ready because he wasn’t trained to stand tied, but once he got over that, we mounted up and went on our way down the road. Luckily this time there were no kids asking to pet the horses, so we didn’t have to stop and go.

Buster hadn’t been near cars at all, so we stopped when the first couple passed us just in case he freaked out. But as our ride progressed, he got better with each passing car. Except for one truck that zoomed past us and made Buster jump to the side, but otherwise he was well behaved. We even got both of them jogging for a ½ mile. Dollar thought I was trying to kill him. He was wheezing again, but he had an energetic trot, so I know he has energy and it was just the damn heaves acting up. We ended up doing a lot of walking, but it was good for both horses.

Proof I rode :)

Sam on Buster.

Once we were back home, I worked Dollar for a couple minutes in the coral before untacking him and putting him away.

Getting Into Boot Camp

Seeing as it’s totally GORGEOUS outside, I decided that Dollar (and myself) would benefit from going on a good ride. I had talked to my Dad earlier in the week to make sure that someone was home to watch V while I was out riding and he said that he’d watch her. Yeah!

I got there around 4 so that I could feed V and get Dollar ready to ride. Well once V was fed and sleeping (hopefully), I made my way outside to get Dollar groomed and tacked up so that when my Dad got home, I’d be able to go ride right away. Dollar was more than happy to see me and managed to get him out of the holding pen without letting Mars loose. And boy, was my horse a mess! And he’s pretty good at deceiving me as to how dirty her is. His left side was pretty clean, except for the odd mud patch, but his entire right side was covered in mud. Agh! Horse! I cleaned him up and then noticed that he had torn a huge chunk of mane out, and so I decided that his entire mane was coming off. So I grabbed my scissors and proceeded to chop it all off. And yes, I was giggling the entire time. And the thing is, it actually looks good on him. Yeah! Then I proceeded to clean up his tail (which wasn’t too bad) and trim the bottom off. And was excited to find out that his tail had grown out!

Mane here....

Mane gone....

Once he was all cleaned up, I tacked him up and then went inside to check on V (who was still sleeping) and kill some time until Sam and my Dad showed up. Dad had Brody with him, so he was going to watch both kids while me and Sam took a 2-mile ride. Sam got Mars ready while I put Dollar’s bridle on and then we went on the road. And had to laugh at Mars for freaking out at the For Sale sign, while Dollar totally ignored it. Lol.

The only thing I have about riding on the road is the amount of kids that come up to us (sometimes yelling), going “Horse! Horse!” And then the asking to pet them and ask a million questions. I don’t mind the timid kids because they’re usually unsure about the horses and Dollar’s good for kids like that. But it’s the ones who are extremely loud and don’t even ask before petting him. Those ones irk me. And we ran into the second group. Oh grr me. I was nice and let them pet Dollar, but after a while Mars was getting impatient, so we told the kids goodbye and went on our way. But of course, kids have to be kids and ride their bikes right behind and beside the horse, Sam got after them for that and then they left. Sheesh. 

Once the bikes were cleared, we got both the Old Guys trotting (more like prancing for Mars) for a mile. I was quite impressed with Dollar as he wasn’t wheezing much and had some get up and go. While we were trotting, I had Dollar working on his collection and stretching out his head. Of course he was more than willing to and stretched his head as far down as possible and just kept going. Silly horse. We ended up walking that last half mile home so that Mars could calm down and Dollar could get his breath back.

When we got back home, I untacked Dollar and Sam kicked Dollar and Mars back into the holding pen while I went inside to check on V. She was crying a bit when I walked in, but Dad said she just started that, otherwise she was fine.

Hoping for nice weather to keep on coming so that I can ride!!

In Which We Find The Spunk

Finally got out to ride again today! Seeing as Keith was at work in the evening, I packed up V around 4 and headed down to my parents place so that my Mom could watch her while I rode.

Once I made sure that V was content with Grandma, I grabbed my bridle and new saddle pad from the car and headed to the back. Dollar's all by himself in the holding pen now as Dad's new horse Jack is at a barn for training, Sam's horses are at her new place and Natalie's horse is at a different barn for training. So needless to say Dollar was pretty happy to see me as you can see in the video..




Once I got him out of the holding pen, I brought him up to the barn and got him quickly tacked up. I threw away my old saddle pad (the one that mice had gotten into) and put my new saddle pad on him. Yup, purple still looks good.

The old saddle pad that mice had gotten into

Dollar showing off his new saddle pad

Once we were all ready to go, I had to climb the fence in order to hop on to him. I still hurt if I stretch too much and I don't have a mounting block, so the fence comes in handy. He behaved like the perfect gentleman he is and stood completely still while I mounted. Whew.

We went to the far end of the arena again, set our circle and got to work. My goal was to work his walking and jogging as cantering is out of the question because of all the snow and I don't want to risk slipping on ice hiding under the snow. Oh, and I also remembered to grab my crop this time. It came in handy.

As we worked the walking and trotting, he did pretty good. He did realize that I had my crop, so he was a little more energetic in his movements, which is good for him. But then we ran into an issue. I had asked him to move into a trot again from a walk and he was being lazy about it. So I asked him again, a little more firmer. Nothing. So I swatted him with my crop. Next thing I know, his head goes down, and his butt goes up, snorting while doing so, and then moves into a trot, not looking very pleased.

And this is my brain: C'mon, move Old Man *swat*......HEY, YOU BUCKED ON ME!!!

Luckily it wasn't anything big, and he just kept moseying on afterwards. And nothing happened to me (lucky). I had barely became unseated, so I just hunkered my butt down, gave him a scolding (and laughing in my head) and went about our business. Guess he just wanted to show me that he still had spunk left.

After that little incident, I set him to work, doing quite a bit of trotting and working our halts, reverse and turns. This is where he was just showing off for me, probably just sucking up. Lol.

I ended the ride after about 30 minutes of working and he wasn't even sweating yet. But then again, it's been really beautiful here right now. Barely any snow for middle of February in Central Canada. But it does work well for riding right now.

And I'm still surprised as to what my Old Man can pull off. He'll be 20 this summer and still manages to act like he's 5 some days. Oh well, that's why I love him.