Nature Blog Post 7- Freezing Temps are Finally Here

There is nothing quite like putting on a thermal shirt, a long sleeve t-shirt, a sweatshirt, and a thick winter jacket to go play in the cold with a 1,000 pound animal. It was so cold yesterday around 11:00, that it never got warmer than 23 degrees.

I felt bad taking Angie's thick winter blanket off. Her coat instantly prickled. Right now she is the only horse in the barn that doesn't look like an over fluffed stuffed animal, because she's the only one who gets blanketed.

This is her ugly blanket. But it's thick and it was half price. She also wouldn't stand still long enough for me to get a picture of her.

I lunged her for half an hour so she could run around the arena and play and buck to get out some excess energy before she was ridden. Today was a bareback day. No way was I going to swing up into a cold leather saddled when her body heat could keep me ten times warmer. When I was done lunging I went and grabbed her bridle from the heated lounge. I store her halter and bridle in there in the winter because then the bit is already heated and I don't have to worry about warming it up.

In the winter is is important that you warm the bit up before bridling. Whether this is by running it under hot water, rubbing it in your hands, using a bit warmer, or storing it in warm temperatures, it needs to be done. Putting a cold piece of metal and copper in a horse's mouth can be damaging to their teeth. I also imagine it's like being asked to keep an ice cube in your mouth when you really don't want to.

Our indoor arena is little, not big enough to do anything, so I mostly worked on leg commands and I trotted her to make sure she was tired by the time Jamie got there. Jamie is the eight year old I give lessons to. She is a mature eight year old, so I didn't quite know how to handle her when she cried. She cried twice today. Once because she felt that Angie's hoof was too heavy to hold up to pick out and once because she was letting the reins slip between her fingers. Both of these are things she's done before with no problem, but today it was like the world was ending. I hugged her and got her to laugh. Most days it's rewarding to share my horse with her and allow her to get to learn how to ride, but some days it's frustrating.

She did amazing all summer. We even went to a show and she won a first place and a third place. But, now that fall and winter have settled in, her head is in the clouds. I find it more and more difficult to get her to listen and respond to my teaching, and I've tried everything. I don't know if it's the added stress of school, but lately it's not enjoyable to teach my lesson.

Jamie and Angie

After we got Angie brushed and blanketed again I worked with Sealia. Sealia is a three year old Appendix mare that was bred and born on this farm. Her bloodlines go back to the great Secretariat. Appendix means that she is half Thoroughbred and half Quarter Horse. She's my project for the winter. She looks tiny in photographs, but when you stand next to her she's a big girl. I think she only looks small because she is narrow. Most of the horses at the barn are wider, but she is very slim in front, but she's a healthy weight. If I stay on track with her training, I should be riding her by February. That's the goal.

Since she is so young all I do with her is groom her and let her get used to me and then I put on her splint boots so her young bones don't get too much wear and tear on them and I free lunge her. Free lunging is when you turn the horse loose in the arena and make them do walk, trot, canter, halts, and turns from your body language. It's actually cool to communicate with them from the ground and have them respond to you. A well trained horse starts with ground work. If you can work with them on the ground, you can work with them on their back.

The fabulous little Sealia. I am so excited to be working with her.

And lastly, once Sealia was worked, Kim and I loaded Pepper onto the trailer. He is the baby that was born on June 12th and he is getting ready to go to his new home next week. He is going to our friends house to start building muscle to be a racehorse. I am both very excited for him and very sad. I connected with this baby since before he was born. I would spend hours grooming his mother Annie and feeling him kick. When he was born the bag broke before his nose was out, so we thought he was still born. But, he's a fighter. I used to lay with him in his stall before he was bigger and stronger than me. He is extremely gentle, but he thinks we should be able to play and buck and kick like he does, so you have to be careful. Pepper stepped onto the trailer in ten minutes, which is a good record for introducing a baby to something so scary. He looked at it inquisitively for a moment and we placed his foot up on the trailer. He wasn't sure, but he kept it there. I gave him a bite of grain, so he knew that food was waiting for him up there. At first he pinned his ears and wouldn't take it because he was angry, just like a child, but then he gave in. No horse can resist the sweet molasses in grain.

I stood on the trailer and gently pulled with the lead rope and Kim had one behind him to add pressure to his butt so we could encourage him to step up. He did, which was relieving, because he could have thrown him body weight into a rear and flipped himself over, which he did when he was learning to lead.

Enjoy a shot of Pepper's butt while he eats his treat for getting on the big boy trailer.

Overall, even though winter is here and I had two pairs of socks on, it was a productive day. There is always something to do at the barn.

Nature Blog Post Six- Winter is Coming

I absolutely love riding in the colder weather while the sun warms my face. It is nice to see the fall leaves on the ground and to be riding while the weather is still slightly warm.

What I don't love is when Angie and I our walking at a normal pace and all of a sudden I have nine hundred and eighty pounds of a spooked horse under me. Angie will jump straight up into the air and spin on her back haunches like she's practicing a pirouette. Then she will take off in the opposite direction bucking like she is trying out for the rodeo. All the while I am trying to keep my balance up in the saddle. I usually grab her mane so I don't rip on her mouth. Most of the time though it is such a surprise the reins get yanked back when I am thrown off balance.

Usually Angie stops and stands there shaking for a moment and turns to look at whatever has excited her. Normally it is the green tarp that she has walked, trotted, and cantered by one thousand times, but today the one thousand and first time it looks like a horse eating tarp. I've gotten used to this happening, she is still a young horse, so I can typically hang on. Sometimes though, you gotta take a spill. Falling onto the ground doesn't hurt as bad as you think it does. With the adrenaline pumping through your veins you're lucky if you can remember to stay down for a minute to asses your injuries. Never get up directly after a fall.

Yesterday, Saturday November 16th around 3:30 I almost fell. Angie decided it would be fun to practice her ballet and at the exact same corner tarp she leapt. This happens every cold ride, so I was partially prepared, so I stayed on, however, it didn't stop the flashbacks. One time I was unprepared for Angie to take off in a bucking fit and I did end up falling into a mud puddle. The mud soaked through my shirt and breeches.

Of course, once I got Angie settled I started to think about all the times that I did fall off of her. Two of them had been in the field. One of them didn't end well for another horse that was with us. I can't talk too much about it because it relates to my final project, but thinking about that always makes me sad.

Kim, the barn owner, blames the dump across the valley because she said that the machinery scared her. I don't know the real reason why they spooked, we can only speculate, but I know that the dump scares me, even if it doesn't scare the horses. I mean, it is the highest point in Allegheny County. The dump is higher than something that Mother Nature built herself. It's an accumulation of trash, of things people don't want. And we bury it. We forget about it as if it's never meant anything to us (Side note, I understand junk mail and fast food wrappers won't mean that much to us, but I mean the stuff that we once valued). When the dump gets too high all the workers do it cover it and start again. What is that saying about us?

Nature Blog Post 5- Dreary Weather Blues

I haven't spend much time at the barn riding lately, because of the weather. It's been cold and damp. This is about the time that I fall out of love with Fall. It's great that the weather changes and the leaves turn golden and the sun seems to make everything grow, however, it's just a matter of time before the rain comes (in Pittsburgh it's inevitable) and the ground stays wet instead of drying.

The trails have been muddy and slippery to the point where I'm afraid Angie would slip going downhill, and that could be disastrous for both of us. The outdoor arena also has not had ideal footing. Last week she slipped going around a corner, and I won't attempt jumping if she slips doing ground work. So, it's been slow going for me.

I've still enjoyed being at the barn- there are always things to do there. The barn owner went out of town to a horse show, so I was cleaning stalls for her. Usually the country music is streaming out of the radio on Y108, but I turn it down when I'm there alone. It was peaceful to clean stalls in the evening after Grandma Donna has fed. The only sound would be the horses nosing through their hay to find the best pieces and the swish of their tails.

I took my time, shaking out all of the sawdust from the pick before throwing the waste in the muck bucket. The repetitive motion of this for twelve stalls relaxed my mind, letting me think over things, letting me get ideas for my Thesis and Nature Writing essay together. I loved it, even if by the end of the night my shoulders and arm muscles ached like I had been bench pressing all evening. My back was grateful to be in bed by the end of the night. Hard work is something to appreciate though.

I am grateful of my experience to own Angie and to have been around horses my entire life. I feel that I don't shy away from hard work. I do what I have to. With horses you can't choose to clean their stall, they're not children- they can't do it themselves, so you have to. I cleaned twelve stalls daily for five days, adding sawdust to at least six stalls each day (we had just completely stripped all of the stalls so they all needed to be built up again) and didn't complain. I have to say that being around these magnificent animals has contributed to my character and I cannot be more thankful for it. I think everyone deserves to be around horses at least once in their lives.