The season's over, but I am back!

There's no other way to put this: I've had a hell of a year.

One of my more recent updates discusses the death of my nurse mare foal, Sansa. She was snall and weak and very sick, and it was horrible to lose her. We did end up adopting a second foal (you'll hear more about her later).

I had no idea that just a couple months later, I would be losing Newsie as well. Newsie, my completely feral foal who did not know what a human was and certainly tried to bite and kick at every opportunity. I named him after my favorite movie as a child, Newsies, because he looked like a homeless ragamuffin. There were times were he was too much to handle and I thought, what I have gotten myself into? But that little hose came around. He loved me, followed me everyone, so easy to handle, beautiful mover. He had a bright future ahead of him.

Unfortunately that all got cut short in June. Newsie was discovered in his field with a broken neck. I've never cried harder over losing an animal. I'm sure that I will - when my dog goes, or Roanin and Dudley, but I wasn't ready to say goodbye to him and it sort of ruined my summer. I was very depressed most of the time.

Over the next two weeks, Roanin hurt his eye and was out of work for two and a half months. He was sound otherwise, wanted to run and play and be ridden - but his eye had to be kept in the dark.
Additionally, Bowie went lame, and after a few days I had the vet com check. Torn suspensory, so Bo was also finished for the year. 

I'd like to say that I believe things happen for a reason, but I am not sure I do. I will say that I believe things work out okay in the end. After losing Newsie I was very heartbroken. There was a school horse they were looking to rehome as he was 25 years old and doesn't need to do more than putz around.  I was still hurting from losing Newsie and offered to take him. It was the best decision I've made lately!

Dudley is a saint. When I describe him to people, I tell them "This horse means as much to me as Roanin, and there's no higher praise than that." Dudley became my show horse for the summer until Roanin's eyes was healed enough to return to work. Duds and I went to small shows and played around and had a lot of fun.

Roanin was able to beigin under saddle again in August. We showed a lot and managed to finish the season in 4th in Adult Pleasure Horse. I'm absolutely thrilled with that. I also took him to VHSA Chmampionship horse show. I wanted to do pleasure as a last bid for a VHSA end of the year award, but sadly we did not get any ribbons. I'm still really happy with our year in pleasure. I also competed in Special Hunter as it went the same day as pleasure. We had two beautiful courses, finishing 2nd and 2nd out of many, and ended up Reserve Champion. At the VHSA Championship horse show! It was one of the best shows of my life. Roanin was a rockstar.

And we do still have a foal. Right now her name is Teeny. She is a chestnut mare, maybe TB cross, and very sweet. She came home just after Sansa died and was Newsie's best friend. She is a tall girl and very kind. Frequently lazy, fingers crossed that translates into a lazy adult horse!


I love my job dearly, training horses and riding horses and teaching my students to ride, but I've discovered that my passion is working with foals. We'll see where that leads us in the future.

Adjust your expectations

A couple of weeks ago, Bowie jumped me out of the tack.
Then, we went to a horse show and he schooled the jumps beautifully and came home with ribbons in pleasure.
Then each of his next rides were good.  Maybe not always great, but good. Something we were working on became easier, for instance.

Just this Saturday, Catherine was in town and took a little lesson on Roanin, so I hopped on Bowie and flatted him before trotting a single. He was so quiet and just jumped right over. I decided to do the whole outside line - trot in, canter out - we got the double add but he was straight, happy, and soft. I was so thrilled that I let him finish there!

Then, today. The horse has never TRIED to get me off his back. Not once. Not even when I first started riding him, and I know he is one to "test" his riders. I think today I got the biggest test yet (after nearly a year, I thought I had earned his trust!) I put draw reins on him. I connected them at the side of the girth because I thought it would reinforce the steering aids that he frequently needs help with.

Well. Mr. Man was NOT having it. He threatened to rear, he wheeled around and threatened to rear again, then started trying to do his baby bucks. I rode him forward, first at the walk, to wait until the tantrum ended. He calmed some. We tried a trot and had the same exact fight, but I kept insisting that he moved onward, ever forward. By the end of the lengthy ride, he was happily trotting in a frame in either direction. I mean, we got there eventually and that's what counts!

So now I am going to say some things that I tell my students.
Some days are going to be harder than others. Adjust your expectations.
Set attainable goals.
Let those goals be flexible based upon the situation you find yourself in.
Stop when you reach your goal.

I honestly thought I would do some flatwork with the draw reins on and then remove them and jump the 4 jump course I have set up to practice for the show this weekend. Well, once I saw that Bowie was in a mood, I had to change my expectations for the day right away. This isn't a jumping day. This is now a hack around quietly day. And after some arguments from Bowie, we finally got there. He sure hated those draw reins, but by the end of the lesson he accepted them and was trotting both ways happily.

So I got down. He did what I asked. And that was my success for the day. It's not what I set out to do, and could I have jumped him around after I got his trot going the way I wanted to. But it was SUCH a fight to get there. I wanted to make sure that we ended on a good note - I asked for something, he gave it to me without a tantrum. There was no sense in continuing the ride past the half hour it had taken to get to this point.

Around the corner

We will be attending our second VHSA associate show of the year this coming Saturday. We will take the boys to Autumn Olive.

It will be Bowie's first time showing over fences (18" baby green, and potentioanlly 2" maiden hunter") and it will be Catherine's first show on Roanin for the season. Autumn Olive is such a great show to attend, because the ring and jumps are welcoming and everyone is so very friendly.

I will make sure to let you guys know how well it goes! I'll be schooling both boys several times leading up to the show to make sure they are ready.

And just the following week will be the first CHSA show of the season. I can't believe it's here at last!

Only thing to do. On we go.

Life has a way of bitch slapping you one week and then giving you an opportunity the next. After Sansa's death, I wasn't sure if I wanted to adopt another foal. I know they are happier in pairs but my heart was broken from the loss of Sansa. But even was I watched, I saw Newsie hurting. He can have limited turnout with the larger horses but he really needs a buddy his own size to play with as well. When the rescue called to let me know that more horses had arrived, I figured there wasn't harm in meeting the foals.

They were mostly fillies this time, a good deal of them were gaited. My ideal horse is a non-gaited horse, and normally I would choose a colt over a filly. But I already have a colt. And this filly was clearly the star of the group and she stole my heart. She is a lovely mover, she is ALL legs, and should be nice and tall. She's also got rather unique markings on her face!

Look at that cool, crooked stripe! I can't wait to see what that looks like as she matures. 

She's also very leggy. And yes, a chestnut filly (I can see my mom rolling her eyes at me buying a chestnut mare). But when I saw her, she was the one! She will be joining us in just under a week. I'm really excited.

I will always love and cherish Sansa. But this new foal (yet unnamed) could help fill the whole in our hearts. My own, Newsie's, and the other horse's - they all understood that Sansa had passed because they had time with her body before it was buried.

Loss

We lost Sansa.

Shortly after my last update, actually. The vet had been out to meet the foals and check them over, and said they were healthy. She was dead less than 48 hours later. I found her in the morning. It was seriously traumatizing, I felt much more bonded to her than to Newsie, and I feel like I failed her. The vet examined her body and couldn't determine cause of death. We decided not to do an autopsy, but buried her in the small pasture overlooking the arena. I ordered a stall nameplate to mark her grave.

I don't know if skipping the autopsy was the right decision. I'll never know for sure why she died, although bloodwork drawn from Newsie showed that he had increased white blood cells so he was started on antibiotics. Rhodocacus is not uncommon in nurse mare foals and can be fatal. Sansa was just days old when she was taken from her mother - Newsie was born late last year, so he is quite a bit older and stronger. If they had the same infection, it makes sense that he would be able to fight it off.

I've cried a lot. She was a sweet, sweet pony and I think she was really special. I was really feeling like a failure because I had tried to rescue her, but I couldn't save her. A friend put this into context for me that made me feel better: for over half her life, I loved her and cared for her and made sure she got enough to eat. That was my job. I loved her and she loved me back. It's the best I could have done for her. It has to be enough.

Good and safe. We don’t have to worry about her now. -The Hunger Games

Brothers

A special moment between Newsie and Roanin.

Foals

When Woody and I started plans to build our farm, we designed it knowing that one day, I wanted to have foals. So we chose our fencing and stall designs carefully, so that in the future, the farm would be safe and ready for baby horses. Last week, perhaps a year earlier than I thought we would, we adopted two nurse mare foals.

Nurse mare foals are a bit of a sad thing. Mares are bred every year to produce milk for other, more valuable foals. The foals that these mares give birth to are taken away and often picked up by rescues dedicated to this. Our foals are from Eleventh Hour Foal Haven which is local to us.

We adopted a chestnut pony filly who we are calling Sansa, and a bay colt we named Newsie. Sansa is not quite two weeks old now (born March 3), and Newsie was born late last year. Since he's older and a horse (not a pony like Sansa), he's a lot bigger! Both of these foals are too young to really be away from their mothers, so they eat mostly milk replacer. We mix powdered milk with water and they drink it out of buckets. They also get a little grain and hay!

People have been asking me about the long term plans for these babies. Right now, we are working on getting them used to be handled. Things like halter training, being scratched all over, touching their ears, feet, etc. For the first few years of their life they will just be growing up and learning to trust us. They'll learn to be groomed, learn ground manners, and learn to respect humans. It will be years before they learn how to go under saddle!

That being said, what happens with them when they are older will really depend on how they mature. If they are fancy enough to be show horses, that would be great! Newsie is a cute little mover. Sansa's legs are still pretty crooked (normal for a young foal), so she doesn't run around too much yet. It's very likely that once they are going under saddle, maybe with some show experience, they will be for sale. If Newsie gets big enough, he could be Woody's horse. If Sansa is as fancy as she is flashy, we might lease her out instead of selling her. If they aren't fancy but are calm, they could become lesson horses somewhere. It all just depends! The important thing is that they've found a good home with us where we will love them and train them.

And, of course, I'll be sharing their stories here on my blog. Expect lots of pictures of these two!

 Newsie on the left, Sansa on the right.

 Sansa enjoying a nap in the sun.

Newsie saying hello to his big brother Roanin.