Fall pasture scence

Eye trouble

Flash's eyes have been a little goopy the past few days so I decided he needed to go get them checked out. Equine eyes can become major problems very rapidly if small issues are not addressed promptly.  He hopped right on the trailer like a pro and we were off to the vet clinic. Dr. Ray was running a little behind due to two fillies who were having some loading and unloading trouble. So little boy had to stand on the trailer for a little while but he was a perfect gentleman waiting his turn.

Freaky florescent eyes!

When at last she was ready to see him, he came off the trailer like he had done it a million times and looked around calmly in the new surroundings.  I was so proud of him!

Dr. Ray looked him over and found nothing alarming with first look over so  then she put a bit of dye in his eyes to look for scratches on the cornea.  Poor guy. He was not fond of having stuff squirted in his eyes (but really, who is!?) and then having lights shined at them. While he did put his head up pretty high a few times, he did not go into fits and generally, he pretty tolerant with the whole ordeal.

Turns out he has minor tiny little scratches in both eyes. No big deal, thankfully. Just treatment with an ointment a few times a day and monitoring.

I took him over to the scales before we  headed out, he's a whopping 1045 lbs! That surprised me! I would have put him under under 1000! He loaded right into the trailer and traveled beautifully. What a champ!

New Clothes!

The wet is here so it is time for turn out sheets to keep off the rain and be a breaker for a bit of the wind and cold. Although we have practiced having a sheet put on and taken off months ago, I had to do some refresher work with him to be okay with it again. When I got the sheet all buckled on, he did a lot of looking around at hims self and picking at his shoulders. After a night of sleeping in it and a day of turnout, he seems to have settled into the idea that the sheet is staying with him and it is okay.

eehhh....what have you put on me?!

Although... I got a report that he did randomly run through the wire fence today. He is totally fine and only has a few minor scrapes and he only ended up in the next field over. The two geldings were happy to have him over for a visit and after they all sniffed noses to say hello, they all went to peacefully grazing.

Crashing through the fence is  very unlike him; he respects fences, especially hot electric ones! I suspect the wind picked up and rustled his blanket, it scared him and he took off running and the noise got worse so he kept running. 

Well.. he must have gotten over it to get back to grazing...

I wanna help!!!

Backed again!

Since my our first ride earlier this summer, I took a few steps backwards and have been working with Flash diligently on groundwork and lots of desensitizing so by the time I get back in the saddle again, he would have better confidence and coping skills to deal with the new feeling of a person on his back.

When he's saddled, I have taken him over to the mounting block and just laid over his back with no issues the past few months so I decided it was time for the next step.

I had Lea on stand by to hold the lead line and I stood on the mounting block, laid over him a few times then swung my leg over oh so easily. He was totally relaxed and only lifted his head slightly when I sat in the saddle. We both praised him lavishly and I hopped off to repeat a few more times.

Since it was going so well, I decided to attempt a few steps... so I mounted then praised the had Lea ask for a step forward while I gently closed my legs. Flash tensed at the squeezing sensation and had a brief moment of insecurity and took a step back which I have learned is his early warning stage of "I am about to freak out" mode. However, I was able to head him off at the pass and sooth with my voice that he had learned to trust and he relaxed a little bit and took a step forward as we had both requested and then he got major major major praise! We did it all again one more time and when he felt my legs this time, he promptly went forward a few steps. Way to go baby! We decided to cal it a day with that huge progress.

It is literally baby steps we are taking, but that is the way I need to go with him. Very slowly to build confidence. So far so good...

I like the bored look he has while I am sitting on him for the second time ever!

Overloaded!

It was another beautiful  warm fall day we have been having an extended summer with sunshine and warmer temps (60's) going into mid October. However, I know the rain is coming any day now so I wanted to make the most of the sunny afternoons. So after my ride on Deuce, I gathered up Flash and took the boys for a nice afternoon trial ride over to the Christmas tree farm next door then decided to work our way down the road and up the hill to the big hay fields. There was a little bit more traffic than we had dealt with in the past, but nothing Deuce could not handle and certainly nothing Flash could not manage either. In fact, on all of our trail rides with Deuce, he has pretty much just wandered along in his own world. He has not really paid much attention to anything that could be remotely concerning. He must feel so secure with Deuce being "the look out" and he just goes along for the ride.

Well, today was a different story. Might be the change in seasons, or Flash just decided to wake up... or something, I don't know. But he was alert and paying attention to ALL sorts of things once we got  up to the big hay field. Deuce usually looks at the golfers across the way but Flash mostly ignores them. However, he decided today that the carts and clubs and people across the way were something to be concerned about. So he was quite a alert to the movement and kept looking and starting and got tense when his back was to them. Which would have been fine, had Deuce not fed off the little one's alertness so Deuce was now twice as alert and took more rein to keep at a walk as we wandered up the hill. So with hands full of bouncy baby on the lead line and reins to my mount who wanted to jig and then run, more than walk,  I decided to forego trying to ride them through it and quietly turned around to head back towards the safety of the less exciting Christmas tree farm. At that moment, then the neighbor's pony across the road  came running across his field out of nowhere and Flash got all snorty and wound up about that. Deuce was still eyeing the golfers, and thankfully held himself together in his jig/walk while  Flash danced around (however, he respected the lead and gave to pressure when I asked... swung his haunches around and everything  YAY, our exercises are working!)  However, it was getting too exciting by the second. I wanted to continue to calmly walk back towards home. I was starting to worry a bit about the pony field, we would have to go right next to i a good ways and little pony could appear out of now where, but at least we would be away from the golfers...

Well, we did not even have a chance to meet the pony. They were both pretty amped up when we crossed the road and then a car passed us as we headed down the less busy road to the barn. So that startled both boys a little more. And then the neighbor was on a ladder and  pulling up a huge tarp cover for RV. Flash was already borderline melt down mode and the rustling of the tarp was nearly too much. Deuce was jigging and trying hard to listen to my seat and reins and voice to stay composed for the little one. We passed the scary, commotion and I thought we were nearly in the clear and SWWWWISH!!!! The ladder guy through the rest of the tarp over the roof of the RV and that was it. This was too much for both horses. Flash had it. He decided to get - the- hell- out- of- Dodge RIGHT NOW. I dropped his lead rope so I did not get pulled out of the saddle and heard pounding hooves on pavement while I focused all my attention on getting Deuce reined in. Of course he wanted to run too, but I was not going to let that happen. I left reined hard into a the super steep, 4 foot grassy bank (almost 90 degrees steep!!!) I figured that would be a safe "wall" to turn into and stop.  Deuce had no intention of stopping. He CLIMBED right up that wall! Somehow I manged to stay on and once we up on level ground, all the panic left him and he was ready to listen again. I found an easier way to get down and the tarp throwing neighbor complemented on my riding ability to stay in the saddle while Deuce made the impressive climb up the bank (gee, thanks) and we headed down the road to find Flash... who was no where in site.

The car that had passed us just a second ago was pulled over further up the road. The driver was out of the car and hollered back to us, asking if I was okay. I assured her I was fine and when I got closer inquired about the little grey horse. He had flown past her car and ran down the dirt road past the barn and kept going out of site.

Oh boy. Well, Deuce and I were on a lose horse hunt now. I was hoping the little one would have had enough sense to just run back to the barn, but clearly, he missed the turn. Crud.

So Deuce and I set off down the road in the direction the little one likely took - straight- Fortunately , Deuce was back to his solid self and ready for whatever we needed to do. It was reassuring to have him back working with me again. As we passed the barn driveway, I noticed all the horses were still out in their fields and looking rather and happened to see a white face and pointy gray ears poking up above the tall grass in the field. That stinker did not stop at the barn because he was going to Aunty Special! (that's Lea's horse and Deuce's girlfriend).

So we rode over to Flash (who was quietly grazing next to the fence with Special right on the other side) and he paused from mouthfuls to come say hello with a look on his face of "hey, what are you doing here!?" I hopped off Deuce, picked up Flash's lead, adjusted his boots (they had slipped down his legs) and then got back on to complete our ride. Flash acted as if nothing had happened  though he was still paying attention to his surroundings more than he had been in the past. The rest of our ride through the Christmas tree farm and in the cross country field was uneventful and I decided we were all settled down enough to call it a night.

I was super proud of Deuce for settling down so well and really can't fault Flash for his panic. He was in scary stuff overload and did not have the coping skills fully cemented just yet. I have to admit, I was pretty pleased to see how quickly he did settle and go back to work after his frantic gallop down the road.