Oh, no! :D

I have found the most useful way to waste away my college horseless-ness. I found my new horse lifeblood.

Netflix for horses! It's called GiddyUpFlix.com. Let me tell you it is amazing!

For only $10 a month I have unlimited access to top trainers via their training videos.

I was so excited to sign up for this that there are now about 30 videos in my queue. I also wasted a ton of time selecting and searching their site for these DVD's, while I should have been studying for my Human Physiology exam tomorrow. Well, the night is still young enough and there's always tomorrow... right?!?

I can't wait to get my first DVD! I'll definitely let you all in on some reviews, tips and tricks!

The finally for the Spring break postings will probably be tomorrow. Don't get too excited, it probably won't be that interesting! :D

Spring Break Part 2

Part one can be seen here: Spring Break Part 1.

Bogey started to feel better around Wednesday, but there is always that question every horse owner has, "Is He/She still lame?" It's almost if we look hard enough we can still see a little limp or a strange turn of the hoof. Finally on Thursday, I felt as if I was making up a bit of the soreness and called my BHF for some riding time.

My BHF has the ultimate horse playground. She has the coolest indoor arena. It is gorgeous inside and has a great sound system, lights, motivational posters/paintings and the coolest ground equipment to work with. She has giant horse balls, a wooden bridge, a trail gate made out of PVC, (How inventive of her husband!), and ground poles abound. It is so much fun to do groundwork there, ride and have fun.

I took Bogey over to her house on Friday afternoon and he was feeling good. She said that she thought he looked so good, he's a little portly, but when you are almost 16.3 and such a long bodied horse a little weight on you makes you look less like an gangly two year old. Bogey by the way is a fit/thinner 1313 lbs. I wonder what he is at right now with his minor hay belly and chub.

Bogey and I went into her arena and did a bit of lunging as he was a bit amp-ed up. I follow Clinton Anderson's methods of lunging for respect as I don't like to make Bogey do mindless circles over and over again, as he was a lunge liner as a yearling and does have some arthritis and degeneration in his hocks and rear pasterns.

After the lunging my BHF came out with her new gelding Truman. (He is a baby-doll faced 4 year old AQHA that is the sweetest boy ever.) She did the same lunge work with him and then showed me her groundwork that she does.

She puts Truman into small trot circles. She has him do this quite close to her as she can bump up his momentum, his belly and work on his face. Truman has a tendency to lower his head way too much and become heavy on the forehand. The groundwork exercise is a simple way to manuver his body and control all of his body parts as a great warm up. It also doesn't take much space, so if you are pressed for location (or have too much mud around! ;D) you can still do the exercise at a slow controlled pace. She does this both directions and then moves him up to a controlled lope. While doing the circles if he is looking like he is holding himself up and moving correctly she lets out the line and allows him to move into a larger/straighter circle. This exercise helps with lift and some drive, but mostly with control of the feet and strength in crossing over and deepening the hock. Also, this exercise can easily be modified to your desire.

I'll see if I can get a video of Bogey and I showing this exercise sometime this summer. (I need to invest in a good video camera).

I'll go through our riding exercises and fun in the next post. :D

-Amy

Spring Break Part 1

Since my horses are over two hours away, my spring break was a joyful time of reconnecting and re-establishing manners. Bogey was a saint for most of the break and Nancy was a little more naughty than usual, but overall they both were great.

The first day of my break I had my farrier KH out to trim Bogey's hooves. They had gotten quite long as KH wanted to give Bogey a longer interval to see how his feet naturally progress. Bogey is a high/low horse with a negative planar hoof and one that has correctly positioned coffin bone. This makes one hoof stack up tall with a large quantity of heel and the other to splay out forward with low heels. Both very difficult to work with and remedy. The splayed out hoof also is slightly pigeon toed and he paddle foots with that one when it is too long.

KH took this interval to see where we've progressed and how Bogey naturally works his own feet. My farrier believes in a natural balance hoof trimming with modification. He's not afraid to put a package of shoes on, but prefers to see where the horse naturally do best, whether with shoes or without.

After the trim, Bogey was a bit sore and landed a bit toe first on his splayed right fore hoof, which was not fun. We called it good as he was sound enough and KH told me to take it easy for the next couple of days and give him a two day rest. Not a fun way to start out my break, but all for the Bogey horse.

The two day break turned into five day break and my spring break was almost over. During Bogey's slightly off period we did work showmanship set-ups and I have to say he is doing famously. He understands clearly which hoof I am asking him to move and is stacking up fairly correctly every time. I'm very excited about that!

During his break I did give him some bute and found out that he has an unusual response to the drug. Bogey completely mellows out and takes a nap. All of the other horses I've worked with become completely bonkers after having some bute. It's nice to know that my horse is such a light weight. Or as my BHF (Best Horse Friend) states, "He's a cheap date." Good gracious Bogey, what shall we do with you!?!

I'm going to have to put these postings into a series of Spring Break horse fun, as I can't use up all my good material in just one. :D

I also have some additional ideas and backtracking to do and look into. <--- Note to self.

-Amy

Spring Break Part 2

Post Resolution? Yes, Please!

Ok, so I started out all fresh and new with a New Years Resolution for more posting, and I need to stick with it! I just went through and read all of my old comments from my blogging friends, and I need to keep things updated. I miss hearing your feedback and ideas.

I have a very dear friend who I email most of my horse ideas, thoughts, stories to every day, and I just need to copy them down here.

Here's some upcoming blogging ideas:
- I'm hoping to do a series on western pleasure breeding, some of my ideas regarding pedigrees and up and coming stallions that I think are ones to look out for in the near future.

- I also want to begin looking and reviewing more of the training videos that I've been collecting and some main points, and ideas from those.

- Looking into some patterns I've collected over the years, some horse show checklists, items you can't live without, ect.

- More Bogey stories! Hopefully spring will be on its way - maybe? - and I'll be able to get home to spend some time with him. I will for sure have updates March 12-20 as I'll be home for spring break. Bogey will have his hooves trimmed then and I'll be able to ride in my friend's arena, come on summer!

School's busy, but not unmanageable - now it's just staying ahead of the game and having some fun.

-Amy

New Year 2011

2011 a new year. Once again back to the blogging. 2010 was not as fruitful blogging wise, but I hope this year to be better. Even though my words may seem meaningless, I'm sticking to it.

I'm now fully into my Junior year, only three more semester's left of undergrad. Last semester ended very well. Three A-'s and one A in the following classes: genetics, biochemistry I, intro physics I, and intro to research respectively. Worked once again at the school library and studied with some great friends.

School goals for 2011:
- Actually schedule studying
- To really study in the scheduled time
(I'm really good at just taking tests and I can't ride off that anymore, I can do better!)
- Make more time for friends
- Go to more school functions

Onto the Bogey front. He's fat and happy right now, albeit a little more chilled than in August when I last posted, but still great. He had a few mishaps this past fall during a few storms and jumped a fence, scraping his legs. Those then healed without any lameness just minor swelling and now he found something else to scrape one again over my holiday break. I've been doctoring that. There has been no swelling or lameness on that leg just surface wounds. We'll get over this bump and move onto bigger and greater things.

I've been practicing showmanship with him whenever I go home and he's doing great. He has all of the major cues, pivot, set-up and back and now just needs finesse and consistency.

Bogey Goals for 2011:
- Finish him in Showmanship
I want to create consistency and fluidity in all of the movements, and to successfully compete at a few local open shows. I want him to be able to calmly work a pattern and line-up without overly fidgeting. To place at one open show would also be great!

-Put him into the Bridle
I'm going to be working on getting him to rely more on leg aids and I'd like to finally put him into a bridle so I show western pleasure at the local shows since he's now aged out of the snaffle bit.

-Greater sense of collection/cadence/consistency
I want Bogey to be able to successfully move with a higher degree of collection creating greater cadence and consistency for the western pleasure show pen.

-Figure out perfect supplement plan/feeding plan for optimum performance

- Eradicate any question of lameness/hock soreness and get to the bottom of that question or readdress.
When working in August we found issues with his hocks and did do injections, hopefully those issues will be behind us.

Those are the goals for 2011. Also, I'd love to continue with the blogging venture once again.

Here we go again!
-Amy

Monday Not as Planned

Well Monday was not as planned. The heat index was over 105 degrees and I'm not fighting with Bogey and trying to bring him back in that heat, so he got another day off. On Sunday I did take him out and hand walk him and lunge him a little and I saw some improvement so hopefully it is noticeable and not just me being "Bogey blind".

Today we are going to start riding again, there were thunderstorms this morning and more planned for the evening so hopefully it will cool off a little and I can get out and ride.

At this mornings feeding Bogey did have a little fill in his legs, which I'm thinking might be due to the humidity and weather so I'll walk him out this afternoon and see if it goes away.

That's all on the Bogey front, hopefully riding time today, but I'm not going to push it if the fill does not go away.

Hocks Are A Go!

Bogey got his hocks done this morning. Dr. Kittleson said that his right hind was very dry and it needed it badly. The left wasn't as dry but she said there might be arthritis starting in the fetlock joint so he's not on a joint supplement as well.

All in all, it wasn't too expensive, only $90 for both of the hocks done. I also had her do shots and float his teeth. He has the softest teeth around, hooks and sharp edges every year to file down. He was fairly well behaved, balked a little at going into the examining room but after that is was fine. She didn't even sedate him for the injections, he just stood there like a champ.

He'll get the rest of today, Saturday and Sunday off to rest and I'll slowly start him back up on Monday.

I don't want to count my chickens before they're hatched, but he looked like he was moving better already - just walking back to the barn! I'm excited to see how great he'll move after this!