Dentist!

The horse dentist paid a visit to the quarters today. Gwen went first. She didn't do too bad. She did need a little sedation and the vet couldn't get the speculum in her mouth, but other than that she was a good girl. Her teeth weren't that bad, though we don't really know what it looks like in the back of her mouth due to the speculum problem. She didn't have her wolf teeth pulled (she has 3), and it looks like she's going to sprout some canines. She's got some kind of crazy, throw-back mouth, I swear. The vet doesn't like to remove wolf teeth (self described heretic), so what she did do was smooth off those wolf teeth so they weren't as sharp. She wants me to try putting a bit in Gwen's mouth and see if it's really going to bother those teeth before we take drastic action.

Poor Coriander's mouth was really a mess. He had massive hooks on his teeth that were tearing up the inside of his mouth something awful, especially on the right side. He also had a pretty big overbite in the front and his teeth didn't match up at all. He had to get extra sedation so the vet could get the speculum in there and really get down to business. He actually took to the speculum pretty well, he didn't raise much of a fuss about it, of course he was sedated so that probably helped. I betcha he's going to feel lots better in a day or two when his mouth heals up.

Here's a picture of a mouth speculum. It looks like a medieval torture device, doesn't it?
The vet wants to come back out in April/May to try to get a speculum in Gwen's mouth and see how the bit fits with those wolf teeth. She's also going to evaluate how fast Coriander's teeth grow and see what kind of float schedule we're going to need for him. The quarters did very well for their first float!

Lounging Around

When did lunging become lounging? I know what lounging is, it's what I do when I flop on the couch and put my feet up - that's completely different from lunging. But for some reason everyone on the web writes lounging for lunging, drives me nutty.

Anyway, I lunged the quarters today. Coriander's session was compromised by my barn owner's boxer puppy. It's pretty hard to lunge a horse with a dog hanging off the end of your whip. I should have just left it in the barn, he doesn't need it anyway. Oh well, next time.

Fortunately the puppy was in the house by the time I brought Gwen out (I left the whip in the barn anyway). My crazy, baby girl is learning! She was going around all haphazard until finally something clicked. Right in a row, I got one good walk to trot, trot to walk, and walk to whoa transition. I called it a day after that. The most important rule of horse training is to not get greedy. End on a good note, let the horse think about what they've learned and they'll improve much faster than if you push.

Remember that Santa hat from Christmas that Gwen was wearing? Well here's a little picture that I think really portrays her opinion of it.

A new game plan

Well I thought it would work...

Since the stall switch, Gwen has gotten as completely attached to Annie as she is to Coriander. Gah, that's not too helpful, I was trying to get her over her attachment issues. So I wondered if a few hours in the indoor all by herself would make a difference. I was thinking that since I have a week off from work we could do this for a couple days. Well, maybe if I took a mini cooler and a toilet in with me it would work, because 3 hours after I brought her in there she was still pacing the walls and trying to force the doors. I did think to bring a book with me, but after a few hours you get cold sitting there reading, so I started amusing myself by putting ground poles down in her path. All by herself Gwen trotted over 3 ground poles in a row today.

After I got really cold and hungry, I brought her in and decided to make another change. I switched her stall with Coriander's. Now Coriander is next to Annie and Gwen is next to Bill. She'll probably just get horribly attached to him and I'll finally just have to stick her in a stall by herself at the back of the barn for a while.

I took Coriander out for his first bareback ride today. We went into the indoor and walked over ground poles and worked on circles. He was very good for not having been ridden in about 3 weeks. Lousy, freezing weather.

Merry Christmas!

Winter Solstice

Finally! I'm so excited that the days are now going to get longer instead of shorter.

Tonight the temperature was in the high 20s, so I took the opportunity to work with the quarters. I lunged Coriander, who was fantastic as usual. I was paying closer attention today and noticed that it's not just the canter to the right that's difficult for him, he's stiff going in that direction in all his gaits. We're going to have to do some suppling work to loosen up that left side. If anyone reading this has any suggestions, let me know.

Then I decided to lunge Gwen for real, not just circle around me a little on the lead rope like we have been. The first thing I did when I brought her into the indoor was let her loose so she could check out the jump standards that were put up since she was last in there. She then decided that she wasn't going to let me catch her, no way, no how. She would run right by me when I approached her with her head and tail in the air. Just giving me the finger. So I picked up my lunge whip and went all Chris Irwin on her behind. Every time she ran past me she got tapped, every time she ran off after standing still while I approached she got tapped. She's definitely the kind of horse that needs to respect me completely, she's so flighty and nervous that she'll hurt me otherwise. After I finally caught her, we lunged. She stepped out away from me fairly well and I think towards the end she was finally figuring out what "walk" meant. Gwen got two good lessons in today.

Pictures!

It's still pretty darn cold out, so other than turning the quarters out I haven't been doing much with them.

I have a pretty cute picture planned for Christmas if the quarters will cooperate. Here's a preview:



Here are some more just because they're cute.


She always has something stuck in her forelock, silly girl.

5 Degrees

That was the temperature when I drove in to work this morning. Freakin' brrrrrrrrrrr!