Looks Can Be Deceiving.

The poor little man is so skinny I don't know if he's actually a little man or if he's a big man in disguise. I really think he's pushing 15.1hh but he's so skinny that when you stand back he looks yearling-like and short... He's got no muscle tone anywhere, either. It's pitiful. I fed grain around 7:30am, took his blanket off and brushed the crap out of him today, and I clipped his socks/stockings/blaze. I hate white hair and he has tons of it, so to make things easier on me and to do something with him that involves no effort on his part, I clipped everything white. I got some good pictures of his pigeon toes and now just need to e-mail my farrier to see if he can do anything about it. It seems worse in his left fore (white sock) than his right fore. I'm not very hoof-smart though so I couldn't say either way with much conviction. His current farrier seems to have forgotten to trim his hinds at their last visit (last Tuesday, March 22nd).

I look at him in person and I don't mind his conformation too much, his topline is very poor - everything is very poor - but other than the pigeon toes, weak loin and lack of conditioning, nothing jumps out. Well his plain head does too, but that's OK because it makes him cute. When I get around to getting good conformation pictures of him I will be throwing him to the wild savages at the Free Speech Horse Forum. I'm not knowledgeable in the slightest so anything conformation/hoof-wise that comes from my fingertips/mouth should be taken with a grain of salt. I think he's cute, and he's fluffy, and he's a gelding, so it's all 'kay!

Our session for today besides lengthy grooming and clipping (which he was fantastic for, I might add) was showmanship. We worked on stepping out together, stopping, trotting off, backing up, and turning into and away from me at the walk. Into me is a bit hard as the shank pressure made him nervous. I was relaxed and tapped his haunches with the end of the lead every so often and praised him heavily when he was successful. Backing up was hell. We must have had to do it 25+ times. I'd move into him and he'd stand like a log, and when I'd hit the end of the chain, he'd just flap his loose lips around like a fish. After some patience, smacks, and cookies/overboard praise, he gets it. I move into him with purpose and he moves away. Bravo! We lunged lightly just at the walk and trot also and he now understands that woah means stop. I was ecstatic with him and all he absorbed today so I threw him back on the wash pad, gave him a good scrub with a curry (much to his hairy delight) and reblanketed him (he's double blanketed with a hood.) He now is happily munching hay, waiting for his night-time grain (to come in about an hour!) Very pleased with him today.

Once he has some fat on him I'll have to build him up slowly, as there is literally no muscle. The pics that you have seen/will see show what looks like a tall yearling / scrawny two year old, not an almost-four-year-old... I hope to see that improving soon! For the record - he's drinking and eating well and he made a huge mess of his stall with poop, is it a gelding thing? He also got dirt and hay in his water bucket so here's pics of his stall all super clean... For the time being.

Groceries, Please.

It's too early in the morning for me to count today as a day, as I should be in bed right now. So when I say "today" I'm referring to Saturday, the 26th. Shaggy came home Friday night with his owner in tow. She brought over his grain and we tarped the hay in our trailer so it doesn't get mixed in with ours. He and Lily hit it off and she actually likes him. He naturally got zapped by the electric tape and now gives it some distance! I left him for the night after giving him grain later on and throwing hay at him. He was eating fine, hadn't drank much, and his poop was runny. Alisha said to expect this and I wasn't/am not too worried. It was today that really got me.

I woke up at 7:30am to grain them and they both were bright eyed and perky, nickering for their grain when I opened their top dutch doors. Opened the sliding doors into their runs, turned on the electric fence, threw flakes in their runs, and went back to bed... Until 11:30am! I slept it, but I haven't been feeling so well recently so I'm not beating myself up over the extra sleep. When I got up I ate an apple and put on a bra and headed outside in PJ's and my winter jacket. I pulled out Lily Banilly and threw her blanket in the hay shed. Gave her a good curry and brushed off the little bit of hair she had shed, then tossed her out in the back field so she could graze. I then pulled out Shaggy and took his two blankets off. Much to my terror, he is not just skinny, but a rack of bones. My plans are thrown out the window. I know it's not entirely my friends fault, it was a case of "the horse was blanketed all winter and when I took them off finally I went, oh shit!" She's been pounding grain into him for the past month or so. So now instead of throwing the saddle on and checking him up on the lunge line for a few days before mounting and starting basic woah, walk and trot commands, I'm reduced to handwalking him and pounding the groceries into him - which is totally fine! I just feel bad for the bugger. I took some pictures but naturally they are all on my other computer. I will add them to this post tomorrow when I'm up and about after I deal with the horses.

I did lunge him a bit and he is uncoordinated, unbalanced... It's pretty sad really, he turns 4 in June. He's hovering around 15hh right now, maybe pushing 15.1hh at the hip, and he's a bit plain headed but with groceries and conditioning I think he'll be a cute gelding. He just really needs the weight! He's also pigeon toed and I told Alisha I'm going to take pictures of his feet and e-mail them to my farrier (who has done wonders with my mares club foot) and see if he can do anything about it. They look like they're more farrier work than bone structure, which is weird. Her current farrier, plain and simple, sucks. My farrier costs about $30.00 more though so I need to verify that he WILL take her horse on for her and me, and then she will pay only if he thinks he CAN do something about the pigeon toed-ness. It doesn't effect him much that I've seen so far, but it might down the road if not given proper attention. Also today I took the clippers to his blaze and fore sock, I can't stand long white hairs as they shed so damn much and he's a shaggy beast already. He was fantastic and I'll tackle his hind stocking and sock tomorrow. I also used a shedding block and metal/rubber curry to drag hair off of him and he lost enough to make another pony out of it ... And he's still living up to his name!

He's a really calm little guy and he didn't blink when we trailered, when we let him go in his new enclosure, when I clipped his leg/face. So far he takes everything in stride. We also had a bit of a ground WOAH lesson, as he doesn't even grasp the concept that woah means stop. We walked around my yard woah-ing for probably about an hour before he stopped on command versus me him stopping because I stopped. I was very pleased with him and threw him in his paddock with hay. I've upped his grains just a tad and am giving him extra hay. He gets beet pulp, alfalfa pellets, and complete pellets, all soaked in hot water. He's also getting 2 flakes in the morning, afternoon, and night, and I'll be turning him out as soon as the daylight lasts longer, so that he'll get grass. I'm deworming Lily soon so I asked Alisha to pick up some wormer. Theres Ivermectin sitting in the feed room by his bucket so I can worm them at the same time. When he's cleaned up his food I'll throw him an extra flake here and there too, I really just want weight on him - his bones protrude and you can feel/see almost ALL of his ribs, his spine is sticking out, too. Hopefully the grain/hay/worming will help him pack on the weight... I'd feel bad putting a saddle on the fellow. He has a really kind face, which makes it all worse in the pitying department.

Also I'm really not blaming Alisha. I had an oh shit moment with Lily too, it just so happens she's an easy keeper, and Shaggy's not - he's always been an "Ethiopian," as she calls him, so I feel bad for her that he is so skinny - her mare is super chub. Even though they're half siblings they require totally different diets. Her mare needs no grain, while this guy clearly does!

Getting Excited!

The basics first, I suppose. I'm a 17 year old female who has been riding competitively and as recreation for 9 years. My name is Riley. I don't know why I'm blogging or if there is a point but hey, writing helps you vent! Anyway, my story is this: I have a rising 10 year old QH mare that I've owned for nearly 7 years. She is not 100% sound undersaddle but is sound and comfortable just lounging around so while I save up the money to get a lameness evaluation/xrays done, I have a young green project. My baby girl Lily is still getting all the loves and brushes she wants and deserves, she just doesn't have to work as hard!

I used to show QH a lot after "graduating" from Open/4H shows I attended with the local 4H group. Seems like now I'm backtracking! I have this friend in town who has two (apparently cattle-bred) QH's, both with the same sire, Skippa Oak Bar. Last summer I took her at-the-time 8 y/o mare for a month and put some time onto her. Now I'm taking her 3 y/o gelding on as a project. I'll have him for around six months as it's my goal to break him (he is very minimally broke, not sure to what extent) and take him to some Open shows - I'm rejoining 4H! Then I don't know, I'll be out of highschool and starting college. She reckons she'll sell him and give me a percentage of what he sells for, but she's doing me a favour as well as me doing her one, so I may or may not accept. She is in her senior year at highschool with me, is attending two college courses and works at Canadian Tire. With two horses she has zero time. Me? I just want to ride, and I love greenies.

From what I understand, Shaggy - "MTA Skippa Doc Jack" - is between 15.1hh/15.2hh, is currently a hairy yak, and is slightly underweight. He's been 'ethiopian' since she bought him, he's not an easy keeper. I'm not even sure what she's done with him. I know she's checked him up and lunged, walk trot cantered, but I don't know how broke or finessed he is. My dad and I are going there tomorrow night to grab him along with hay and grain and blankets etc (she's providing food and paying for farrier etc, go figure). I already have the stall set up for him and the paddock divided by electric tape. I will provide pictures of the stall/enclosure etcetera tomorrow when the lighting is good! I don't have any recent pictures of him but here's one taken of him when she first got him as a 15 month old (or so). Pretty skinny hey? If he's still too skinny now I'll jam the groceries into him harder than she is now...