How I spent my New Years break!! (long & rambles)

[sharp penny <penelope_75647@yahoo.com>]

  Hey there!

    Just got back from the High Roller ride. In some
ways it was a great time and in others not so good.The
orginal plan was to ride Reno (my A-rab) in the 25 LD
the first day, Daisy (my paint) in the intro 12.5 mi
ride the next day and Reno in the intro ride the last
day. I had a long weekend (5 wonderful days off..ya
hoo!!) so I hauled the 6 hr drive to Cat springs very
early friday morning. Should have known something was
up when I fell of my frt porch step on thurs evening
loading up the trailer with stuff from the house.
Twisted my ankle but it was walkable  so I just
wrapped it for support popped an Advil and continued
on loading up for the weekend. Little did I know that
popping advil would become a "lifestyle" :0 ....The
next oman was friday morning pulling out the driveway,
I noticed Daisy's drop down door was open and her head
sticking out enjoying the scenery...gosh I could have
sworn I had shut that door...upon investigation found
the latch was broken so I got out a bungie cord and
fixed the window shut. Got to the ride with out
further incident...found a great spot where I could
attach a sliding tether btwn the trailer and a tree
and got the horses settled and camp set up. Had enough
time to get both horses out on the trail to get the
kinks out and see what shape the trail was in. (have
had alot of rain lately)

    Rode Reno first. Just got a new wintec pro
endurance saddle. It arrived the day before I left, so
I was anxious to try it out on Reno to see how I liked
it. Well Reno was pretty full of himself..he looked
around ..realized he was at an endurance ride and all
he wanted to do was GO GO GO. All it took was a mile
out on the trail for me to realize that I didn't like
the wintec (hard for a "western" rider to get used to
an "english" saddle) so I headed back to camp,
switched back to my good ole big horn and headed  back
out on the trail. It took a good 5 miles to finally
get Reno's mind sort of on me and my cues. He felt
very ready for our first 25 miles together tomorrow.
The sun was getting low in the sky and I still wanted
to get Daisy out before taking Reno in for the vet
check so I headed back to camp.

    I don't think Daisy is quite right in her
mind...lately for no apparent reason she just wiggs
out and has a major bucking fit. This is very unlike
her. It just happens with no warning at all to prepare
me.  I lounged her, then tacked her up, got on her...
started walking out of camp and one minute she was
walking calmly... the next min I was on the ground. I
hit pretty hard and ended up cracking two of my
ribs...very painful. At the time I didn't realize I
had hurt myself that bad and just got back on
Daze..rode her a good 10 miles and she was fine
mentally..very eager and happy to be out on the trail.
You can sure tell she loves going down the trail!
Physically she tires easily but that is to be
expected.

   Although hurting, I was excited to be at this ride
and looking forward to riding Reno the next day in my
first LD. I had fun the next day and learned alot.
more about this ride with Reno later... Being tired
and sore and taking the full 6 hours doing the
LD,(much to Reno's dismay and protests) I didn't get
to ride Daisy that day as I had orginally planned. I
did however, lunge her a good 30 min just to give her
a chance to move about and stretch. She was well
behaved and worked good on the lunge line..no bucking
or carrying on...if you hadn't seen the bucking fit
the previous day you would have never suspected she
even had it in her to buck!


    The next day, although I was hurting and popping
Advil like candy, I rode Daisy and a friend rode
Reno.(thanks Linda for your enthusiam and endless
supply of avdil!) Again before riding I tacked Daze up
before lunging first..lunged her a good 15 min then
rode...she was fine...we rode the intro 12.5 miles
that day. I was gonna ride her again the last day,
instead of Reno, but I was hurting so bad that I
couldn't even lift the saddle pad on her so I decided
to go home early. Had the weather not turned so cold
and bitter I would have probably found someone to tack
up for me so I could attempt to ride...talk about not
being mentally "right" ;)... upon getting home I was
in such pain that I went to the emergency room and
found out why I was in such pain...fractured my
ribs...duh... I'm just now able to kinda sleep lying
down (with the help of major drugs!) previously had to
sleep sitting up..ugh....still hurts like hell though
so I imagine it will be a few weeks before I
ride...sigh...

  I was talking to a friend about Daisy wigging out
with no warning and she told me about a gelding she
had once that did the same thing...he would go for
months then all of a sudden just buck violently. He
ended up hurting her so she gave him to her nieghbor
who was a "cowboy". The gelding worked great for
him...infact she regretted giving the horse away as he
was so good...well a little over a year later this
guy's son was team roping on the horse and he wigged
out..caused a horrific wreck and hurt the mans son
badly enough that he had to be hospitilized. They put
the gelding down and an autopsy reveled the horse was
having periodic brain anurisums (sp?) which had caused
the bucking fits. So now I'm wondering if this I
Daisy's problem... she does ocassionally hold her head
to one side like she's having a headache..she did this
more before teating for EPM than now..has only done it
twice since the treatment... so I'm at a bit of a loss
of what to do with her...I can't afford to do alot of
expensive testing on her (any suggestions from you
vets is appreiciated!)..I love riding her but I'm
leary of her doing this again and hurting me worse
than she did this past weekend...if she gave some
warning of the bucking fit coming on than I could deal
with it...I may just breed her this spring and
concentrate on Reno...just don't know...I love that
mare so and riding her is such a joy...double sigh...

   Reno is doing great...he is not quite the solid
bombproof trail horse they had lead me to
believe.(SURPRISE) He startles easily but dosn't do
any major spooking..just kinda jumps out of his skin
in place :0  I can deal with that. He is very insecure
and better in a group than when I ride him on the
trail alone. You can tell he has done several
endurance rides...boy can he follow those ribbons!...a
couple of times he found them before I did..haha. He
does have a race mentality at the ride and wants to
pass every horse in sight...God forbid the horses in
front of him get out of view...talk about a wonderful
piffe (sp?)..he literally dances in place and it
dosn't matter how many horses are behind him
either..he still gets aggiatated when those front
horses dissapear. If I weren't such a control freak I
would have just let him go and do his thing, probably
would have saved us both alot of grief :). On the plus
side he eats and drinks great at camp...on the trail
he just wants to go go go..at about the 20 mile mark
he started drinking at the water crossings but I was
electrolying lots so maybe it finally kicked in. I had
been putting e-lytes in the feed since wed night but
only started pasting the lytes the day of the ride. He
got all A's on both pre and post vet checks for the 25
mi ride we did the first day...and this is with me
fighting with him and wearing him down mentally ....or
was he wearing ME down!!! ..haha... I think he can
easily do a 50 and even a 100 miler...just don't know
if I can or even want to go that far in one
day...<VBG>...whew..25 mi kicked my outta shape hinny
:)..of course being the poster child for controlled
pain didn't help me any!

  Reno needs alot of ground work right now... more
than trail work... so thats what I'll be concentrating
on for now. His teeth are badly in need of work..he
loses alot of grain eating and tosses his head
alot...getting the bit even in his mouth is a major
deal. I'm hoping after our visit with the dentist this
tues that these problem areas will greatly improve. He
definatly needs to learn the "head down cue" and lots
of desensitizing work. Bought him a new blanket for
christmas to use when hes tied to the trailer and it
gets cold at camp. Don't think he's even had a blankie
on...luckily I tested it out at home first...what a
wreck...about tore up the blanket..what an ungrateful
horse!!! Thank goodness for duct tape..haha.. finally
I got to the point where I can get it over his head
(MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENT) and he will let it lay on his
back without a major fit. We still have to work up to
fastening the buckles.... esp those horse-eating back
leg ones!!! I tell you this boy will definatly make me
a better trainer as well as rider. There is something
to be said for the good ole laid back mentality of
QH's. Reno will be my first and last A-rab..I'm just
not cut out for this quirky breed!!! haha  He is also
very stand offish with people..although I must say he
is starting to "tolerate" me loving on him...after all
I am the lady that serves him breakfast, dinner and
all those treats inbetween. At first he wouldn't even
come up to me...so unlike Daisy who is an "in your
pocket" kind of horse and follows me every where I go.
I wonder if this is just Reno or are all A-rabs tend
toward this way? Or do arabs have to deem you worthy
of their affections??? I an NOT bashing Arabs..just
observations from a QH/Paint horse person!!!!

 
  Well thanks for letting me ramble on and as always
any thoughts,comments or suggestions are always
appreicated! I hope ya'll enjoyed a calmer New Years
than I did!

All the best!
Penny
Daisy
  &
Reno








__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail!
http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/