Jovie is splendid!

I did not take into account, when I bought Jovie, how much I would miss her when I was in the city. It’s not that I don’t love NYC, because I absolutley do… I just wish I could have both, all the time. I know right now she’s sitting in her stall, bouncing her jolly ball, nickering to people outside and eating her neighbors hay becuase it’s better in his stall. I know she’s fine, and though she might miss me a little, she’s content to do exctly what she’s doing… no work, and still, I miss being there. 

What did I expect when I bought a horse? Not what I got. This is going to be an adventure, and the initial plan was to sell her in a few years, I know now that thats not likely, or possible… she’s to perfect for me.  On paper, she is Sassafras Tea, a 4yr old sorrel mare Grand Daughter to Hickory Highbrow and Doc Tari, cow bred for several generations and trained on cows since the begining- cutting, penning and sorting,  plus 6 months reining training at 3yrs. She has earned no money, but she also has strictly been in training…. she’s a force to be reckoned with, once I learn to work her. On the ground, she’s a puppy dog, loves grazing, mints and chewing on ropes and reins more than anything in the world. She will drink from a straw, from a hose and from your soda bottle. She steals brushes and launches them across the barn, knocks anything within reach over, and likes to give the dogs a good lick now and then, just for taste. She hate miniature horses which is a shame becuase I really want one. She couldnt care less about the cows when she’s not in the arena and will happily doze off while I take pictures of events, occasionally waking up to lick the stray cow that wanders near. Her name, JOVIE means Joyful, and she is (and trouble, too) In saddle, she’s suprising. Spurbroke and bordering on lazy, she is not a typical 4yr old. In the arena she will move without rein but consistently runs through the bit transitioning down from a lope. On cows, she tracks like a demon and could probabley do the 2hand sort all by herself. 

Goals for the Summer:

• Spin w/o rein
• Sliding Stop
• Find the right bit
• Trail ride behind a group w/o freaking out
• Learn to ride her the way she was trained to be ridden 
• Jump a little? She likes to jump logs as it is. 

 

She’s already unseated me once- they say more people are seriously injured by there own horse every year- I understand why now. I was riding behind a trail and they had begun to trot up a hill. Jovie can trail alone, or she can lead, but being in the back as we’ve learned is recipe for disaster. Instead of taking off, which was impossible, it was to crowded in front of her- she decided to cut through the other horses, mimicking movements she would use on a cow. Not only was I not expecting this, I had dropped my stirrups and the sudden jerk and shoulder drop sent me straight down. Luckily she isn’t even a little spooky, she saw me land under her legs, put her face to my chest and huffed… as if to say “what the hell? weren’t you just on my back?’ Now I know to watch my stirrups… though I still don’t know how to fix her fear of being left behind. 

Babysitting in about an hour so it’s time to end this entry and go get ready. I’m working on some good arena patterns, any suggestions are really appreceated- for both lesson work and schooling work, english&western.

Same Sex Marriage = Gay Agenda

Watching this video, I didn’t take the time to read who posted it- so intially I of course thought it was a mockery of the anti-equal rights movement. A picture of two men very benignly cooking pancakes for their daughter? The message that no matter what your sexual identity is when you grow up, you will be accepted and loved for who you are, not which parts of your identity you choose to accept of reject based on the beliefs of others. What strikes me must about the parents featured is just how detattched they are from the struggles of the Gay Rights movement and with their kids at 7 and 8 years of age, they think that by telling their kids ‘gay is bad’ the will magically cure the urge to follow their natural instincts.

It would be a much easier world if our children followed to the letter everything we try to teach them, drugs wouldnt be a problem, teen pregnancy rates would be nonexistant and most likely, Homosexuality would be unheard of. Parents have different reasons for not wanting their child to be gay. No matter how understanding, loving and accepting the parent, they all know that living a homosexual life is hard because of the perpetuated hatred by the Conservative right. It cannot be argued, in any way, that gay children come from parents who promote and support their childs choice to be homosexual. This would mean that there would be no gay conservatives, no gays in religious settings and no gays of conservative religious parents. Not only would the parent not do it, ask any heterosexual man whether he would be gay if his mother had supported it in him at a young age. Majority of them will tell you that being straight is part of them, nothing would or could make them gay, including how they where raised. It can only be assumed that just like raising a staright child to be gay would not work, neither would raising a gay child to be straight work.

If your at all interested, check out the case of David Reimer. Born a boy, but raised a girl due to a botched circumcision (which he was never told of) recently commited suicide. Though his story is not identicle to the struggle of the gay and lesbian community, it speaks clearly for the consequences of attempting to raise a child to be something it isnt.

Horse Slaughter

It’s not a pretty picture. A trailer driving down a texas highway, 60 horses crammed in, no stops for water, no stops to stretch legs, no breeze, no food, just hours of a seemingly endless journey. Auction horses show up on the East Coast dehydrated, sick and absolutely miserable. Whatever memories of kindness and clean bedding they may have clung too are long since faded into the background of grime and sickness. 

Auction horse come from a variety of different situations. Loving homes that have no other option in this economy, foreclosed ‘breeding programs’ that over produced poorly bred stock horses worth nothing but their weight in meat, failed ‘projects’ bought by backyard trainers; ruined and resold. If they weren’t underweight when they left their previous home, they are now. If they aren’t sick yet, they will be.  When they finally run through auction, what hasn’t died may as well have- the meat buyer is the only guy with money to spend on half dead horses. 

In the name of animal protection, we have let horses suffer for weeks, months even, in grimy pens with moldy hay and inadequate water. Horse lovers across the nation cry foul when horses are taken to slaughter, bemoan the cruelties of it and surge up to protect the noble horse. A few are rescued from auction They are fattened up and loved and fed, rehabilitated and paraded around as a miracle animal- the one who survived. As this horse sleeps in his warm stall, 80% of the horses he auctioned with have gone to slaughter, or to another dismal pen where someone else will try to turn a buck, giving up and signing off to the slaughter house. 

Now, to the heart of it: I am PRO slaughter. Slaughter is an ugly word, it brings to mind butchers with axes and A Day No Pig Would Die, but I can think of something uglier than slaughter, starvation. Everyday, fields of undernourished, uncared for horses suffer without shelter or attention. They cannot be turned free. No body wants to buy them and there are not enough shelters to take them in. What do we do with them? If anti-slaughter supporters had their way, we would do nothing. We would keep them in that feild, complain about the over breeders and throw up our hands in frustration. 

If I had my way:

Slaughter houses, and horse auctions would be taxed on purchases and sales. The profits made from these taxes would go to the creation of funded Horse Rescues. The horse rescues, which acknowledging not every animal can be saved would focus on horses that truly can be rehabilitated, work to identify uneducated and irresponsible trainers, barns that routinely ‘throw away’ racehorses and bad horse brokers and fine them appropriately, and bring animal cruelty charges against them when necessary. 

Horses are noble animals, they provide invaluable services to man deserve more than rotting in a field, forgotten. Slaughter is not pretty, but it is better than watching a once beautiful horse and lively horse, now forgotten wither away and eventually die from neglect.

Introducing Dogs and Horses

With any amount of luck, tomorrow I will be the proud owner of a beautiful foundation bred quarter horse- Zippin Peppy San… barn named _______. I’m not anouncing the name until I’ve signed the papers, after so many disapointments, I think maybe it’s bad luck. Keep your finger crossed for me!

Introducing Dogs and Horses, the easiest way:

With the new horse comes a few new problems, tighter money, more trips to CT.. and most importantly, fostering a healthy relationship between my dog, and my soon to be horse. Small but mighty, my 4 pound Pomeranian, Zenzie will not stand to be left behind, and living in the city, I’ve grown accustomed to bringing her everywhere. Introducing animals really just depends on the animal, their are precaustions you can take, and basic rules to follow… but really it comes down to the animals individually. 

With the new horse, I’m lucky. She’s a ranch horse, and pretty solid, she bites cows, but dogs don’t register on her list of important things. This, typically would be enough information to all but insure a gentle introduction but in my case, it won’t be that easy. Zenzie is not a typical barn dog, and new horse hasn’t seen, to my knowledge, that many small dogs. To make matters more complicated, Zenzie has only met a horse once, and though she seemed chill, I’m just not certain I trust her around such big animals. 

My goals for introducing them are to hopefully be able to travel, on horseback, with Zenzie. I plan on doing a good deal of camping, and for these types of trips Z will alternate between being carried in a doggy backpack or running along side. These goals, for Z are attainable assuming she has some horse smarts. 

My plan to introduce is simple. Her size, at this juncture is to my advantage because I can hold her and allow them to sniff each other while I have complete contact with Zenzie. If that goes well, Zenzie will be allowed to walk around the horse on her leash. If you don’t have a dog you can easily carry… go straight to using a leash, but allow a tight enough contact on your dog to control any situation. It’s best to have a partner controlling the horse (or vice wersa) Both reactions will be gauged, and Zenzie will remain on her leash for at least a week. During this time I’m also going to make sure she undertands arena rules, ie: don’t go in the arena, even though you can run under the fence. So I don’t confuse her, it’s best if she never goes in the arena- when horses are present and not. 

It’s also important to remember that barns often have a revolving cast of dogs and depending on the day, it’s usually different. I’m going to make sure that every dog Zenzie is likely to encounter is small dog friendly. If your bringing a new dog to the barn, don’t be afraid to inquire about peoples shot records… and make sure your dog is up to date. If you are bringing an unaltered dog, alert anyone who may also have an unaltered dog and plan accordingly. 

Once she’s comfortable with her new barn surroundings, I’m going to cautiously allow her off the leash when I’m grooming the new horse. It’s best to have a designated safe area for your dog, away from the horse. Zenzie is currently learning to command “place” which orders who to quickly run to her designated place and laydown on it. Before you try this at the barn around horses, teach it at home. An old saddle blanket that you can bring back and forth will work best.

As soon as ‘place’ is mastered, your dog is ready to try a day off leash. Throughout the day, command ‘place’ to make sure she’s paying attention to you. If you sense your loosing control of your dog, that they are getting to excited or just not listening promptly put them back on leash, or remove them from the situation entirely. 

 

I’ll be introducing them on saturday, pictures and an update on how it went to follow.

A horse with no name

Plans for the new horse are coming a long nicely. This is very exciting because this is the first horse in my adult life, the first horse I’ve bought, and maintained on my own, while supporting myself too. This is a huge step and the only reason Christmas will be exciting compared to this is because of all the fun things I’ll get for her!

She’s a 2004 Quarter Horse mare, registers ‘Zippin Peppy San’. She’s a direct grand-daughter of Pepper San Badger and heavily foundation bred with cow training, cow sense and ranch work. She’s amazing. We got the top time in a mock penning on a calf that gave everyone else a good deal of trouble and came second in two hand sort with 9 calves- not an impressive number, but also my first time to ever sort.

The horse has been chosen, now, the truly hard part… naming her.
I’m getting my 10 yr old cousin involved in working with the mare, she’s horse crazy and will love the experience, plus I live two hours from my barn- she lives about 15 minutes, perfect for grooming and grazing time. Because I’m involving her- her input in names is going in the list.

*Jovie *Letti
*Izzy *Destiny
*Jane *Evie
*Elphie *June

Tack is another dilema, it has to meet four qualifications, and it never does.
1. It must be comfortable for both rider and horse.
2. It must not be ugly.
3. It must be apropriate for your discipline.
4. It must be inexpensive.

I have found one saddle I like, it’s decently priced and it got decent reviews but, it’s a barrel saddle and i’m not sure what the implications of that would be in cow sports. I picked the saddle pad for her too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I picked the lavender pad- i’m trying to stick with lavenders on her.

I also picked a very simple matching dropped noseband bridle and long split reins. I’m still not decided on bit- she needs something to help with her stop, but I don’t want that to be a permananent thing. I’m still searching.

I can’t wait to ride her again, and I really can’t wait to sign the papers.

 

 

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