Much Debate

So after much debate and many long hours of thought matters of the heart out won matters of the brain, for the first time in a long time actually.  I was able to adopt Lil' Star yesterday and am the proud new owner of a little appy mare who hopefully will give me many many more hours of pure enjoyment.  She will continue to stay at the horse rescue, Safe Haven, because the only other place I have for her is my dorm room (even though she would fit).  When they offered her to me they said that I could keep her at Safe Haven free of charge and they would care for her like they always have.  It's really amazing how much a little piece of paper can make you feel about finally owning your first horse.

I know she is not an ideal first horse for any first time horse owner; IE not being ride able and all and of course only a few months ago not being touchable.  Though even still I am super excited and cannot wait until she grows enough to finally be able to handle the weight of a rider.  Which I am hoping next spring she will have grown up enough to be able to finally start saddle training but until then, we are working on her getting excellent ground manners.

OK so on to a little rant... I know sometimes I make stupid mistakes, don't we all?  But so far my mistakes have never affected 30 some odd horses.  Safe Haven's trainer brought in a new horse with rain rot and well unfortunately now it has pretty much spread like wildfire all over the property.  So now horses have rain rot and mind you some horses are untouchable right now on the property...I am not sure how we are going to treat them.  And if we do not get this epidemic(I know its not too serious) under control then I am not quite sure what is going to happen.  Though I am pretty sure a new policy is going to be put into affect after this that goes something along the lines of... "ALL horses coming onto property must go through at least a one week quarantine period." 

All of this happening out at Safe Haven makes me really wonder, why do we not get rain rot and the such back home? Or is it just the fact that I never realized what rain rot was until yesterday really when I was taught how to recognize it?  I guess I need to spend a lot more time thinking this one through and all, but it really amazes me still how it seemed like back home horses almost never got sick.  I have never had to before bandage an open wound, give shots, treat rain rot, and wounds in the hoof wall, am I just lucky or am I lucky to be able to learn how to do all of this stuff now?  I think I am lucky to be able to truly care for horses more and more and also know what to do when something does go wrong.

Weekend fun

So I know it has been awhile, but here I go.

I spent this past weekend at Safe Haven and had a blast while out there. I was able to work with multiple horses and gain a lot of experience. While working with Lil' Star I found to my chagrin that she has become dull at her backing and comes into my personal space bubble WAY to much. Do I feel a plan forming to deal with this? Yes I believe I do only issue is I am not sure yet what that plan is at this time...oh well I do have all summer after all until I will see her again on a normal basis. What I mean is that I am going home for the summer. I am going to miss that girl loads, and according to her owner (not sure if I believe this) she gets depressed when I leave for the weekend. Now I am no fan of calling myself Mommy (actually I hate it) but this little girl has decided I am her mom whether I like it or not. I also figured out why she has no issue with me leaning over her but has an issue with me actually laying on her...She doesn't like the weight! Well as you probably can guess this means she will be carrying weights when I come back...or perhaps an unexpecting rider? ...Nah that's a bit mean even for me. I was able to get a bareback pad on her also with absolutely no fussing, and even when I let her canter and run around there was no bucking. I am very proud of how well she was able to handle it.

And over this weekend I started to work with my newest project a short stalky quarter horse mare that is also two who is called Buttons. Now where as with Lil' Star I could just walk up and halter her this mare would barely even let me touch her. Though I was able to "apple" her into the round pen. Once in I was slowly able to work my way up to petting her and eventually get a halter on! Now for some this may not seem like such a big deal but what really excites me is how much better I am getting and how many less mistakes I am making. It's sad but I feel like the more horses I train the less issues they will have. Also back to Buttons, I was able to take her out of the pasture for the first time since she came to Safe Haven. I found that she is easily spooked and also very protective of herself I think she will never be a fan of change. Also I found she is very sensitive and quick to respond where as Star was a lot more dull.