Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Gotta Love Paints
As most of you know, my riding companion is Chief, and he is a registered Paint. Paints are known for their even temper, nice demeanor, and they are of course beautiful so I've always loved paints. But, after owning a paint there are two key things I will look for in my next paint so save myself some headache. Firstly, my next paint will not have a white nose, and the secondly, he will have dark eyes and dark skin around the eye. Now this isn't to say that all paints with pink skin on their eyes and nose are a bad thing, but that I personally, will try to avoid these traits in my next purchase and here is why.
First, if your horse has a pink nose, he is subject to sunburn during the summer. Now, there is an easy solution to this if you horse will wear one of these super cool fly masks: Fly Mask with Long Nose. However, if your horse is anything like mine and lives in a pasture with other playful horses that pull it off his face, it gets interesting try to keep it on. I also use Coppertone Sport in 70 SPF and that works pretty well. And per my post from Nov. 18 if they do get sunburnt put Desitin on it.
Second, if your horse has pink skin around his eyes, you need to be really careful again with the sun. This summer Chief got a cancerous spot on the skin around his eye. It was small but noticeable and as it continued to grow, I called the vet to have him take a look at it. Sure enough, it was cancerous and needed to be removed. Had Chief been able to wear his fly mask, the Cashel ones are also UV protectant, he probably wouldn't have had this issue. But since I couldn't keep the fly mask on, this happened. Once I noticed it, I started taking pictures of it so I could tell if it was growing. I've noticed if you look at something too often, it seems like its not changing but it is...
July 22
Notice the small bump in the pink skin right next to the eye. By July 26 the bump had gotten more defined.
The bump seems to be getting larger on Aug. 6.
This is when the vet got called. Shortly thereafter the vet removed the bump kind of like you would with a wart, they freeze it off. Kind of cool actually. No real after care instructions other than some ointment for the eye. This is what it looked like shortly after the "surgery."
You can still kind of see a bump and at this point I was a little worried, but as it continued to heal, it continued to disappear. And this is what it looks like as of October.
This picture is blurry but its hard to get a horse to stand still so you can take a picture of his eye... just so you know. The skin looks a little irritated still but the bump is gone and that was the important part. Honestly, that skin typically looks a little red, its just one of those things with Chief. As the time goes on, it continues to look better and better.
The important thing to note here folks is if you have a horse with pink skin, please be sure to keep an eye (no pun intended) on those areas to make sure they don't get burnt or get little bumps that could be cancerous. If you notice something out of the ordinary, contact your vet. This cancerous bump could have grown into the actual eye and then it becomes a real problem. So if you can catch things like this early, its not a big deal. If you can stall your pink skinned horse during the summer that is another great way to keep him out of the sun. But God love my low rent horse he hates the stall so we use the fly mask. If we can keep it on him, it does its job.
This summer I'm enlisting my Mother-in-Law to help me design a fly mask that fits over the halter thereby hopefully making it impossible for the other horses to pull it off his face. I'll let you know when we get that designed and if it works. If it does, maybe I can sell the design to Cashel and go into early retirement : ).
Happy Trails folks!
First, if your horse has a pink nose, he is subject to sunburn during the summer. Now, there is an easy solution to this if you horse will wear one of these super cool fly masks: Fly Mask with Long Nose. However, if your horse is anything like mine and lives in a pasture with other playful horses that pull it off his face, it gets interesting try to keep it on. I also use Coppertone Sport in 70 SPF and that works pretty well. And per my post from Nov. 18 if they do get sunburnt put Desitin on it.
Second, if your horse has pink skin around his eyes, you need to be really careful again with the sun. This summer Chief got a cancerous spot on the skin around his eye. It was small but noticeable and as it continued to grow, I called the vet to have him take a look at it. Sure enough, it was cancerous and needed to be removed. Had Chief been able to wear his fly mask, the Cashel ones are also UV protectant, he probably wouldn't have had this issue. But since I couldn't keep the fly mask on, this happened. Once I noticed it, I started taking pictures of it so I could tell if it was growing. I've noticed if you look at something too often, it seems like its not changing but it is...
July 22
The important thing to note here folks is if you have a horse with pink skin, please be sure to keep an eye (no pun intended) on those areas to make sure they don't get burnt or get little bumps that could be cancerous. If you notice something out of the ordinary, contact your vet. This cancerous bump could have grown into the actual eye and then it becomes a real problem. So if you can catch things like this early, its not a big deal. If you can stall your pink skinned horse during the summer that is another great way to keep him out of the sun. But God love my low rent horse he hates the stall so we use the fly mask. If we can keep it on him, it does its job.
This summer I'm enlisting my Mother-in-Law to help me design a fly mask that fits over the halter thereby hopefully making it impossible for the other horses to pull it off his face. I'll let you know when we get that designed and if it works. If it does, maybe I can sell the design to Cashel and go into early retirement : ).
Happy Trails folks!
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Seriously?
So trail riding folks I've been cheating on you... that's right, I've been riding English. I know, I know, I can't believe it either but I have this dream of turning Chief into an Eventer. No he doesn't like stadium jumping or dressage, but he could be good at cross country. One out of three ain't bad right?
Well my foray into jumping has been a bumpy ride. My In-Laws have an old English saddle that they've let me take over because no one has ridden in it except for me in the past 10 years or so. But since no one has been in it, the leather is a bit warped and was painful to ride in. So I worked out the leather with Neastfoot Oil and made it slightly more comfortable and with a pair of chaps, it's not so bad. But then my stirrup leathers were too long so I got the hubs to put another hole in them and now they fit right. So I thought on Monday when I went up to ride that I was finally set in my English saddle.
It started out good enough we spent some time in the arena working on transitions and leads. And the leads are getting better, I am happy to report. Then we went down to the lower arena because some jumps were set up and we went over a couple of those cleanly (maybe not pretty) but clean. I felt Chief getting tired so I took him around the pastures. As we were headed for home, I signaled for the right lead and he picked up the left so I pulled back on the reins to slow him down. We were headed for home so it was a little tougher to slow him down than normal, when all of a sudden my left foot fell right out from underneath me. Now this could have been catastrophic but I was able to grab my seat easy enough. I looked down at my stirrup and most of it was gone. That's right gone. Seriously? Did the stirrup iron just break? I looked down again to double check. The stirrups are breakaway stirrups so I thought maybe the rubber band just broke, but no it was the iron itself that had snapped in two. So we retraced our steps and I was able to find the stirrup so I jumped off, which was a sight without the left stirrup, and picked it up. Of course there was no riding back since my left stirrup was gone but it was a short walk back to the barn. When I got back, I took this picture.
So yes, this can happen and apparently it happens to me. I think someone might be trying to tell me something but I'm going to ignore it and go get a new set of stirrup irons. The moral of the story folks is learn to ride without being dependent on your stirrups, you never know when you might loose one...
Happy Trails!
Well my foray into jumping has been a bumpy ride. My In-Laws have an old English saddle that they've let me take over because no one has ridden in it except for me in the past 10 years or so. But since no one has been in it, the leather is a bit warped and was painful to ride in. So I worked out the leather with Neastfoot Oil and made it slightly more comfortable and with a pair of chaps, it's not so bad. But then my stirrup leathers were too long so I got the hubs to put another hole in them and now they fit right. So I thought on Monday when I went up to ride that I was finally set in my English saddle.
It started out good enough we spent some time in the arena working on transitions and leads. And the leads are getting better, I am happy to report. Then we went down to the lower arena because some jumps were set up and we went over a couple of those cleanly (maybe not pretty) but clean. I felt Chief getting tired so I took him around the pastures. As we were headed for home, I signaled for the right lead and he picked up the left so I pulled back on the reins to slow him down. We were headed for home so it was a little tougher to slow him down than normal, when all of a sudden my left foot fell right out from underneath me. Now this could have been catastrophic but I was able to grab my seat easy enough. I looked down at my stirrup and most of it was gone. That's right gone. Seriously? Did the stirrup iron just break? I looked down again to double check. The stirrups are breakaway stirrups so I thought maybe the rubber band just broke, but no it was the iron itself that had snapped in two. So we retraced our steps and I was able to find the stirrup so I jumped off, which was a sight without the left stirrup, and picked it up. Of course there was no riding back since my left stirrup was gone but it was a short walk back to the barn. When I got back, I took this picture.
Happy Trails!
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Falling in to Winter
This week in east Tennessee was a warm one. Today's high was around 68 degrees which is pretty darn warm even for this area. In fact, today was our local Christmas parade and I can remember every other year I've been here it has been bitterly cold and I've not wanted to go. I didn't realize the parade was today otherwise I might have gone, but then I would have missed excellent riding weather. And one can't miss excellent riding weather this time of year. The fall is coming to a close and we are headed in to winter. We've been blessed with mild temperatures so far but everyone is calling for a cold winter this year because last year was mild. So, I'm going to enjoy the nice weather while it lasts.
Earlier this week Chief and I hit the trails on our own. We took the Creek trail to connect up to Pumpkin Patch Hill. Chief was being lazy on the uphill per usual and I kept having to urge him on. But as we made it to the top of the hill we then cut across to Rocky Top trail. There is a nice flat spot for cantering through the first part so I took the opportunity to try out asking for the right lead. Yes, we are still working on leads and though Chief has gotten much better, he still isn't consistent. I'm also trying to make my signals less obvious. Right now I am holding his head to the left hard and using the inside right leg hard to signal a right lead and while it is effective, if I were in a show ring it would be pretty ugly. So, we are working on consistency and being a little more subtle. Midway through the Rocky Top trail you have to cross the gravel road which gives you a nice view of the area. The picture below is of the little pond and in the distance is a little white building. That building is a church that you pass on the drive up to the barn. This time of year with the leaves all down, you really can see for some distance.
From there we headed back down towards the Submarine trail. There are some nice flat spots to canter here as well. But we had to stop and take in the view of the creek as it really was a nice afternoon.
There are a lot of new trees down, luckily most of them have fallen away from the trail rather than on it. But you can see this tree has made it into the creek. I guess we've had our share of inclement weather recently which brings the trees down. From the Submarine trail Chief and I headed up the short route home towards the other ponds rather than the Creek trail. Prior to hitting the trail, we had spent a little time in the arena so I knew Chief was getting a bit tired. So I thought the short route home would be a good idea. It was a nice little ride and we added some time to the log book.
Til next time, happy trails!
Earlier this week Chief and I hit the trails on our own. We took the Creek trail to connect up to Pumpkin Patch Hill. Chief was being lazy on the uphill per usual and I kept having to urge him on. But as we made it to the top of the hill we then cut across to Rocky Top trail. There is a nice flat spot for cantering through the first part so I took the opportunity to try out asking for the right lead. Yes, we are still working on leads and though Chief has gotten much better, he still isn't consistent. I'm also trying to make my signals less obvious. Right now I am holding his head to the left hard and using the inside right leg hard to signal a right lead and while it is effective, if I were in a show ring it would be pretty ugly. So, we are working on consistency and being a little more subtle. Midway through the Rocky Top trail you have to cross the gravel road which gives you a nice view of the area. The picture below is of the little pond and in the distance is a little white building. That building is a church that you pass on the drive up to the barn. This time of year with the leaves all down, you really can see for some distance.
Til next time, happy trails!
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