Bringing Up Baby

Update: Poppy Black

2012-01-09T19:42:00.006-05:00

By request, here is an update on the filly. Her papers are being processed, and her name is Poppy Black. Mom actually got that idea from a reader of my side saddle blog who left a comment. Our first Choice was "Filigree" but that was taken. So Poppy Black it is, which is sort of a combo of Sensational Copy and First Black Out.

Not much news, nor many pictures. She's weaned. She lives a very mundane life doing nothing all day with her School Marm pony "Bubbles".

Mom brought Bubbles home with no real plan. I encouraged her to use her as a weaning companion since that was her previous job. She was already doing that job for our friend Catherine. I think Mom just wanted her so she could look out the window at her.

She is just about as cute as any pony can be and she sort of reminds me of something... what is it? Oh I know. One of Mom's favorite childhood books.

Childhood dream come true!

I know I said it was over

2011-10-02T18:31:00.004-04:00

But I thought you would enjoy these photos of Ace's little sister. She recently had her first farrier visit and behaved like a lady. She stood stock still while the loud, strange man picked up her legs and rasped away while telling a story. Mom said she asked him if "we could please finish the last foot before we finish the story?" After all, she had never actually had her front feet picked up. The back ones yes, but Mom never bothered with the front ones.

No matter. One day months ago, while I was "baby-wrangling" for Mom I accidentally knocked her down and fell on top of her and it made a permanent impression as to the superior strength of humans. Well, depending on who's telling the story, maybe the baby threw a fit and knocked me down. But the landing was the same and she has been very respectful of humans since then.

It's nice to have a baby who you can play kissy face without worrying about being bitten and stomped on. Temperment wise, she is the polar oposite of Ace. Thank Heaven! We have retired the whapper stick.

The End

2011-06-14T19:50:00.003-04:00

I am sad to report that this is the end of Ace's blog. We received word this week that he was humanely euthanised over the weekend. For the past few weeks he had not been acting right. That morning he did not come up to be fed with the other horses, and his owner's husband found him down in the pasture and unable to get to his feet. The decision was made to have him destroyed there.

In my opinion this is for the best. A buyer had been found who was looking for a young horse as a project, but I am happy he did not have to go to yet another new place with his issues. Now I won't have to track him and worry about him for the next 20 some years.

The new filly "Sonia" is doing very well. Perhaps she will make an appearance now and then on The Grey Horse blog.

Baby Pictures

2011-05-31T18:53:00.003-04:00

Photos of Baby Girl's first excursion. Still a little folded up, but oh so precious.

It's a Girl

2011-05-30T11:24:00.003-04:00

A week early, but four and a half hours late to be on Mom's Birthday.

Bay with a star and one front pastern white. Copy delivered her quickly and easily when my Stepdad went to the house for some coffee in between checking the mare and his cows that are due. She was on her feet in half an hour, and nursing not too long after. She is smaller than Ace was which made the deliver that much easier. Both Mama and baby are doing fine. She is very vocal just like Ace was. Copy nickers and she whinnys back loudly.

18 days and counting

2011-05-19T16:52:00.004-04:00

Copy has reached the "OMG I am so fat" stage.

Today she spent her nap time nickering to herself and groaning exhaustedly.

Then she turned her nose up at some grass that was picked from the wrong part of the lawn.

Ace Update

2011-04-27T09:28:00.002-04:00

Ace's new home reports that he is doing fine and is a tall, lanky two year old. His ulcers and behavioral issues are under control through lots of turnout and some tummy soothing supplements. He is not on any medication. He does get a bit colicky during barometric changes.

His owner's husband owns a pallet yard so he brings home plenty of sturdy branches for Ace to play with. I imagine his pasture mate is tired of being beaten with sticks!

How is Copy?

2011-01-26T18:47:00.004-05:00

Copy is large and cranky. Her due date isn't until the end of May. I actually videoed a brief, 30 second interview with her this past weekend, but I can't get it to load to Blogger and I've given up trying. She is mostly concerned by the fact that this third pregnancy has completely ruined her girlish figure and made her rump look wide.

Acey has a Giiiiiirlfriend

2010-11-17T14:53:00.004-05:00

Ace has been fixed up with a woman. He has been going out with her a short time each day for the past two weeks as they get to know each other. For the first time ever in his life, he irritated a horse enough to get bitten back. Aside from an a$$-whooping delivered by the Grey Horse one day, no other horse has ever tried to stand up to his crap. This is great news because it is the first step in his long over due socialization and integration into a group. I would have loved to see the look on his face when he got bitten.

Ace has not been happy with the recent turn in the weather. Today is very cold and blustery with driving rain. Like his mother, Ace has a very short, fine, plushy coat, and he does not like to get it dirty. I don't remember ever seeing him roll in the dirt or having to clean mud off of him. He's a hot house flower. Today he was objecting to being out in the elements woman or no woman. His owner said last week she was watching from the house as Ace and his girlfriend ran and acted stoopid, and Ace did a sliding stop into a corner wiping out on his side. He stood up quickly hoping no one had seen that. I'm sure he was just as upset about the dirt as he was about the gravity. Ace would be a perfect candidate for a horsey treadmill. That way he could stretch his legs, get his exercise, and never leave the comfort of the barn.

As for his health, he is doing well on the ulcer medication. When his owner tried to reduce it, he got a bit colicky so he is back on the full dose. I talked with a couple of professional Saddlebred caretakers and both of them agreed that it sounded like the pain from the ulcers were the root of his discomfort triggered anxiety episodes. One related a story of a stallion who had undergone two extensive colic surgeries with a lot of intestine removed. Afterwards, he could not eat hay because it irritated his entire digestive tract and he had to be on a complete feed instead.

In my conversations, I did learn of a drug that has been used to successfully treat the self mutiliation syndrome. It is the anti-anxiety drug Imipradene. Originally used to enhance semen quality in stallions used for AI, it was found to also reduce the mutilation tendencies, although a residue of the learned behaviors did remain from habit. As far as I know, no actual research has been done regarding appropriate dosage to treat the anxiety, but it does sound promising for extreme cases if no other solution can be reached.

So, Ace's life is going well. I don't know if this is directly related to his comfort on the ulcer medication, or just a matter of him growing up, but he is beginning to loosen up in the shoulders and move more freely. His owner is mostly worried now about the coming winter and being able to keep him on a regular turnout schedule. That is always an issue in our area since we have at least 6 months of ice, snow and wicked mud. At Mom's barn, we are lucky to have the 50 x 50 indoor. The paddocks are now off limits to save the seeding for next summer's grazing and turnout is limited to the arena and small dry lot. We had a new load of coarse sand delivered this week, and my step father has been hard at work leveling the ridges and ripples before spreading our wonderful new winter footing which keeps us going in even the worst blizzard and misery.

Moody Mare

2010-11-02T18:46:00.007-04:00

Copy rules the roost at our barn. She always has her stall door open with a stall guard across. Her turnout shift is all night, so all day she supervises. And makes her angry camel face. The only time she can be pleasant is when she thinks I have a snack. Or when I'm scratching her withers.

This expression was very difficult to capture on camera as she is so vain that as soon as she sees a camera she poses. The look was achieved by repeatedly blowing raspberries at her until she got fed up. Note the snarl wrinkles over the nostril.

Anyway, Copy lives to terrorise the geldings, and she does a good job. If you lead one past her open door, you have to walk between them and waggle your finger at her. Grey is terrified he's going to get his butt bitten and always scurries past. When she is turned out briefly during the day beside the barn to graze, we have to move Grey from that side of the barn because she will pester him endlessly through window. That's why she can't be allowed to graze over night, and is limited to the sacrifice pen on the other side which doesn't allow her to get right up to a window and act like a hussy.

This weekend, my mother was leading her for grass, and Face-Off, who is very jealous and opinionated, came to the fence nearby and threw one of his temper tantrums that involves standing in one spot, and kicking like a mule. What he was trying to say was "I am the most special horse ever, and I want to go out and eat grass too." When Mom headed back to the barn, she took a shortcut between the garden and the paddock, and stopped to visit with Face-Off. He reached over the fence and touched Copy. Copy blasted a board off the fence, hitting Face-Off in the knee and drawing blood. Face-Off was very upset and stood and cow kicked repeatedly in frustration. Copy feigned indifference.

She is covered in plushy winter fur, and her dapples are sort of like dimples.

Any Updates?

2010-10-25T14:36:00.002-04:00

No news is good news.

I haven't spoken to Ace's camp for a couple of weeks now. They were trying the ulcer treatment and a calming supplement. The farrier was here last week, and he said he'd been there and the colt looked good, and all seemed peaceful. We're hoping the ulcer treatment eliminates any pain trigger he had, and tweaking his routine will be enough to take care of some of the behavioral issues. Also, his testosterone levels should finally be dropping (it's been about two months) and that should help as well.

The Plan of Attack

2010-09-30T16:07:00.002-04:00

Mom says that Ace's owner called her this morning before Mom was even out of bed and seems very positive about tackling this. They talked for quite awhile until Ace (who was tuned out in the rain) came to the window and whinnied for Siri to come and put him in the barn. Like my mother says "a brilliant mind in a fragile psyche."

Fortunately our vet has some familiarity with this and agrees that the horses get an endorphine high from it and that because of that it quickly becomes a pattern that is hard to break. Without having had him scoped we are all assuming he has ulcers. Cornell wanted to scope him, but Siri said just go ahead and treat him because no doubt he has them, so he was started on that already and will continue. Hopefully he can come off the expensive stuff and maintain on aloe vera juice instead. He is also starting on Vitamin B-1 which I had also heard was effective as a calming agent, so I am reassured that Dr. Tim's thoughts are parallel to my findings.

So we'll see. It is actually comforting to think that he's just a little crazy because we, as horse people "get" that don't we? I'm glad the exploratory surgery wasn't done looking for an intestinal cause of the colic as that would have caused even more stress. If ulcer pain caused the colic symptoms and the daily discomfort is also triggering the episodes we have hope because ulcers are treatable.

I'll keep you all posted.

Replies to comments

2010-09-30T08:44:00.011-04:00

Because the other post is so darn long, I'll reply to the comments here.
Yes, Ace has always exhibited nervous and "superstitious" behavior. He paws at dinner time and has done since he was about two weeks old. The day he was weaned he developed the mouth rinsing ritual to replace being able to nurse to calm himself. He would run frantically for a few minutes, then go the the bucket and rinse. He is absolutely obsessed with marking manure piles.

Yes, the stress of his environment could certainly have contributed to this early onset. Ideally he would be out in a large pasture playing with colts his age, but our set up, and the new owner's set up require individual turnout for set periods of time. We tried several times to buddy him up when he was first weaned, but he was so aggressive we worried he would hurt the subordinate gelding and we were certain that Grey would hurt him trying to put him in his place. He has always been in sight of other horses, and allowed to visit but never got properly socialised. This set up has worked for 6 other Saddlebred or half Saddlebred colts. And it is also how my Grandmother raised half a dozen so while not ideal, it isn't the direct cause of Ace's issues, but an exacerbating factor. We knew within a few months that we really had our hands full, as he was far more tricky to handle than anything we had ever dealt with. Not dangerous just... tricky.

Ace's current owner, who bred his dam and dealt with many of these related horses, has had two or three self mutilators, and can name two stallions in his immediate ancestry who had it, but nothing this extreme. On the other hand, I worked with a half bother of Copy's and a full brother and neither of them showed signs. We owned her 3/4 sister and she was fine and produced all "normal" foals. I believe this is pretty common in Saddlebreds but not talked about, like several congenital issues we have in our stock. We owned another unrelated Saddlebred mutilator who had a lot of mental/emotional issues. I spoke to another ASB pbreeder last evening who had an extreme case, but she had to put the colt down at 10 months because of Wobblers (also a nuerological condition) and I wonder if those syndromes are somehow related.

Even Grey shows some signs. He is a slight "head shaker" (which is a more common equine nuerological Tick) but not enough to be a problem. He can't stand wearing a shanked bit because it tickles his whiskers and he will stop repeatedly to rub the bit against his chest, and sneeze violently... so he wears a snaffle and will never be a saddle seat horse. If Grey feels stressed, he will lick his chest... usually when he is having his girth tightened. And he nickers a low nicker very often, especially when startled, which, after reading up, sounds sort of like the uncontrolled vocalizations of the equine tourettes.

So, reading these articles at least gives us some understanding, puts alot of old puzzle pieces together, and gives us a direction if not answers. However, I can say that Ace will not be spending his life on Prozac. Only time will tell the outcome of this.

Neither here nor there

2010-09-29T16:16:00.004-04:00

Well, after several phone calls, and some research, Ace's owner and I think we are comfortable pinning the root of Ace's problem on self mutilation. This is an obsessive compulsive driven disorder that only about .005% of horses have. It's pretty common in Saddlebreds, and I don't need any studies to prove that. It is present in Ace's dam line and it looks like he got it in spades. We are going to look into some treatment ideas and see if we can get any improvement before he seriously hurts himself (he has recently cracked a 2 inch thick tongue and groove hardwood wall)

Ace is the most high strung horse I've ever met. He started grabbing his left side before his first birthday. He has always been very obsessive/compulsive about manure piles and marking his territory. He often get's a preoccupied, glassy stare that his current owner attributed to pain, but now with closer observation over the past week looks like it could be the first clue that he is going into one of his episodes. He has gotten progressively worse over the summer, and it seems that in his case, gelding him only made it worse, not better as we hoped. I don't know if the pain from the colic episode triggered more violent obsessive behavior or if the obsessive behavior triggered the colic.

Naturally, we're going to run this by the vets, and I have some phone numbers already of people who have experience dealing with this so we'll see how things pan out. Here is an excellent general article from The Horse.com It's fascinating to learn about, but would be much more fascinating if we weren't dealing with the consequences first hand, especially so early in a horse's life.

Also find further reading here

Equine Self Mutilation
by: Sue McDonnell, PhD, Certified AAB March 01 2000, Article # 3039

It's a beautiful winter weekend, and finally you have a full morning to spend at the barn. You're happily grooming your horse when you notice a cluster of patches of wet hair on his side. Peculiar pattern to the wet hairs -- all are lying forward as if combed with a wet brush. Oh well, odd but probably nothing, you think. But wait, some of the wet spots have hairs missing or chopped off bluntly. You check the other side, and there you find some more patches, like the wet ones, but as if they have now dried. What's going on? There are more of these patches on the left side than on the right side, but they all are in the same area of the abdomen, from the ribs to the stifle.

Just then the barn manager comes in all excited. She's glad you're there early today, because when she was feeding this morning, she found your horse spinning in his stall, tearing at his blanket and biting at his sides. Her first reaction was to scream at him to stop--and he did. She figured the blanket was the problem, maybe it was rubbing or pinching him under the leg. She got some help to investigate. They couldn't find anything out of order with the straps or the blanket, but took it off anyway. Then, just as they closed the stall door, he really went nuts, spinning in a very tight circle, biting his left flank. With each bite, he squealed and kicked out. As he was turning and nipping, he sometimes was bucking and squealing. They were too scared to open the door. He went on for what seemed like forever, as if he wouldn't stop until he tore up the stall or killed himself. Then he gradually came out of it.
"When we screamed his name, he turned toward the stall door, looking at us with a sort of a worried, glassy eye, like he didn't know what was happening. We threw him his hay, and he's been pretty quiet since."

You run your fingers over the wet areas on his flanks and feel some crusty bumps on the underlying skin. Separating the hairs, you can feel little marks in the skin -- anywhere from one-quarter to one inch in diameter. Some are fresh nicks, some are scabbed over, some look healed. The rest of his coat is unblemished. No marks, no wet spots, no chopped or missing clumps of hair other than on his flanks and over his ribs.

So what is going on here?
This behavior commonly is called flank biting or flank sucking. The biting is one aspect of a cluster of behaviors called self-mutilation, because the horse likely will incur serious self-injury during these explosive episodes.

In addition to biting the flanks, self-mutilation sequences can include seemingly uncontrollable violent behavior. From horse to horse, the sequence and form can vary, but most typically includes spinning in circles, bucking, and kicking out with one or both back legs while nipping at the flank, shoulders, or chest. In the photos at the bottom of page 76, there is an example of a horse biting more violently at his chest, and a resulting chest avulsion.

In extreme cases, the horse can violently lunge its body or head into a wall or other solid object. More rarely, a horse might "throw itself" to the ground (from standing to lateral recumbency). A single episode can last from a few seconds to several minutes, uninterrupted. The horse can work up a lather and steam in cool weather. Episodes usually occur in a series separated by a few seconds to a few minutes over a period of minutes, to hours. The total daily time spent self-mutilating can vary from a few seconds to an hour or more. In addition to bite wounds, the most common injuries are to the legs and feet from the spinning and kicking.

Self-mutilation behavior of one form or another has been described in many different species, including humans. Dog and cats lick and chew on their paws or tails. People do all sorts of things--pull out their hair, bite their fingernails or lips, scratch themselves, or deliberately inflict burns, cuts, or other wounds.

People who have seen a horse in the midst of attacking itself often describe the episodes as the most bizarre animal behavior they ever have seen. Mental health professionals or others with first-hand experience with human psychopathology often ask whether this might be the horse equivalent of severe neurotic or even truly psychotic behavior seen in people. For example, Dr. Nicholas Dodman, a veterinary animal behavior specialist at Tufts New England Veterinary College, said he has wondered whether certain forms of self-mutilation in horses might be similar to Tourette's Syndrome in humans. There are some interesting similarities, and some clear differences.

Since self-mutilation occurs in other animal species and a variety of human psychopathologic syndromes, it's probably too early to conclude that any of the self-mutilation seen in horses represents the same pathology as Tourette's in people. In other species, the trend in clinical veterinary behavior has been to label self-mutilative behavior "obsessive-compulsive disorder," or OCD.

This syndrome in humans has two distinct components. One component is the compulsive, repetitive behavior, such as repeatedly checking to see if the stove has been left on. The other component is the accompanying obsessive thoughts or worries, such as concerns about being caught in a burning building. Often the thoughts or worries are related to the compulsive behavior and logically appear to drive it.

In the case of animals, we don't know whether they think or worry, so this label of obsessive-compulsive behavior might be too elaborate. Some behaviorists now are calling these behaviors in animals simply compulsive behavior.

There are at least three distinct types of self-mutilative behavior in horses. One type is simply an "extreme" behavioral response to physical discomfort. We know that physical pain alone, particularly in the abdominal area, can evoke behavior similar to that of the horse in the situation described above. We know it is physical pain because coincident with finding and correcting an apparently or potentially painful condition, the self-mutilative behavior stops without any other treatment. For example, the classic behavior we associate with colic or early labor in broodmares involves turning the head back toward the flank, either looking or nipping at the flank, and sometimes kicking out. Although it is not as common, some horses' behavioral response to physical pain has more violent episodes, including spinning, kicking, bucking, and serious self- biting. Some of the less-common physical root causes for violently colic-like behavior have been a twisted testicular cord, an abdominal abscess, urethral tears, or gastric ulcers. These sometimes can be intermittent and difficult to find. This is in contrast to the other types of self-mutilation. When there is a physical cause, there often is an increase in the behavior in association with work. The most explosive episodes might be during or soon after work. As time goes on, the horse might anticipate the exacerbation of pain with work, so can become agitated when being prepared for work.

A second type of self-mutilation is what could be called self-directed intermale aggression. This type occurs in stallions and geldings. The sequence follows what two stallions at liberty would do when meeting, except that the stallion himself is the target of his own behavior. When stallions meet, they typically stand parallel to one another, head-to-tail. They investigate each other's flank area, usually sniffing and nipping at the flank and genitals. The encounter can be pretty noisy. The stallions usually squeal and kick out with each nip or bite. They also might spin, buck, stomp, and romp, going around one another in circles. The sniffing of each other's flank and genitals, and of each other's feces, is an important trigger for the nipping and biting.

Sometimes the self-mutilation process begins over a stud pile. In the stallion which is sniffing and biting himself, each episode begins with the sniffing of his own feces or feces of other stallions in shared turn-out facilities. Oily body residues on stall walls, fences, or doorways can trigger episodes. We have seen several cases of self-mutilation that appeared to have started when a stallion was exposed to the smelly residues of another stallion in a trailer.

Unlike the pain-related self-mutilation, this type usually develops over a period of months. It can start as early as the first year of life or as late as the teens. It typically continues for the life of the stallion.

A third type of self-mutilation is a more quiet, rhythmic, repetitive nipping at various areas of the body. It looks similar to stereotypic weaving or stall walking in that it appears that the horse has nothing better to do. By formal definition, stereotypic behavior is characterized by repetitive, highly stylized, and seemingly functionless movements and sequences of movements.
Spanning the top of pages 76 and 77 is a series of photos of a stallion which had a very fixed pattern of biting himself from flank to shoulder to chest to opposite shoulder to opposite flank and on and on. He did it at the same place in the pasture at the same time of day for the same length of time, just as some horses walk their stall in very complex and fixed patterns day after day.

Stereotypies occur in one form or another in all captive wild and domestic animal species, and are a common feature of human psychopathology, as well as developmental and neurologic disorders. Subadequate environment and nutrition seem to be the major factors predisposing animals to stereotypies.

In horses, the classic stereotypies are cribbing, weaving, pacing, stall-circling, and head-shaking. Certainly, in cases in which a physical root cause is not apparent, self-mutilation fits this definition of a stereotypy. Of course, the performance of a stereotypy, no matter what the initial precipitating cause, is self-rewarding. Endorphins are released, and they can be positive reinforcement sufficient to sustain the behavior as a habit. We often wonder if self-mutilation, for which we can find no contemporary physical cause and that doesn't quite fit the self-directed intermale aggression type, might have started during a period of physical discomfort, but now is a lingering habit.

How Common Is Self-Mutilation?
It's very difficult to estimate how many horses suffer from self-mutilation. My guess would be that the problem occurs in less than 0.005% of all horses. Most equine veterinarians might see only a few cases in their entire careers. Self-mutilation can occur in stallions, mares, and geldings. Of course, the self-directed intermale aggression type is almost always in stallions and geldings. We don't know whether or not the predisposition for self-mutilation is highly heritable. We know that the behavior probably is the result of domestic environmental and nutritional factors, in that it apparently does not occur in wild or feral horses.

Where Does It Hurt?

For those horses whose self-mutilation episodes looks like a violent form of colic, it is critical to look for and immediately treat any possible causes of discomfort. Except for classic colic, this often is easier said than done. It sometimes can be tough to find (see the boxed table of examples of possible physical causes of discomfort on page 74). No matter what the slickest animal psychic would have us believe, our animals, like human infants, have only their non-verbal behavior as clues to tell us where they hurt. After years of losing sleep trying to find causes of self-mutilation in horses, I think our best hope for figuring out potential physical sources of discomfort that might be provoking episodes of self-mutilation turns out to be pretty inexpensive and very low tech. It is simply to critically observe the horse for hours at a time. This can be done live, but there are many advantages to video recording the behavior.

Long, continuous observation periods allow the horse to go back to its ongoing behavior, as opposed to being distracted by human presence. Long observation periods also will enable you to see how the self-mutilation episodes start and stop, and what in the environment might provoke them. When casually watching a self-mutilating horse, your attention is drawn to the noisy, more violent episodes. When watching the horse continually for hours, you likely will see mild and violent episodes. The milder episodes often are more useful than the explosive episodes in localizing potential sites of discomfort.

Once you have a clue as to where the pain might be, you can be aggressive with veterinary diagnostics. This might include classic radiography, scintigraphy, endoscopy, and ultrasound imaging.

Even if it appears to be a classic stereotypy, or a psychological behavior problem, we should never stop looking for a possible physical cause. A great example illustrating this point in horses is the case of head shaking behavior. For many years, veterinarians have looked for possible sources of discomfort in cases of head shaking. Many times a source could be found--things like ear mites, tooth abcess, guttural pouch problems, or allergies. But many times, nothing physical could be found and it was assumed that the problem was psychological. Only a few years ago did scientists in the United Kingdom and California find that some headshaking in horses appears to be induced by bright light or loud sound. It is a real physical problem involving hyperactivation of a nerve tract that is physically irritating to the horse. (See The Horse of October 1996, page 70.)

What Else Can You Do?
The best outcome of immediate and aggressive veterinary evaluation is to identify and quickly treat a physical cause. An equine behavior specialist can be a valuable member of a veterinary team. By evaluating the behavior, possible sites of discomfort can be identified, and an opinion can be offered on primary or secondary psychological components to the episodes. If physical discomfort is eliminated, the self-mutilation typically stops almost immediately. We have seen cases in which months or years passed before a root physical cause was found, in which the self-mutilation stopped immediately when the discomfort was alleviated.

Unfortunately, often a physical cause is not found and the conclusion is drawn that this is the self-directed intermale aggression type, or is simply a stereotypy. Over the years, mostly by trial-and-error, we have found a number of different treatment approaches, each of which typically is either helpful, or at least does not exacerbate the self-mutilation. Most are simple management changes that seem to work by distracting the animal to another activity; some involve sophisticated pharmacology.

Physical restraint Traditionally, a large percentage of the effort, thought, and expense of treatment of self-mutilation has involved various methods of physically preventing or discouraging the behavior. This often is the first thing you will want to consider while further evaluation is organized. Special neck cradles and side poles, grazing muzzles, bibs, and protective wraps and blankets can be used to prevent injury. Physical restraint alone rarely "cures" self-mutilation. All too often when the horse is effectively restrained from performing one behavior, another problem behavior develops. If biting is prevented, the horse might start kicking or lunging into walls. In the short term, while looking for and treating possible causes, it is wise to creatively work at keeping the animal from further injury.

For any restraint, care must to taken in devising materials that don't cause new rub sores or other irritations. My favorite of all the restraints for self-biting is the grazing basket shown on page 78. The horse effectively can eat hay and grass through the openings. The basket inhibits a substantial grab of flesh, although the persistent horse still can work a small nip of hair or skin through the basket openings.

Social, feeding, and work distractions Typically, the most effective management changes are those that seem to provide motivation for a substitute behavior or a strong distraction to focus on something else. For a stallion, self-mutilation sometimes can be relieved significantly if the stallion is turned out to live in a large pasture with one or more mares. In that situation, the stallion becomes a harem stallion with great responsibility to herd and defend the mares. Those harem maintenance behaviors seem to occupy the stallion's time and distract him from the problem behavior. If he is not supplemented with concentrated feed, his grazing and resting fully occupy the remainder of his time.

Of course, this often is not a plausible solution for the fancy breeding or busy performing stallion. There might be some difficulty and danger in taking such a stallion or his mares in and out of such a situation. Most stallions will not want to leave their mares. But to the extent that the stallion can be distracted socially, in some cases it is worth trying.

Horses appear to find meaningful social companionship from animals of other species. Donkeys, goats, rabbits, and even chickens are useful as stall or pasture companions. In my experience with chickens as stall companions for self-mutilators, it seems that the horse sometimes is reluctant to move around the stall, lest it cause the chicken to scurry and flutter. Some stallions also seem distracted by their effort to avoid stepping on the chicken.

Another effective distraction for many self-mutilators is a vigorous appetite. A change in diet from one heavy with grain to one of grass and grass hay only (without any grain or richer forage) often can lead to a remarkable change in behavior. The horse might spend almost all of its time eating and resting, with seemingly no time for anything else, including self-mutilation. A grazing muzzle like the one described earlier can effectively prolong the eating time.

The all-grass, no-grain diet might have other benefits for behavior. We know from work in horses and other grazing species that grain diets predispose an animal to stereotypies and other behavior problems. The grain diet might alter the brain neurochemistry, setting the animal up for developing abnormal behavior. We long have appreciated that grain increases the risk of behavior problems and high-forage diets reduce the risk of behavior problems.

Work For the self-directed intermale aggression type of self-mutilation, the behavior seldom is seen during work. Moderate work also stimulates appetite. A horse which works one to two hours a day and which is fed ad lib grass and grass hay almost always will spend 60% or more of his time eating and 20% of his time resting. This approaches the natural time budget of a horse at liberty or in the wild. Breeding work sometimes reduces and sometimes increases the frequency and intensity of self-mutilation.

Gelding stallions? For the self-directed intermale aggression type self-mutilating stallions, some veterinarians recommend castration, and in some cases it works very well. Unfortunately, it also can get worse or won't change. When advising clients on this option, I always am reminded of the dozen or so geldings we have known which seemed normal as colts, but were first seen to self-mutilate soon after castration.

Medications Pharmacologic aids, which in some cases have appeared helpful in relieving self-mutilation, include long-acting tranquilizers, tricyclic anti-depressants such as imipramine and clomipramine, progesterone, and the nutritional supplement l-tryptophan. Some of these have been discovered by accident and some are based on theories of brain neurochemistry. None of these medications alone or in combination is likely to eliminate self-mutilation completely. The particular choice depends on the severity and nature of the self-mutilation. In combination with management changes, medications often are judged to be valuable parts of the plan to eliminate self-mutilation. The tendency is for people to over-estimate their potential. An important concern for clinicians who medicate the horse early in the evaluation is that the drugs might help a horse to cope with physical discomfort, thus could effectively mask the symptoms and delay diagnosis of a treatable physical problem.

Other treatment tips For horses whose self-mutilation seems to be triggered by male odors and feces, any number of creative steps can be taken to reduce the stimulation. Odor-masking preparations can be applied to the nostrils, the horse can be bathed frequently, and feces and oily residues can be removed from stalls and pastures. Sometimes, the sight or smell of another stallion seems to provoke episodes. Housing changes can reduce the frequency and severity of self-mutilation.

In our clinic we find that long-term video surveillance of the horse can reveal events and situations that provoke the behavior. Often these "provokers" can be simply and inexpensively eliminated. For example, occasionally you find a horse which only bites himself when the feed cart is coming down the aisle, or when other stallions are on their way to the breeding shed.
Tie-stalls For reasons I'm not sure we ever will understand, simply housing a horse in a tie-stall can effectively eliminate self-mutilation. Recent work with tie-stalled horses in the pregnant mare urine industry has indicated that abnormal behavior in general is very low in tie-stalled horses compared to box-stalled horses.

No one treatment alone is likely to be effective. The cases for which the greatest relief has been achieved have involved simultaneously implementing as many of the treatment steps as possible. We recommend spending time with your veterinarian to develop a custom plan based on everything you know about the horse. Once everything is organized, we recommend implementing all the changes and treatments at once. This is not good science in that you might never know which of the changes were most effective, but experience has taught us that major change often is more effective than a systematic, step-wise approach.

In summary, we really know very little about the causes of self-mutilation, other than physical discomfort. It is important to realize that except for those cases for which a physical discomfort can be identified and eliminated, the self-mutilation likely will never be cured. The current treatments for the self-directed intermale aggression and stereotypy types of self-mutilation rarely effect a cure. At best, diligent attention and care will keep the levels of injury low.

Precarious

2010-09-28T09:29:00.002-04:00

That is the only title I can think of right now, because I don't know the outcome of this story.
Last Thursday evening I got a phone message from Ace's owner. It didn't sound like an emergency, and the phone number was garbled. Mom was out of town for the weekend, so I couldn't confirm the number. I tried a couple of combinations, and gave up. The next day I called the stallion owner for another reason, figuring I could also get the number from him. But I couldn't reach him... all day. No one had called again, so I sort of let it go but was starting to worry. Saturday morning, the stallion owner called me back and filled me in.

Thursday Ace was showing signs of severe colic, grabbing his side throwing himself about and casting himself in his stall twice. All normal colic procedures were started... Banamine, walking up and down hills... but there were no gut sounds. It seemed to be an impaction type, not a gas type. Our regular vet was tied up with other emergencies. Ace's owner called the stallion owner, and they decided the best course of action was to take Ace back to Cornell. So, the stallion owner hit the road (over an hour) and together they headed to Cornell (another 3 hours) arriving at 1am. The trailer ride seemed to help, and he was now passing manure. Ace was very dehydrated, but other tests did not indicate colic. (?) He was tubed with mineral oil, put on IV fluids and placed under observation.

The next day he was given wet hay, and his pain symptoms started all over again, primarily the self mutilation to his left side and anger but some Banamine eased it. By Saturday Ace's vet bill had reached his owner's spending limit, and while they had no real answers to the problem, he was eating and passing manure and so was cleared to come home. Because of shift changes, he had been seen by three different vets. The last vet said she has a hunch that there is something malformed inside, and that it isn't a new occurrence. The fact that he began self mutilating so early (prior to his first birthday) , the cryptorchid surgery did not alleviate it, and in fact, it has become progressively worse, one would think that he might have some congenital defect that is causing him intermittent pain. That intermittent pain would also explain the unpredictability of his temper from day to day. Without exploratory surgery (which would increase his vet bill to $10,000-13,000 with aftercare), there is no way to know. Faced with a risky and expensive surgery and no clear diagnosis, his owner opted to bring him home and see what happens.

Three days have passed without another episode, but she says he still isn't back to normal. Of course, he has been poked with needles, displaced and dealt with quite a bit of pain, and I probably wouldn't act quite right after that either. We've all agreed that it isn't fair to expect him to weather another bad colic and trailer ride. That's the thing with horses. Sometimes you just don't know what to do.

Ace is a Gelding!

2010-07-30T16:07:00.003-04:00

Ace is through his surgery, and eating a mash. They had to use a little more anesthesia than usual. Not sure why... longer surgery? The testicle was up in his stomach cavity, and half the normal size. His owner is in 7th heaven over the impression Acey made by his good behavior and the staff's oowing and aaaahhhing over him. He can come home on Sunday.

Well... deep breath... thank God that's over!

OH MY!

2010-07-30T11:02:00.003-04:00

I didn't even get enough notice to be nervous for him!

Email just now from Mom:

Hi Brita,

Today Acey is operated on. He rode well. Got there about 6 last night. Had to fast him partially from yesterday mid-day, then he wanted his bedding at Cornell. They put a "pail with holes in it" muzzle on him. He used the waterer that needed to be pressed on, fill his bucket and drank his water to everyone's entertainment.

Mom

Can you imagine?!? I can just picture Ace: "Downside, I can't eat. Upside, I have a traveling water source." He drinks constantly so this would be an intriguing concept to him. And he mastered the automatic waterer right off the bat. I always knew he was a prodigy!

So I guess I owe you guys an update.

2010-07-22T11:01:00.004-04:00

Copy is in foal. Or at least she was on Monday. You see, on Saturday Mom hauled her to our farm vet's office, to save a farm call fee. He palpated her (he had the ultrasound machine right there beside him) and said "nope, not in foal, we won't bother with the ultrasound (whoops)". So on Sunday, Mom hauled her out to Stallion Services in Ohio for a culture, checkup yadayada in preparation for her next cycle which ought to be right around the corner. Monday morning, with due diligence, SS ultrasounded her, and not long after I got a phone call at work from Ace's owner... "can't find your mother, but tell her to go get the mare, she's already in foal."

This was like a game of telegraph. Robin from SS couldn't find Mom (no cell) so she called the stallion owner, who called Ace's owner, who called me at work... so at that point I was wondering if Mom and Stepdad had even made it back from Ohio the night before since their answering machine was off and they hadn't called when they got home... See what fun this breeding thing can be?

Back to the mare. So, SS immediately puts Regumate in her mouth (she'd missed Sunday since she was supposedly open), performed a caslick and packed her overnight bag. Mom went back and got her on Tuesday (after calling Vet#1 with the "lesson learned" news). Good news is that no one charged her for anything at either office, so she's only out the gas money. And two days driving. But Mom liked Stallion Services so well, she thought it was worth the trip. They are a very class act and she learned alot.

And Acey is much loved and appreciated. He has an appointment in a couple of weeks at Cornell. And while we haven't been out to visit, his owner assures us he's "just as beautiful as ever". She's raving about the cross and I think I may be more critical about what I made than she is, because thinks he's Louisville quality. That would be great if he got the training to have a chance at that level, and we would love to come and cheer for that! She's very excited about the other upcoming foal. Mom is just hoping that the trip to Ohio and back, and the day off of Regumate didn't cause her to slip that, but last time she was in and out and hauled around during the breeding process, so I'm not too worried about it.

The Economics of Horse Breeding

2010-07-06T15:59:00.004-04:00

As Ace’s surgery date approachs, I'm beginning to have sticker shock. There are two clinics to choose from. One is Cornell Vet School, and the other is Cleveland Equine. We are set pretty much equidistant between the two of them, which is a three hour drive one way. Because Cornell is a teaching school, they give a flat rate of $1500 for the procedure. Cleveland Equine estimates between $2000 and $2500 for the procedure, with the variables being surgical complications and recovery time.

Add to this at least $125 in gas because first you have to drop the horse off, and drive home. Then you have to go back and get him and drive home again. Which means each trip out is going to be 6-8 hours factoring in loading time etc. So, this means taking two days off of work. Let’s review. That’s $1500 to $2500 for surgery. $125 for gas. Two days off work. Things are starting to add up. I figure on the low end I'm looking at $1900, and at the high end, somewhere closer to $3000.

Now, when all this is said and done, what could we realistically value Ace at? I’m sorry to say it, but Saddlebred yearlings are not a hot commodity right now. A quick internet search will find you a dozen for sale at a lower price than Ace’s surgery. At the bi-annual Saddlebred auction in Lexington, you will see nice, useful yearlings going for less than a thousand. I’ve even seen a winning futurity colt from an excellent breeder sell for $125. That’s less than what we would spend on the gas alone.

Of course, we wouldn’t part with Ace for a few hundred dollars. He’s a nice, well mannered colt with a great deal of potential. But still, in this economy, you have to make responsible decisions with your money. Having an expensive hobby like horses requires good judgement. Too many people have continued on their merry way until they realized they were in a horrible predicament with no easy way out. And their animals often suffer from it.

With all these things in mind, I emailed my mother the other day saying maybe we ought to think about finding Ace a new home before we both emptied our emergency reserves (and trust me, they would have been empty) on this risky abdominal surgery. It just so happened that she was, at that moment, on the phone with Copy’s new owner. The woman was bringing Mom up to date. Copy did not settle with the first AI and she was going to be AIed again the next day. Mom read her my email and in 10 minutes, emailed me back that Ace would have a new home.

For a few minutes I felt like I was just passing my problem off to the next person. After all, who buys a rambunctious cryptorchid yearling colt who is facing a medical bill of a couple thousand with the risk involved? I sort of felt like I'd made out like a bandit. But from her standpoint it makes sense. She could continue to sink an indeterminate amount of money into trying to settle the mare (that adds up fast, ask me how I know) and maybe or maybe not get a healthy foal. Or she could cut two years off her wait and have the exact same cross she was working on ready to go into training next year. Plus, she can see what she’s getting right down to sex and color.

From our side, it also makes sense. We will not have the added expense and risk. She has experience with stallions and will be able to deal with his high spirits until the hormones are out of his system. She will be able to send him out for training which would be a stretch for us. This will give him the best opportunity to have a career as a show horse, and me the best opportunity of not getting thrown in the dust. As part of the deal, Copy, who is presumably in foal to Ace’s sire, is back here on a lease agreement. If she is in foal, we will have the next foal free and clear. If she is not, the stud fee is paid, and we can pay the resulting vet expenses to get her settled this season or wait until next spring. Are you ready to start on this horse breeding adventure with us all over again?

So Saturday Ace embarked on his first solo trailer ride and overnighter. He loaded like a good boy, and we left him loose in the two horse trailer with the divider removed. As they headed out the drive, Ace (naturally) began kicking and screaming like the baby he is. Mom looked at me and said “that could have been us all the way to Cleveland”. Whew… I hate hauling horses. By the time they had reached their house, a short half hour drive if you take it slow, Ace had settled and was behaving himself.

His new owner was very impressed with how Ace behaved. She said we had instilled in him trust for his handler and obedience. I’m sure he was excited going to a brand new place full of strange horses. The world is much wider than he has ever imagined. The next day Ace got his first water hose bath. Of course he didn’t want to stand at first, but soon settled in and coped with it. Wow, what a lot of firsts for a young man.

He has a turn out area in view of her house, and she has a window she keeps an eye on him from. She says she can’t do the same high pitched “Ace-ey” that Mom can, but she called to him out the window, and he soon figured out where she was and to watch for her. On day two he felt comfortable enough to try to bite her, and she had just been mixing dog food so she had some on the side of her hand. When he reached for her, she grabbed for his tongue (not a bad way to deal with biting if you’re quick yourself) and he got a good dose of canned dog food…. “Yuck Lady. You taste AWFUL. Phooey.”

So don’t give up on this blog. We will still have Acey updates although fewer and farther between. It’s fun to follow along when someone takes one of your colts and develops a relationship with them. Especially when that person is a trusted friend and lives so close. Ace will go for surgery in a couple of weeks. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for the hormones to clear his system and for him to start acting like a gelding. We look forward to such time as his training continues and he hits the show ring. You better believe we will be there for that!

18 days and counting

2010-06-24T14:55:00.004-04:00

Ace was such a brat on Saturday that I decided to limit him to things I knew he could do without driving me to drink. Up until Tuesday, I thought that included longeing. It doesn't. Tuesday when I longed him, he grabbed the line and ran around like a maniac, and you could just see his little brain trying to figure out how to wrap me up in it and spin me like a top. But, he was still very good in cross ties. So, today I decided to put him on cross ties and groom him a little... just to give him a chance to behave and earn a treat.

As usual, through his stall door he was calm and sweet and let me pet his forehead and muzzle and fuss over him. But we all know this is just a ploy to get me in the stall so he can have his way with me. But today, when I went in for him, my mother had just handed him a giant foot long dandelion plant she had pulled out of her garden, and his whole head was full of dandelion. I easily threaded the chain through his halter while he rolled his eyes and munched, completely preoccupied. It was amazing! No shadow boxing. **Note to self: arm yourself with giant wads of foot long dandelion leaves. ** Then he plodded quietly down the aisle on a loose lead ...still munching.

He stood fine on the cross ties, diddling with the ropes while I groomed him, washed under his tail, and sprayed him with fly repellant. He loves his grooming time, and when I go into the tack room to get a mint, he is all attention, waiting expectantly for his goody. He always takes it respectfully, so pleased with his reward. And today I am pleased with him. I have loads of respect for anyone who can raise a stallion to be a well behaved adult.... This is probably why so many stallions end up isolated and locked up in a stall. I can say I feel a whole lot better about him today than I did on Tuesday. Little Monster.

Save the Date

2010-06-21T11:47:00.002-04:00

Ace has a date with Destiny on July 13th. Yes, lucky 13! First off, I'm not too superstitious, but the week before presented some scheduling issues, and I'd rather not wait until later in July. I just look at it this way... at least I won't have to travel on the 13th, and that's what makes me most nervous. Not 10 years ago, I could pack up 2 horses and drive 8 hours through traffic in three very busy cities, arriving at our destination at 2am and not think much of it. Since then, I've read way too many horror stories on the internet which make me a nervous horse hauler.

Besides hauling him 3 hours one way, the second thing that worries me is that they won't find the retained testicle. The vet asked if it was inguinal or abdominal, and my best guess is that it's abdominal. In those cases, he says they make an abdominal incision, start the clock, and if they don't find it before time runs out, they close him up. Dear Lord, please don't put us through this and then leave it in there!

And thirdly... I will be totally broke for the rest of the summer!

Baby Blanket

2010-06-19T19:56:00.005-04:00

Ace has a pretty baby blue fly sheet. I've been using it when we go out to hand graze. I figured it would be a good way to get him used to wearing clothing. The first few times he was a little worried about getting it put on and taken off, but now it's old hat.

When he gets fidgety, he pulls at it. I don't think it would last too long in a turnout situation, but in case the bugs get really bad, we have it on hand. This is one from Dover which they have on sale each year for $29.90. Can't beat that, and they are nice sheets. Grey has had his for two years and it's holding up great.

Ace finally outgrew his weanling halter, and fit into his yearling halter, so I changed that out today. He hasn't gotten any taller (still 14.3), but he has gained a lot of bone in the past month. The clinic and I have been playing phone tag, but we're going to get those trouble makers removed next month. Finally!

The Hussy and the Jackass

2010-06-15T16:26:00.003-04:00

**News from Copy’s new home**

They have discovered what a lovely thing she can be when she’s in heat. They A.I.ed her last week, and left a phone message that she was “a damned hussy”. Well.... can’t say we didn’t warn them.

Mom has had the opportunity to speak with them since the hussy message and had this story to relate. It begins a couple of years ago at their last farm on the opposite side of the county. They had recently moved there, in what can only be described as some of the prettiest, quietest rolling farmland in Pennsylvania. Shortly after their arrival, they discovered that a neighboring Amishman owned a jackass. And said jackass would bray repeatedly, especially when there was a mare in heat. Now anyone who has had the pleasure of living in the same neighborhood as a jack or a mule (even a miniature donkey) can tell you that braying, much like a barking dog, can get on your last nerve. That rusty heehaaaw can carry a good long ways. In fact, that was one of their few complaints about their new neighborhood. They were quite pleased when the Amishman sold the jack, and peace returned to the valley.

Fast forward to last week when Copy came into heat. They have since moved to a new farm, on the eastern side of the same county, but at least 20 miles as the crow flies. They were laying in bed one night when in the distance, they heard a familiar voice. “HeeHaaaaw-HeeHaaaw-Hee-Haaawwwww”. They would know that voice anywhere. It was that damned jackass. He now lives in this neighborhood. Terriffic.

When Wayne got up in the middle of the night (remember, he switches turnout groups at 2-3 a.m. so every one get’s fly free turnout) to get the mares… no mares. He went to the back of the pasture where Her Highness hides out. No mares. Copy had broken through the fence and taken her two mare friends with her on a love quest to find the Jackass. It once crossed my mind that I might like to breed Copy to a jackass to get a five gaited mule baby. I decided it would be in poor taste, and her previous owner said she thought Copy would be offended if the the foal was less attractive than her beautiful self. Apparently, she was wrong. Copy was on her way to find a suitor.

Fortunately, they live in rather rugged country, and Wayne found Copy and the mares at the foot of a steep gravel bank. Copy was dedicated to her mission, but a mountain stands between them, and it remains unrequited love. When Mom told the story to my step dad, his reply was… “doesn’t sound too out of the ordinary to me. Loose hussys get out and are bred by jackasses every day.” At least in our town.

Maternal Influence

2010-06-10T15:28:00.007-04:00

Now that Copy has been gone for two weeks, we are starting to see a change in Ace’s personality. He’s settling down! Hooray! He’s still a mouthy egotistical teenage boy but it’s easier to get him to think. He isn’t constantly worried about what his mare is doing and where she’s doing it. Or with whom.

I’ve been trying to get him out and about more, so we’ve been doing more hand grazing. The other day on my last post I noticed a weird anxious behavior. When we would first bring him out, he would take a few bites of grass then paw impatiently. If you said “Ace… just eat” he would go right back to eating. It took me a couple of times to figure out where it was coming from. He paws impatiently when he eats grain. If there is a lot of activity outside when you take him to graze, he starts the pawing out of habit. Knucklehead! He hasn’t done it the last two times I’ve brought him out. He’s beginning to be ruled by his stomach rather than his nuts. That’s a good thing.

Today when I turned him loose in the outdoor arena, instead of the usual “I’m Free!” rocketing off, he immediately started grazing. Hmmmm… imagine that. After a little while, I walked to the other end to entice him into a little exercise. He immediately began galloping big loops. What impresses me most about this is that he has natural flying lead changes. Some Saddlebreds don’t because they are bred more to trot. My grey horse doesn’t have a flying change at all. Ace has a pretty good automatic change. I was impressed.

As he got hotter, and more tightly wound, he started sticking to the gate corner so I would call him out “Acey… C’mon.” and he would come trotting down the rail, knees popping, head up and eyes bright like a show horse. He’s pretty proud of himself when you call him and as he got bolder coming down to the far end where I was standing, I realized when he was about 15 feet away that he had no plan for stopping or going around me. I gave a yelp and jumped one way, and luckily he jumped the other. Had we both jumped in the same direction it wouldn’t have worked out well. But that bright happy “Here I Come” face was worth it.

When it was time to go in, he was easy to catch. Then you have to get him thinking again which takes a few minutes. Mom uses the whapper stick as a pacifier, but I’m trying to get him weaned off of it and the corresponding nipping and neck wrestling. Just outside the gate she gave it to him and I cried “don’t give it to him, he can’t think with that thing in his mouth” as he proceeded to walk over top of me. But a swish of the longe whip got his brain engaged, and he dropped the whapper and started to act like a horse again. He’s like a puppy with a chew toy. In fact, it's pretty hard to keep things out of his mputh still. He'll eat any old weed, and I'm constantly removing the ones I know he shouldn't eat.

He deals very well with biting flies. Some Saddlebreds can’t cope at all. The horse flies and deer flies are really nasty this year. He always has at least one welt on him from being bitten when he’s out over night. I ordered him a fly sheet and its on it’s way. In the mean time, he’s getting used to having Grey’s put on. The first time I tossed it across his back he was pretty worried. But he doesn’t freak out, he just studies my face frantically as if to say “is this OK? What are you trying to do to me? What am I supposed to do?”

He’s even managing to cross tie without the whapper to chew on. He doesn’t fidget with the ropes as much and he keeps his eyes glued on me. He loves being crosstied and fussed over more than anything in the world. He studies every move I make and just soaks it all up. He’s fun to groom. His coat is so fine, and his color so deep I could just polish it like fine mahogany all day.

Copy is doing well in her new home. She was bred by A.I. at home earlier this week. We’re waiting to find out how that went. We did get a phone message informing us that she is a “damned hussy”. Hey, we warned you. She’d walk over you to get in the trailer if she thought it was going to Sex Camp. She has bonded with her old friend Wayne. He’s such a dedicated horse husband. When he goes out at 2 a.m. to change the turnout group, he has to go all the way to the back of the pasture to get Copy.

Here’s a photo of her departure.

New Horizons

2010-05-25T19:46:00.003-04:00

Ace’s mom Copy is off on a new adventure. Her adoption contract is being picked up by the woman who bred her, and she will be raising more babies. This year she will be bred back to Clint for a full brother or sister to Ace which will be fun to see. In fact, it was Ace’s quality that sealed the deal.

Since Copy really is an “extra” horse for us, and her female presence often causes unnecessary hubbub around here, we’ve been hoping to find someone else nearby who would want her for a broodmare and have been spreading the word. Of course having her go back to the program she came from is the perfect solution, and if that doesn’t work out, she can always come back here. But I think she is going back to where she really belongs and will be there for life.

The fun part is that after all these years she seemed to recognize the woman’s husband and wanted his attention. From an aloof old gal like her, that is really something. What can I say? She likes men… the floozy. And he isn’t even a horse person per say, just the most dedicated Horse Husband I’ve ever seen. Whenever we see them at a horse show, he is always running in her wake carrying towels and stretchy cuffs and just trying to keep up with her.

So Copy will be headed off to live with them. They got to work immediately building her a stall, and putting up fence so she could have her own turnout. It has been a flurry of activity, and we’re excited to be a part of it. They live just a short distance away so we will be able to visit and enjoy the breeding and foaling process with them. And of course, we will keep everyone abreast of how it goes. Mom has been helping with the breeding plan, getting contact numbers and working out the schedule. She's already all excited about the breeding, and as an extra bonus... this time she doesn't have to wean it.

Copy will probably be going back to her "maiden name" which is Fifi. That's short for Filly's filly. It cracks me up. Everytime I think of it I picture the old broad in a pink feather boa and fake eyelashes! Photos of the departure are promised.

Just a little sore

2010-05-20T19:26:00.002-04:00

Ace has bounced back like nothing happened. He even stood for the farrier yesterday. We were prepared to skip the hind feet if he was sore and objected, but nope, he was a good boy. As an added bonus, he seems to not to have had any reaction to the tetnus shot he got while he was lying flat out. Everybody else in the barn is limping around and feeling sorry for themsleves, but Acey is just fine.

Exploratory Surgery

2010-05-18T18:27:00.005-04:00

We were hoping that we had found the second nut, smaller, forward of the scrotal sac. No such luck. Today the vet came out to check. He sedated Ace and palpated. Undecided.

We moved him out to the arena where he palpated him again. See, this isn’t always an easy call…. Gave him more sedative and dropped him… palpated some more. He decided it was worth a chance to make an incision. He says sometimes you’ll get in there, and the second one will be up alongside the larger one and no bigger than a peanut. He’s seen that happen often enough to feel an incision was warranted.

Mom held the hind leg on a rope, and I comforted Ace while Dr. Tim made a 3 inch incision and explored. He was in there a long time. Mom and I held out hope. But in the end, no nut… peanut or otherwise. Mom was so disappointed. Dr. Tim looked up and said “Don’t cry Brenda”. But it could have been all over! Right then! I think we both sort of felt like crying.

Ah well. Ace’s boo-boo will be allowed to heal, and then he will be scheduled for abdominal surgery in Cleveland. He lay there quietly for about 10 minutes until I uncovered his eye. He rolled up onto his chest and waited for about another 10 before getting to his feet on the first try. It was sort of nice to be able to handle him while he stood placidly allowing me to play with his forelock and finger comb the unruly part of his mane behind his ears. I waited until he was looking pretty bright and starting to chew on the rope before leading him slowly but surely back to his stall where I left him tied, subdued but bright-eyed. Not much gets this boy down. Of course, there were only three little drops of blood, and it was only a skin incision, so whoop-dee-do. It's not like we ripped them out. He will be on antibiotics for a couple of days, and his one good nut has gone into hiding for the time being. I don’t blame it.

Administering the second dose of sedative...

Explaining to Dr. Tim that he would be featured on Ace's Blog...

Down for the count...

A Battle of Hormones

2010-05-13T18:17:00.006-04:00

When I got to the barn today, Ace was standing calmly in his stall and put his nose through the bars in a friendly invitation for petting and nose-kissing. I thought perhaps I would just slip in while he was quiet, and see if he would remain calm and friendly. I immediately discovered that this sweetness was merely a ruse to lure me in so he could get down to his real agenda which was to rape and pillage. Well buddy, if it’s a battle of hormones you want, two can play that game. I went back out for the whapper stick and returned to his shoulder.

He gave me the hairy eyeball and would duck and dodge, teeth barred, frothing, looking for an opening. Each time he made a move to grab at me, I thwacked him in the chest with the whapper. As his frustration increased, he began to shove with his shoulder, and loom over me. If I reached for his halter he pushes towards me, not away and whe I protested, he swung his butt at me. We went a few rounds with the whapper and relearned the “face me” rule. Back to the attempts to bite, and the whapper thwacking. After a little while, Ace wisely conceded that it was still a bad idea to try to bite a human. He opted instead to channel his aggression on the water bucket and the hay net which suffered several attacks. He accepts human dominance, but he hates it.

Last Saturday I gave him another short longe session, and he was just as smart about it as the first time. Two days ago he banged an ankle (most likely pawing at dinner time) and was a little sore and had Bute for a couple of days. He's very good about taking medicine, whether you shoot it in his mouth or mix it in his grain. Today the swelling was done, and he was ready for another learning session. I got the line clipped on him quite easily. I guess he retained the “don’t bite” lesson for at least half an hour and I was rather pleased. Mom showed up at the barn and told me Copy is in heat again. That would explain the rape and pillage agenda, as well as the wall thumping coming from her stall.

Ace’s main focus when I am leading him from his stall to the arena, is oddly not the mare’s stall, but the cross tie area. He is enchanted with it. That’s where he gets fussed over and then he gets a carrot so it’s his favorite place. This is how things go when I allow him in there:

Ace heads for the back corner and the door to the tack room
Ace: “oooo kitty…. I wanna pet the kitty. Here kitty kitty....”
Me: “Ace, no. You can’t go in there. You’re like a bull in a china shop.” I drag him to the left as he reaches for the fly spray bottle, knocking it off it’s hook.

Ace swings around, he sees a double bridle hanging from a hook on the opposite wall, and his eyes widen
Ace: “ooooOOoo That's so cool... what is it?.” He grabs it by the caveson pulling it off the hook. The double bridle unravels into a net of leather, tangling in the lead rope.

Me: “Ace, no. That’s not yours. Please look with your eyes, not your mouth. Let. Go.” Have I ever mentioned that once he has hold of something it’s impossible to remove from his mouth? I pry a finger inside his mouth, poking under his tongue “Let. Go.” Ace loses interest and drops the bridle in a pile on the floor, his eyes moving on to the next interesting object.

Ace: “Hey’s what’s this?” turning off the light switch.

I manage to separate him from the light switch “on-off on-off on-off... look, it moves!” and fasten one cross tie.

Ace: “Ah a SNAP. I loves snaps!” Ace makes a wild grab for the rope.

I struggle to snap the second rope as Ace resorts to a game of keepaway. “NahNahNah you ca-an’t catch me.” AAAAGGGGHHHHH!

So, today we skipped the grooming routine and went straight to longe lessons. Once again, he’s brilliant. He “gets” it. He even seems to enjoy it. I begin introducing planned gait changes and more word commands. He understands “Whoa”, and “Whoop-Trot” (which only applies to downward canter-trot transitions). Today I begin to introduce the others. “Walk” this is a toughie but he finds it somewhere between "whoa" and "trot", a trilling “trot” which is an easy concept and “ca-anter” in a sing songy voice. He begins to catch on. The key to teaching gait changes is timing. You watch what the horse is about to do, and you use the right word.

Ace is getting a big kick out of this. He forgets about rape and pillage and happily lets me approach either shoulder, and pet his face taking credit where credit is due for his excellent obedience. He needs to work on “front and center”. He can’t seem to keep his eyes straight ahead today, but it’s a huge improvement from the vicious stallion attitude he had in his stall. He is a dychotomy of personality. He hates human dominance, but give him a task and he is fully absorbed. His eyes soften, and he looks to his handler for approval glowing with each "good boy".

After about 10 minutes of perfect obedience, he has a hormone surge. Suddenly he is cantering around grabbing for the longe line. He can’t seem to catch it, and it’s making him mad. I stand in the center chuckling at his little melt down. “Ace. ‘Whoa’ !” He comes back to earth a bit dazed and confused. “I don’t know what came over me.” I think learning is over for today. Time to quit.

I turned Ace loose, and he went on patrol of the arena. He found a fresh pile of manure from the Grey Horse, and in the course of five minutes, had pooped on it twice. That boy just isn't right!

Child Prodigy

2010-05-02T18:28:00.007-04:00

I would tell you that I taught Ace to longe this weekend, but in actuality, there was no teaching involved. What I did was put the longe line on him and begin to longe him. Both ways, at a walk and a trot. No problems. Ace grabbed the longe line, went to the end of it and began circling like a pro. Within 5 seconds he had judged this new activity as being far more palatable than walking shoulder to shoulder with a human.

The only awkward moment was the first time I told him "whoa" and he refused. Since I had him on the line, I just realed him in. The fact that he was being drawn in by some unseen gravitational force caused him some frustrations, but he finally submitted.

As payback for my new found unseen gravitational force, Ace decided I was not allowed to approach him from the right, which is our oldest argument. But I persist... So he tries to bite. Same old same old.

Sometimes it takes awhile, but eventually he will stand quietly without biting. He feels a lot less smart about himself being on a line, so no snorting or showing off. Just boring work. **sigh**

Was that Submission?

2010-04-27T14:36:00.004-04:00

There have been a couple of signs this week that Ace will not always be a naughty boy. First, we had visitors on Saturday, and they wanted to see the horses. Ace was standing guard over the barn from the pipe corral, so we went to visit him first. I warned the visitors that he might bite, but to go ahead and pet him. They petted his face for about five minutes before he showed any signs of being nippy. Mostly, he was friendly and curious. So, that went remarkably well.

Today Ace looked like he really wanted to play. I got the longe whip and went into the arena with him. He raced around for 10 minutes with me not moving a muscle. In and out the door, around this way, back out, back in, around that way. Finally he had enough of me standing about in such a boorish manner, and he had to invite me to interact. He would "whoa" on his own, then sashay up to me like a dancer, mincing his steps, suspended 6 inches above the ground. If I made a move towards him, then he would leap in the air and rocket off again. "Nah na Nah na na... you ca-an't catch me". As his clock began to run down, I enforced "whoa stand" and walked up to him. I put my arm over his back as if I were mounted and pulled my hip up to his side, and stayed with him as he wiggled about and gave me the "hairy eyeball". If he reached to bite, I would tap the bridge of his nose with the butt of the longe whip "no bite". I did this several times on each side, waiting until he was standing quietly before stepping away from him and sending him back out on the circle.

After a few whoa sessions, and getting rapped on the snout for trying to bite, he began chewing, took a deep breath and dropped his head to his knees to study the ground. What's this? Submission?

No I won't.... Yes you will

2010-04-20T15:30:00.005-04:00

When I went to catch Ace to lead him in for lunch he was horrible. So, we went for a walk-about in the indoor, and in and out of the sacrifice pen. He was still horrible. Threatening to bite, or rear, or bite me and THEN rear. Copy was in her stall screaming her head off while worrying that I might be sneaking him out of the barn without her knowledge. Guess who's in heat? Suprise suprise.

I marched Ace back in, tied him to the nearest post, and headed back to the tack room to gather my thoughts and more equipment.
Whapper... check
Lead with chain... check
Helmet? I thought about it for a moment.
I went back in, threaded the chain over his nose, unsnapped the rope he was tied with, and gave him a few pre-emptory whapps to let him know I was now officially in charge. Gosh he hates me today. We spent about 5 minutes leading in the arena, and in and out to the pen. Gradually, he settled in and remembered his manners as I doggedly circled and made soothing noises as if he weren't acting like the worst mannered colt in America.

As we were walking, Mom came to the barn... "trying to train Putrid?" Boy she had him pegged today. He was plodding around on a loose chain with his head low.... but certainly only for the moment. I brought him to the cross ties to work on his tail. I've got the rubbing slowed down, but not completely stopped. The vet did fecals on Friday... no worms. Now it's just habit and shedding. He was fine on the crossties, but you could tell he still really hated me and thought I needed a reminder of who is boss. Mom suggested he needed to run around a bit, so back to the arena. I grabbed a longe whip and headed in there with him.

He rocketed around happily.... remember, when I got to the barn he was already out and had had all morning to run around... but he headn't realised how much he hated me yet. After a few minutes I started with the "Whoas". It took four or five, but he remembered and pulled up. I approached him, and he let me stand beside him while he snorted. Snorting is something he picked up the same day he learned "whoa". It's his expression of how proud he is to be obeying a command, and being praised for it. I never heard him snort before that day. Now he does it everytime I praise him for "whoa". Very neat.

The next "whoa" I tried to approach him from the right eye. Not happening. He rocketed off in another direction. As he passed me I snapped him with the whip, made him circle a few times, then "whoa" again. This time he allowed me to approach from that side, snorting proudly as he accepted my authority and was rewarded. What was an unruly wild stallion had become a mannerly trained horse. Each time I could come up to his side or head on, pet his nostrils and forehead, and put my hand on his back without being challenged or even nipped at. Who would think this obedient and docile animal had threatened to pick me up and shake me not 20 minutes earlier. We did this a few more times, then my goal became to "whoa" in each of the four corners of the arena. We had the front two down pat, but the rear corners were tough. I kept him in the back half until I got one back corner stuck. We "whoa"ed two or three times in that one then worked on the last one.

No I won't... Yes you will... the first few times I got him stopped in that corner, he did not allow me to step forward before he barreled past me headed for the gate. Each time I snapped him as he bombed past. No I won't... Yes you will... Once he seriously looked like he was going over first me and then the gate and probably would have had Mom not been waving her arms and hollering.... back to the backside, and you're not coming out until I say so. A few minutes of me immitating a cutting horse, and he finally gave in.

Now mind you, while this "natural horsemanship" (which I guess I was practicing back before it was called that and we referred to it as "common sense" instead) approach has gotten him trained to "whoa" and accept my approach while he stands like a statue, he has certainly not "joined up". There is no calm drop of the head, no relaxed chewing of the jaw, very little submission. He waits proudly for me to come up and tell him what a smart cookie he is and his pride in himself grows to the point where he has to snort to let off some happiness. But hey, he's standing still, and he's letting me touch him all over his head without him having to warn me off with his dominance so it is a resounding success. Testosterone successfully rechanneled.

Studly McPoop

2010-04-12T14:58:00.005-04:00

This weekend we had other barn projects, and all of my horses got passed over. So today, I made it a point to go out and spend some time with Ace. For starters, yesterday I spent over an hour in the crossties with Mom's Face-Off horse rescuing her (and him) from a long neglected long tail. It drags the ground at least 4 feet, and hadn't been down in over two years. While I was tangled up in the tail, Grey Horse was in the outdoor arena running a marathon. I had to pause, sling the wet tail over Face-Off's back and go and retreive him. In the meantime, Ace was very perturbed that there was a horse in the cross ties, and he was being ignored. Egged on by Grey's ramming around outside, he also thundered around the indoor and the pipe corral.

Ace's running turned into shoving as he slammed his chest repeatedly against the gate next to the crossties causing the water bucket which is hanging on the outside of the gate to splash water in the aisle. How annoying. The third time he did this, I took down the bucket. Sometimes I do what I call "when smart people do dumb things". It didn't occur to me taking the bucket down would pose a problem. But it did. Ace was leaning over the gate trying to reach the bucket which had been taken away, and he managed to catch the throat strap of his halter on the eye bolt the bucket snaps to. He struggled with that, finally breaking his halter at the crown buckle. Oh well, at least now he couldn't splash the bucket, and he couldn't get caught again. I finished the tail, and when Ace had sorted himself out and calmed down, re-haltered him and put him away. Re-haltering the dervish wasn't too bad, once I got the halter pried back out of his mouth. He can catch anything you try to put near his head.

So today, I wanted to tie him and make sure he didn't equate breaking the halter with tying. I tied him up to the arena wall. He happily fiddled with the knot and stood patiently alone while I got some brushes and took a little more winter hair off him. Tying went smoothly. Whew... bad habit averted.

Then, I got Copy out for a hair/mud scraping. She was acting a bit weird today. She kept picking up each hoof and replacing it. She just acted very mildly colicy/foundery but with no definite symptoms. I picked out each hoof and found them packed with gravel and mud. Maybe it just felt weird? I took her for a walk down the driveway to eat some grass and further assess her condition which seemed fine... not lame, perky, excellent appetite...

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Studly McPoop was having a FIT. He was out in the pipe corral beside the barn fussing and fuming over "his mare" leaving him. She was (OMG!) a good 75 feet from the barn and he was enraged. Because he appeared to be respecting the fence with no real plan to go over it, or take it down, I just watched his antics and had a good chuckle. He made a few laps bucking and kicking. Then, while straining to look over the high panels, he made a poop. On his next circuit he noticed this fresh poop. He slammed to a halt to examine it. How could this have escaped his notice? There was obviously another horse (a stallion even) in his territory. He smelled it every which way, and made an (unsucessful) attempt to poop on his poop pile. Another circuit bucking and kicking, and again the attempt to mark his territory. Poor little guy. Where is the poop amo when you need it? How very frustrating!

Back to the Great Outdoors

2010-04-06T15:15:00.014-04:00

Since the Grey Horse was coated in mud today with no hope of getting him in a rideable condition AND riding during my lunch hour, I decided to take Ace outside for a walkabout. I didn't even bother with a chain over his nose. I just snapped a rope on him, grabbed the Whapper and headed out. Mom was putting Face-Off back in the barn from the outdoor arena. This got Ace all charged up. He's very good about staying "with" me even though you and I both know that if he wanted to he could just take off and leave me standing there. That's the important part of handling horses.... keeping them from realising that they can leave whenever they want. I was also having visions of him reaching over and picking me up by my arm. But thanks to the Whapper as both a chew toy and a horse-warding-off-device all was well. So now I have 600 pounds of dynamite rocketing around on the end of a rope, an open gate, and an empty arena. What would you do? Yup, put the horse in the fence and let go. So that's just what I did.

Ace had a ball. It has been a long time since he was up in the arena. He was a little anxious about being that far from the barn, but he does go out in the back pasture by himself so he more accustomed to being out in the open alone. He trit-trotted around a little, but really he wanted me to play with him, and I did a little. I didn't want him to just run around like a mad man though. He remembered his "whoa-stand" lesson from last week, and I could call him over and he would dance up to me and stand while I talked to him and calmed him. He did get up some good speed, but the problem with that is it was slippery near the gate, and horses never factor in lack of friction when figuring out when and how hard to apply the brakes.

So we got a few pictures of him showing off, and one of us going for a walk using the Whapper instead of a rope. If I could get him to focus a little better, I'm sure I could teach him to play Fetch.

Before going back to the barn we spent a few minutes walking circles in the yard while he calmed down. Pretty soon he was investigating things and thinking about where he was instead of where he was not (the barn).

Then we stopped off at the hitching rail to tie for a few minutes.

And back to the barn for lunch.

"Whoop-Trot" and "Whoa-Stand"

2010-03-31T18:28:00.004-04:00

Today was farrier day, and I decided that the farrier would probably benefit from Ace running off some steam. So, while we were waiting, Ace learned the first two most important commands that a Saddlebred knows. And they are "Whoop-Trot" and "Whoa-Stand".

"Whoop-Trot" is for keeping the horse in his trot. Good for when the horse is breaking into a canter or into a rack. Basically anytime he's about to "come off his feet" from a trot. "Whoa-Stand" is universal.

Ace was already in the arena/turnout when I got there. So, I just ran him around a little. Actually, he needed no encouragement. He galloped around and around and in and out the doors for about 10 minutes until he was sweaty and breathless. Now, the key to horse training (and I forget who I'm quoting) is "to see what a horse is about to do, and tell him to do it. Then he thinks you made him do it." I started with "Whoop-Trot" when he was getting tired. It's basically just a soothing command.

After he was trotting this way and that for me instead of galloping, we moved on to "Whoa" and "Stand" This he caught on to quicker than I expected. He let me come up to him, and only challenged me with a playful rear a couple of times. When this faux pas is committed, I simply snap him behind the elbow with the whip and send him out again. Shortly he was waiting expectantly for me to approach him. His happy, eager face was a reward in itself, and he let me handle his head without biting, and move to his shoulder.

Then he learned "Stand" which means "front and center, no biting, we're not going to wrestle." A few raps on the nose with the rubber end of the whip and he was standing quietly (not reaching to bite) while I walked around him and petted him from both sides, and stood with him. He needs to learn to stand solid for me to approach him if we are to move on to long lines and ground driving. A lot of adjustments could need to be made, and he needs to stand patiently until he is asked to move. This he passed with flying colors.

He was very interested in this new program. So much so that when the lunch lady (Mom) came to the barn, he remained focused on me and happy in his work. The farrier was running late, so I ended up heading back to the office before he got there, but Mom emailed the following report:

...As for Acey's manners, he gets an A plus, plus, plus from me. He stood the whole time and never had to be leaned up to the wall. He held the whapper stick in his mouth. It is very flat in the middle now, really! Running some steam off for him first was a great help to us all!

The boy is an Ace in cross ties (no pun intended!).

Happy Happy Birthday Baby

2010-03-25T17:00:00.000-04:00

Ace is 1 year old today, and proud of it.

14.3hh and 640 pounds.

And this is how we use the whapper stick now. As long as it's in his mouth, he isn't chewing on anything (or anyone) that he's not supposed to be chewing on.

Pictures

2010-02-23T15:31:00.006-05:00

I know it's been two months since we've seen a photo of Ace. One reason is that it has been miserably cold. Another reason is that while I've taken pictures of Ace, they either show him in a blurred cloud of dust, over exposed in snow or you get a close up of the inside of his nostrils. He loves the Flashbox. It's sooooo interesting.

So we snapped a couple pics today in the cross ties just to document his development and because he was standing still. Now, for all the times I've made him out to be the Devil Child, he does have his well behaved moments. For instance, I've been spending a lot of time on his tail getting him to stop rubbing. I am no longer concerned that he is wormy. His tailbone itches. So, I flip it up over his back and scrub with a hot wet towel until it's literally squeaky clean. He likes this. Then I spray the hair side with my concoction.

He has never once offered to kick during tail time. However, touch his flanks or hamstring...ka-pow. If the camera had clicked one thousandth of a second later you would have seen the range of motion he has with his hind leg. It's more of a reflex than anything, and you just have to be aware of it. I don't feel any more wary of walking behind him than my other horses. However, I don't reach under him.

A Family History of Bay Colts

2010-02-19T15:30:00.005-05:00

In a recent post I mentioned Ace's great grand sire Georgetown and that my first Saddlebred training project was a horse we bred by that stallion. I'll go into a little family Saddlebred history for you, since the winter is long and not much else is happening.

Long before I got the bright idea to raise a foal, my mother and her mother before her had been trying their hand at breeding Saddlebreds.

Gramma with Saddlebred Broodmare

To their credit they have 7 purebred Saddlebreds, and 5 half Saddlebred (half Arabian). It all started before I was old enough to walk with a mare named Anacacho Megan. Mom and Dad (and little me) were living in Shelbyville, KY next to my father's parent's house. Mom needed a horse. Who wouldn't? And in that area, Saddlebreds were plentiful. She went to a dispersal sale at Gwinn Island Stock Farm where George Gwinn had bred and owned more champion Saddlebreds than I've probably ever laid eyes on. Among the horses being dispersed was a three year old gaited mare who Mom thought was the most beautiful horse she'd ever seen.

Anacacho Megan at 3 yrs old in front of the tobacco barn

George Gwinn in his office with photos of a small percentage of the champions he owned.

So, Mom bid on and bought this mare. She was very green and had been rushed a little to get her ready for the sale. Still, she was a beautiful horse and very suitable to live in my PaPaw's tobacco barn and be ridden up and down the lane by a housewife. She did send her to Don Harris Stables for a little work, but mostly she was a personal horse. Before Mom and Dad moved back to New York, Megan was bred to Starheart Victory.

SV was standing at stud at a farm nearby and just beginning to make a name for himself. He went on to the top end of Saddle and Bridle's stallion ratings for the rest of his life.

The filly born from the breeding to Starheart Victory was named Starheart's Hot Slippers. As a two year old, Gramma sent her to nearby Terrace Farms to be trained in preparation to sell. She was shown a little. I remember traveling to Syracuse to watch her shown at the International. I was four years old that time.

Gramma and "Foxy" (Starheart's Hot Slippers) as a two yr old

Foxy as a four year old

Foxy continued in training, and in the mean time, Megan was bred to the stallion Terrace Farms was standing named Spanish Moss. "Moss" was a lovely bay stallion by the great Beau Fortune and out of a daughter of Leatherwood Genius. He was owned by Dave Scanlon. I suppose it's no coincidence that Dave now owns Ace's sire "Clint". Megan was bred to Moss three times and produced three identical bay foals.

Spanish Masterpiece a.k.a Flash as a yearling

After a year or two Gramma wasn't satisfied with the efforts to sell Foxy so she was sent to Kentucky to the trainer who had been the colt man at Don Harris's and had worked her dam Megan. In Kentucky, he could hopefully sell her quicker. He did find a buyer, but I remember her being there for a couple of summers when I was around 8 years old, and one of the highlights of our family vacations to Kentucky was for me to go to the fairgrounds where she was stabled and jog around pretending to be a fancy show rider.

When Foxy was sold, one of the terms of the sale was that Gramma would get her first foal. Gramma told the trainer she trusted him to choose the stallion. His choice was Georgetown who he said would be great some day. Unfortunately, Georgetown never had that chance. He was lost in a fire only a couple of years later.

The resulting foal was a little bay colt. Foxy was being boarded at a farm where she was the lowest mare on the totem pole. Within two months, the foal and the sparse grass in the field had dragged Foxy down to where her owner was suddenly concerned that she could die. The foal was abruptly weaned, and Foxy was nursed back to health. When we went down for vacation later that summer, we picked up the forlorn little five month colt who had been shut in a stall until then. When Mom went in the stall to catch him, the farm owner said "Watch out, he'll kick ya." He was one scared little guy. It took two men to turn him around and shove him backwards up the trailer ramp. Dad screwed a piece of plywood over the open trailer back, and we headed for NY.

Gramma named him The Yorker. Actually, we put down three other name choices, but all of them were taken. I remember that because his grand sire was Yorktown, they all had to do with our home town Jamestown New York. Back then there was no way to log into the registry data base and check whether a name was available or not. The registry picked The Yorker. Gramma soon had "Yorkie" straightened out, but he was still rather nervous and reactive and remained so for the entire time we owned him.

When he was three years old, Gramma sent him to a local dressage trainer where she knew he would be treated gently and slowly. He was there a couple of months. When he was ready to go home, I went and took a couple of lessons on him. He was just green broke to walk and trot but he was willing. I was, at that time, 15 years old.

We took him home, and I lunged him about weekly, and rode him now and then, but we really didn't do much with him. When he was four, I was 16 and had a "real" Saddlebred show horse, and decided that it was time I had a second one. So I began working with him. Before long I had him in a double bridle and was able to ride him outside of the paddock (we had no actual "arena") and up and down the road. The following year I took him to the local county fair which had a nice Saddlebred show. There were 9 horses in the Show Pleasure class. I don't remember what ribbon I got in the first class, but when I brought him back for the Championship class, we won. His apprehension was gone, and I remember weaving in and out of the heavy traffic at a smooth strong trot.

I showed him for a couple more years, on and off. He turned out to be a nice horse. Here he is at age 8 just before we sold him.

Mostly I rode him around home. He made a very nice road hack. Once we even had a match race with an Amish buggy. I remember turning off to our road home, and seeing the Amish man hanging out the side of the buggy to look back at my horse. I tried showing him western, but he thought a show ring was good for only one thing, and that was trotting.

He did look pretty fancy under western tack though. Now I have an even prettier bay colt to develop. York was by the same sire as Ace's sire Clint's dam was by. It will be interesting to see what he turns into.

A Very Good Day

2010-02-13T17:02:00.004-05:00

This has been a very stressful week. It all started last Saturday morning when I opened an email from our vet and read the insulin results for my Grey Horse and Mom's gelding. Grey had a high reading (last year's was normal) and Face-Off was off the charts at a whopping 157 (the top reading on the normal scale is 40). This proved what we knew to be true. Face-Off was in the middle of a medical emergency, teetering on the edge of full blown founder. He needed a crash diet to bring his insulin level down.

To drive the point home, his half brother Hairy, who had foundered several weeks earlier, was failing fast. Hairy, never more than pasture sound for most of his adult life, had battled his sore feet cheerfully for several weeks. As he worsened, Mom made the tough decision to euthanize him in the coming week. We were both sort of wondering if we were making the right decision. Hairy made it for us on Sunday when he opted not to get up for breakfast. The arrangements were moved up to that afternoon, and Hairy lay in his stall all day on heavy pain killers, eating every forbidden treat Mom could find him. He never got up until Mom asked him to make the effort and walk to his grave where he was peacefully laid to rest in the sunshine while eating his fill of sweet feed. Here is my favorite of Hairy's baby pictures. He was the last baby we raised and lived to be 10 years old. He never left the farm, and was pampered his whole life. As you can see, even as a baby he was a little chub.

The fear that Face-Off was soon to suffer the same fate sent us both into a whirlwind of soaking hay, and researching diet options. Face-Off's energy level was very low and the foot soreness, typical of an Insulin Resistant horse, was worsening. Our sole focus all week was Face-Off and Grey and finding them a healthier diet. One afternoon I returned to my office and realised I hadn't even said "Hello" to Copy. Ace, whose hormones have been on red alert, was an added handful. Mom declared him officially "not a project for a beginner".

But today was a good day. Mom has worked out a system for soaking the hay. We have learned a lot and made some other diet changes. We have the supplies to test our hay for Carbohydrate and Sugar levels, and everyone is feeling better. Face-Off even trotted to the gate today. He hasn't felt good enough to trot in well over a month.

I had a nice ride in our little indoor. Grey proved again that he has matured into a well trained and perfectly behaved mount. I even took my stirrups up and did five minutes of trotting without them. I haven't done that in ages, and it proves that these past weeks at the gym are paying off.

Ace was acting starved for positive human interaction. A result of five rounds with the whapper stick the other day? Probably not. I was out in the arena sifting through the footing for the upteenth time searching for my expensive Blocker Tie Ring that Ace had removed from the eyebolt on the wall, and he was shadowing me, giving me no peace. He obviously wanted to play Wild Stallion, and I appeared to be the most likely partner. I did find my Ring, which is great because the darn things are expensive, and that put me in an even better mood. I decided to teach Ace something constructive.

I went and got the longe whip and introduced the idea of free longing. Ace wanted to stop at the gate each time and switch directions at will. I kept him to a more structured program. With the help of some bits of carrots I also tried the concept of "Whoa", which was not as well received. But he did stop a few times and let me come up and stand beside him. I had left the back door open and he finally decided he had had enough of my "rules" and exited.

With his excess energy run off, I thought it would be a good time to groom him. I brought him in and put him on crossties, which I haven't done since just after Thanksgiving. He stood like a rock, chewing happily on the snap the whole time. He let me wash under his tail and pick out all four feet. He did fling his hind feet around a bit, but not too bad, and all he got was a verbal correction.

While most people are lamenting the disappearance of their cute, fuzzy weanlings and the arrival of shaggy, pot bellied, pencil necked yearlings, I am admiring my perfect miniature replica of a beautiful horse. Ace is nicely proportioned and fit. His coat is thick but short like plush velvet. Just a little brushing brought out a healthy gleam that made him look as if he had been blanketed all winter. After his grooming, we went for a little walk around the arena. All the naughty antics of last week were noticeably absent. Ace is acting like a normal, reasonable youngster instead of the Devil incarnate. It was a very pleasant change.

Too big for his halter, AND his britches

2010-02-09T16:49:00.006-05:00

Ace is on the verge of outgrowing his halter. The weanling one rubs in spots, but still basically fits. The yearling one is a touch too big, especially around the throat. As I was trying them on today, something I've done periodically, Ace suddenly also outgrew his britches.

He was good for quite a while. I sprayed Listerine on his tail and even though it stung a bit, all he did was clamp it. I brushed his mane, and touched his ears. He's a good boy now and then, believe it or not. Then I wanted to try the yearling halter on. I took the smaller one off, put the bigger one on. Took that off, made an adjustment. Put it back on. Decided it was too big in the throat to leave on. Took it off, and when I went to put the small one back on, we had our altercation.

Since he is very mouthy, one of his favorite games is to grab the chin strap as you are putting the halter on, and refuse to let go. I was having little luck prying it out of the iron grip of his jaws (he gets better and more determined at this all the time). We were in his stall, and he was standing against the wall and he kept getting taller and taller and was looking down sideways at me with a glint in his eye. The "Hairy Eyeball". As I struggled and fussed at him, he began to get a little shovey, and his body language said loud and clear "I'm winning this little battle, perhaps I should knock you over, tap dance on your backside and finish you off". He wasn't rearing, but he was hovering above me, and he wasn't striking, but he had a front leg poised in mid-air. He started to push me with his shoulder....

Mom (who has always got my back) said from the doorway, do you need the whapper stick? "Yup", while continuing to pry, I quietly reached behind me and grabbed the stick as she handed it to me. You see, I'm quiet around horses. Mom likes to beller her disapproval. I speak softly and carry a big stick. Well, actually it is quite short, but it's loud. Ace (still clamped on the halter) whipped his neck at me and I reached my limit. "I've had it with you, you little snot!" WHAP on the side. In shock, Ace dropped the halter and spun into the corner. Then his body language said "would you like both barrels or would one be enough?"

I take a dim view of horses turning their butt to me in the stall. It's one thing if they are afraid and defensive, then I am reassuring. But when they're mad and consider retaliation, it's time to learn the "face me" rule. WHAPWHAPWHAP on his butt. The hollow, lightweight Whapper stick makes a lovely sound. Oh, you should hear it! Ace's eyes got real big and he spun to face me. "Good boy", I reached out my hand in an offer of friendship, and he stepped forward, ears up ready to make peace. His expression clearly said "what's gotten into you?"

I tried to move him over to the wall again and get to his left side. Nuthin doin. Especially without a halter on. WHAPWHAPWHAP on his butt. Again he faced me with the shocked and innocent look. "Sorry Ace, I know you don't "get" it, but you'll figure it out pretty quick Mr. Smarty Pants." Again with the butt. It took 4 or 5 tries before he would move over to the wall again. I quickly moved to his side, put my arm over him and patted him so he knew he had finally done the right thing.

I positioned the halter and swiftly and deftly slipped it over his muzzle, as he frantically grabbed for it, and buckled it behind his ear. So... has Ace learned to behave or have I learned to put the halter on quicker ?

The Temperment Scale

2010-02-04T15:29:00.006-05:00

You know that temperment scale that they put on horse ads where you're supposed to rate your horse's temperment on a scale from 1 to 10 with 1 being "very calm" and 10 being "very high-spirited" ? I often ponder that scale because what you get used to every day might be a whole lot hotter than you actually realise. Saddlebreds are notoriously "hot". My grey gelding is probably a consistent 8. My mother's gelding is about a 3, and Ace's dam Copy is a pretty steady 2. Ace's sire, from what I've seen, I would rate around a 4. Ace has turned out to be a 10...+...+........+. Yep, I think three pluses ought to just about cover it.

Today I went through the normal routine. I led him around for five minutes then made it through the gate and up the aisle in a very orderly manner. Well, the leading in the arena wasn't very orderly, but we'll get to that. I put him in his stall, made him wait a few minutes, then gave him his lunch. It took about 15 minutes for him to clean up, then I brought him back out. You see, he wasn't particularly well behaved the first time, and I thought I'd do some more work after he had his routine and hunger satisfied.

You see, he is quite nice to work around in the stall, but he is soooooo high energy any time he is outside of it. When I got there, he was standing at the arena gate literally jumping up and down. I had a heck of a time getting a chain on him. As soon as you reach for him he tries hard to bite and I'm getting sick of it. So I gave him an uppercut to the chin with my left hand. He backed off and did the "na-na-na-na-na" routine just out of my reach. No problem. There is a tie rope hanging right there. I got the rope snapped pretty easily, and then went in and with him securely tied, put the chain over his nose. "Pttthhhh, so there".

He knows that as soon as he walks nicely we can go in and eat. But, it ain't easy. He spends plenty of time dancing around. He finds it absolutely impossible to walk past the open back door quietly. Heck, no horse goes past an open arena door quietly. Their eyes don't adjust well to the darkLIGHTdark so they always spook. I get it. Actually, it's sort of comforting as a rider to realise you can't even lead a horse past a door, much less ride one past without a reaction. So, what I do is lead him to the door frame, stop, let him look, then we start past. This helps, but half the time he ends up dancing around in a circle. OR he bulls into me with a shoulder. THAT's not allowed. Bulling gets you poked in the shoulder with the whip. He hates that. Hates it. Sometimes he balks. Balking gets you a swish in the butt with the whip. You know how he reacts the third or fourth time he gets reprimanded for balking? This:

He flat out refuses at first to move forward, and he does a perfect Levade in hand. It looks very much like that photo, only in our version, I'm facing forward and swishing behind me with my outside hand. The swishing turns to tapping, tapping becomes snapping....Levade.

Besides being willful, he is in constant motion. I swear, every time I look at him, he has his tail up over his back, his head thrown up, and he is headed somewhere. Today it made me think of this illustration from Will James's Smoky.

I hope this Smoky the Cow Horse thing is not going to be a common theme throughout his life.....

So, I decided to do more work after lunch. We headed down the aisle with his head down, on a loose lead, and I thought "oh good, he's going to be calm and steady now". WRONG.

We went through all the same antics. The shying, the shoulder bulling, the balking, the Levade. I try to get a few moments of orderly behavior and call it quits. Today we have lost our "Whoa". It is impossible to discipline him at this point. I ask for "whoa", he bulls into me with his shoulder, dances in a circle... I tug on the shank, stick the butt of the whip in his shoulder and shove him against the wall.."WHOA". Ace gets all upset rearing a bit and trying to flee. Why? Because #1 he hasn't been paying attention so he has no idea why he's in trouble, therefore #2 I must be "mean" and "attacking" him.... gee this is going well. I manage to get the chain off him between being bitten and shoved at. I'm done. Go do what ever it is you feel is so important.

Ace takes off in a cloud of dust making several laps around the arena. When I leave, he is at the gate again, bucking and kicking in place, whinnying and generally throwing a fit. Just like he was when I got here. Nice to see you too. Will this EVER stop?

I actually spent a quiet moment with Ace...

2010-02-03T09:28:00.002-05:00

.... and he didn't try to "wrastle" me. He's due for a dose of dewormer, and the last time I gave him some, it was a bit of a struggle. He'd always been good about it up 'til then. So I decided he needs some good stuff in a tube before I dose him with the icky stuff this month. I held him while Mom squished a syringe full of applesauce in his mouth. As he stood there mouthing the applesauce in fascination I was able to stroke his neck and head and talk with him and he STOOD STILL. What a rare moment!

Hotter than a $2 Pistol

2010-02-01T16:28:00.004-05:00

I wish there was a way to put background music on blogger. That's the song I would put on today. When I got to the barn today, Ace was hoppin' mad. It was lunch time, and he was still out. OMG! I ignored him a bit, making preparations for the vet who was there to do some dental work. Every time I went past Ace he hopped up and down and whinied. He was having an absolute hissy over the perceived injustice. Namely that his schedule had been disrupted, a fact we humans seemed oblivious to.

In my own time, I ran a chain over his nose and went in with him. He would love, at this point, to barge through the gate, and drag me to his stall where hopefully, lunch would already be served. So, that has to be the exact opposite of what happens. First I led him around the arena a little. He did marvelous. He must be catching on? He takes the lead strap in him teeth, and marches me around a couple of laps each way.

Then, once he has proven to be a well behaved young man, we proceed to the gate. The first time he rushes right through it, visions of lunch dancing in his head. SoooOoooo, we do it again. That is the only "punishment". If he can't be polite, we will do it again until the activity looses it's excitement quotient, and he can do it right. It only took two tries. That is much better than our walk from his stall to the arena on Saturday morning. We had to try that one five times before he gave up and realised he had to contain his exuberance for a whole 30 seconds. You rush, we turn around and go the other way. Simple as that.

Once he is in his stall, lunch does not arrive immediately. See, there was no need to rush back afterall. This baby raising thing takes a lot of self control. You have to keep in mind that what might be easy today... grab the little sucker and throw him in the stall so he will Shut.Up. will make your life that much more difficult when you realise you have a thousand pound brat who constantly acts on impulse. That must not happen.

Expectations

2010-01-26T15:30:00.005-05:00

Today before I brought Ace in for his lunch and nap, I spent our few minutes leading around and behaving. But first, I just threw an arm over his back and leaned on him and patted both sides which I do sometimes getting him used to having a human over him. It's also useful to do some grooming while standing on a stool which makes it easier in the future when you first go to mount them. He stands for this, but he tosses his head and fights with the lead. His body language quite clearly saying "I'm mad and I'm bad and I hate bending to your will." For a moment, my mind fast forwarded to fall 2011. At that time, Ace will be two and a half years old, and most likely ready to have a little saddle training. And I will be *gasp* ...forty. I imagined sitting there on his back while he quivers and fidgets like a jumping bean ready to explode. I remember riding my Grey Horse a few times during his two year old year. This ought to be good for a mid-life crisis.

Not long ago, one of my readers asked me what my expectations and plans are for Ace. I sort of chuckled and replied "My plans don't always work out." But its a fair question. After all, before you breed your mare, you ought to have a plan for the offspring. When we made this match, I was expecting to get a fine harness or three gaited park horse. So did I? Here is a summary of Ace's pedigree in snapshots. Don't forget that if you click the picture, it will open up larger in another screen.

His sire "Clint" was never shown, but is a park or fine harness type with the trot to match. "Clint" is by CF First Night Out who was lightly shown as a three gaited horse, placing second at Louisville as a 2 yr old before being shown as a junior gaited horse and retired to stud. I don't follow the sire ratings very closely, but FNO has been near the top of the ratings for a couple of years, siring winners in all divisions. FNO's sire CH Night Prowler was a World's Grand Champion Fine Harness horse.

Clint's dam was by Georgetown. Georgetown only sired about two dozen foals before being lost in a barn fire at the young age of seven. We happened to breed a mare to Georgetown, and the resulting foal was the first Saddlebred I trained myself. Georgetown was by the great five gaited World's Grand Champion CH Yorktown who had a long and illustrious career at stud.

Ace's dam "Copy" was shown as a five gaited mare. Her sire Santana Time (Rocky) was a local stud owned by a friend of ours. "Rocky" was a gorgeous flaxen chestnut five gaited horse sired by Sultan's Santana (the first Saddlebred stallion to be syndicated for a million dollars.) Santana was a fine harness horse and was also a grandson of Valley View Supreme who was the first stallion to win the World's Grand Championship in the three gaited division. He and his offspring were known for being very fine and beautiful. Rocky's dam was by Flight Time by WGC Wing Commander. That line was more rugged and likely to make five gaited horses.

Copy's dam has some unusual old Ohio breeding. The only other place I can point it out is it is the same dam line as Attache's Born Believer, sire of the beautiful stallion Born Contender. Her dam traces through Society's Crown Jewel to Society Rex and also to Command Decision, one of several full brothers to WGC Wing Commander.

So, as you can see, there is a pretty even mixture of three gaited, fine harness and five gaited breeding in Ace's family tree. There is really only one true theme. His sire traces almost exclusively to the hard trotting Chief family of Saddlebreds (founded by the Standardbred trotter Harrison Chief), and his dam traces mostly to the easy gaited Denmarks. So, what did I get?

First off, let's have an honest evaluation of Ace. He has a very attractive head and neck with a beautiful large eye showing just a hint of white which is very important in a show horse's expression. His neck is not extremely long or hingy at this point, but he is high headed and I expect him to bridle up easily. He has a nice, loose, sloping shoulder with good width of chest and depth of heart girth. So far, his withers are almost non-existent which surprising considering Copy's very prominent withers. He has a nice hard back, good balance and a strong hindquarter.

His legs are straight and clean. He has only one conformation fault. At this point he has a slight tendency to toe out which we are hoping he grows out of. It isn't that his toes turn out as much as the fact that he loves to splay his front legs. This makes it very hard to measure him. Every time I try to stand him square in front he splays his legs and tries to step on my toe. He has a nice way of going with strong hocks. He does not have a big bold trot yet. He prefers to "parade" or "sashay" like a park horse. When he throws his head up, he ambles quite readily. This is the old Denmark genetics coming out with the ability to be taught to rack.

He is very bold and intelligent. He respects me, and seems to understand he has to comply with my wishes no matter how dumb he might think they are. He shows quite a bit of quality in his hair coat and hooves and looks like he will grow a heavy tail. He knows how to make an entrance. Whether it is a gate or a door, he comes through it with a "look at me" attitude.

So, given those qualities, what are my plans for Ace? First he will be broke to drive. This is something that every Saddlebred should learn. Then he will be gaited to see if he has any talents in that area. A gaited horse must have a sense of rhythm and a smooth way of going. To be a top gaited horse, they must also show speed. Speed usually develops after a couple of years, so it is hard to tell before you get some leather on them whether they will develop speed or not.

Many young Saddlebreds start out their lives with aspirations to be gaited horses then as they age and the demands of the more difficult gaits and speed begin to wear on them, many of them end up in another division. If Ace enjoys driving he has the head and neck and conformation to show off a harness very well. It is important that a harness horse not only wear the over check very well, but they should have a good strong back and beautiful conformation since you won't be able to hide many faults in a harness. If he shows a lot of motion and prefers to primp along at a park trot instead of covering a lot of ground at the rack, he could be headed for the park or pleasure divisions, providing he trains well enough to show the manners required in the pleasure classes. Or, with his handsome face, mincing jog, and luxurious tail he might be stunning under western tack. With his tendency to amble, primpy trot and high head, it is not likely he will excel in any of the sport disciplines.

So have I answered the question? Ace is not yet 12 months old. He shows a lot of promise to grow up to be a lovely horse. It's hard to tell how he will change and develop. I guess I am your typical "mother". I want my kid to grow up to be the best he can be... whatever that is.

Quick Update

2010-01-18T15:52:00.002-05:00

We measured Ace this past Saturday and he is 14.1 hh. That's a little over an inch in the past month.

Also, he got an unsolicited compliment from the farrier on his behavior. Kim said that Ace did very well standing to be worked on. Actually I was pretty proud of him. The farrier is becoming part of his routine. He did hop backwards a couple of times, but that is just his inexperience at not being used to standing around balanced on three legs. It wasn't a naughty moment. We did play "how much leather can I shove in my mouth?" Current record is about 12 inches.

Toy Check: Buddy Bopper is in the hospital. It isn't holding air. I took it home and disassmbled it and it is laying in the basement. No noticeable damage to the inner inflatable part. My husband thinks it is the stem not self sealing but we haven't taken the time to reinflate it yet. Please send good thoughts for Buddy's rapid recovery.

The Uncle Jimmy Ball is dead. Ace yanked it off it's string, so I rethreaded the string and put washers at the bottom. The knots did not hold up to Ace grabbing it and wrestling it down. Mom caught him in the act. I will have to use better knots, or Ace will have to be happy with plain old milk jugs.

Winter

2010-01-12T14:49:00.007-05:00

So, it seems my blog postings are getting fewer and farther between. Why is that? Well, because it's winter. We aren't doing any less, it just seems to take longer, and is much less interesting. My camera, to conserve battery life, no longer lives in my car. I have to remember to bring it with me. And when I do, the horses still look like woolly mammoths. Dirty woolly mammoths. In the summer photographs seem to naturally edit out grooming issues. In the winter, they magnify them.

So, what did we do today? at 1pm, I hit my remote car starter and headed to the office locker room. I removed all my warm, clean, tailored office clothes and start from scratch with cold clothes. Cold is relative, but when it is 20 degrees or less out, taking off warm clothes and putting on room temperature clothes isn't something I look forward to. Even my winter barn wardrobe is well thought out and coordinated. Both fashion and functionality are taken into consideration. So, how come when I get dressed I do notfeel like the models in the catalogs, but like this...

I drove to the barn, hauled the bag of sunflower seeds out of the trunk and dumped them into the feed room tub. I also dumped the new bag of beet pulp. Somehow I managed to break a nail. I ran a bucket of water and dropped the heater in it for wash water. I brought Ace out of the indoor arena to the grooming area to check him out. He had the wiggles. So, I put him in his stall and he got his lunch. That boy can't think about anything when he's hungry.

While everyone was eating, I did a toy check. Both plastic milk jugs in Ace's stall were still useable. The Uncle Jimmy ball is holding up well, but Buddy Bopper was flat (for only the second time in his life) I gave him a once over. I don't know what's wrong, but we'll have Stepdad reinflate him and see if he sprung a leak. If he has, he'll have to be disassembled and patched. I pick several dozen pieces of paper feed bag out of the sand in the indoor and raked the hay chaff out from under the hay net and put it in a wheel barrow to be taken to the chicken coop. Dumped the heated bucket from the arena gate and refilled it with clean water.

Next I put the Grey Horse out and checked the time. Half of my lunch hour was already gone. I dumped Grey's icy bucket and left it empty for when he returned to his stall. I mixed a new batch of Listerine and baby oil in the spray bottle and set it to float in the hot water pail so it would be warm. Ace has been rubbing his tail since before Christmas. He got a good dose of wormer when it started, and I've been spraying his tail with my mixture every other day. I haven't gotten him stopped yet, but my mixture has never failed before.

I quickly groomed Copy and Grey. In the winter "grooming" is just a once over. I pick hay out of their tails. Curry the muddy spots to fluff them back up. Knock the ice balls out of their fetlock hair. Pick their hooves and check for thrush and scratches. Clean under their tails, and replace their halters with clean ones if necessary.

My lunch hour is now WAY over, and I still have to stop at the post office on the way back. I unplug the water heater and the heat lamp in the tack room and gather Ace's tail brush and the spray bottle. Mom holds his head while I scratch his itchy tail bone (he loves this) and spray my concoction on it. I flip it up to make sure the underside is clean and see if there is something I'm missing. WHY is he still rubbing? I spray some on a patch of his mane that he rubbed awhile back which is growing back nicely. Ace decides I ought to be bitten. I spray his mouth with the Listerine. Bleh! That was yucky. He makes bad faces, but comes back for more. I head for the stall door, holding him back by his halter while I back out. Before I can make it to the door he strikes at me for the first time ever! Naughty! I was standing close enough that he only manages to knee me. I holler at him, push him against the wall and smack him in the ribs a couple of times.

Mom is still at the door so I have her hand me the whapper stick which hangs there from the halter hook. I try to sucker him into trying it again but he is wiser than that. Twice he raises a front leg in an absentminded reaction to my pushing his head sideways and I whap the back of his knee. Soon he is standing stubbornly against the wall glaring at me with a pouty little boy look becaue he knows I am baiting him. As soon as I back out of the door, he tosses his head and "chases" me. I open the door enough to poke his chest and make him back up again trying to re-establish my authority. It's a draw this time.... and I head to the Post Office. Late again.

Refresher Course

2010-01-07T15:05:00.002-05:00

Ace had forgotten how to lead. Well, not entirely... he is led back and forth to the indoor arena where he runs in and out everyday. But that is pretty routine, and there isn't much room for error. What he had forgotten how to do was to walk along shoulder to shoulder with me without dancing and prancing and giving me the hairy eyeball while he weighed his choices.
a) put one front hoof on each of my shoulders
b) grab my ear and twist
c) take off and do something more interesting

So, today we had a refresher course. I put a shank over his nose mostly because running it through the side ring is a close to getting it up out of his reach as possible. I put a long whip with a short lash in my other hand trailing it behind me. Then, I tried walking around with him in the arena. At first it was pretty disorganised as he tried to put one front hoof on each of my shoulders, grab my ear and twist, and finally to take off and do something more interesting. Nippy little b-----d. I very patiently continued walking with little reminders "no don't bite the shank" "waaaallllllk" "stop dancing". I kept him along the wall to prevent his fishtailing around and if he lagged behind I would reach back with the whip and tap his bottom. Within about five minutes he had remembered his lessons and was plodding along on a loose lead at my shoulder working his jaw and looking around. Pretty unusual for a weanling who goes everywhere at a dash. From time to time we practiced "whoa" while I scratched on his withers and told him what an excellent little guy he was being.

Then we tried the off side. I haven't tried leading him from the off side since our last battle of wills on the matter. The last thing I want is a horse who will only circle around me to the left. If nothing else, it makes it more difficult to teach them to longe later on. So, I went to his off side, positioned him against the wall again, and tried to get him started up. It took a few minutes to get him started up and walking on a loose lead, but we got it accomplished without so much as an exchange of strong words. Again we "whoa"ed and had a wither scratching. Such a good boy. And having to use his brain and do what he was asked seemed to calm him and give him a sense of satisfaction.

Now, on the the thing that has been bothering me the most. Socialization. Ace is still being turned out alone. He can see other horses all the time, and he gets to socialise with them over gates but that is it. Ideally, we would have at least one other horse his age, or maybe a yearling to turn him out with, but no such luck.. He is an only child. To make matters worse, there are no older horses suitable to turn him out with. Our choices are:
a) Copy ~ obvious problem. We've gotten past weaning. It will be a long time until he is turned out with her again, and he will be gelded for sure.
b) Hairy ~ Hairy is so submissive that Ace was wearing him out. Hairy's stifles have been bothering him since late summer, and he doesn't need to be chased around all day. And Hairy was only reinforcing Ace's belief that he is king of the herd.
c) Face-Off ~ very dominant, grouchy and physically violent. He would hurt Ace and we don't want to cripple him for life before his first birthday.
d) Grey ~ Also very dominant (he and Face-Off were prepared to fight to the death) but not as grouchy and mean. Mostly foolish and poorly socialized.

I've been aching to put Grey and Ace out together for some time. Since both of them were mellow and quiet today (and since it is a weekday, so a vet call would not have weekend charges on it) I thought it would be a good time to try. I put them out together in the 50x50 indoor with the doors closed so they wouldn't be ramming in and out of doorways. They played for a minute or two, then (as expected) Ace decided to mount Grey. Grey bellowed in indignation "you presumptuous little s--t!" and ran backwards kicking. Ace caught by surprise, made tracks in the other direction. That was the first time anyone had objected to THAT! In fact, Mom seemed to like it.

They played a little cat and mouse for a few minutes. When Ace got too pushy, Grey put him into the wall and tried to kick him. It would be better to have a larger area to introduce them where they wouldn't be as likely to have to cross paths, and where the underdog could escape easier. We only left them together for 10 minutes. They did have some friendly moments, and were beginning to relax. The best part was watching Ace stand off to himself and study Grey and begin to process the fact that there was someone bigger and pushier than he is. We'll let them process this for a couple of days, continue to socialize over the gate everyday, and next time I feel it is a good day to, we'll put them to gether again and see if we've made some progress.

Checking in with Mom

2009-12-30T18:32:00.001-05:00

I'm glad someone is enjoying winter...

Baby's First Christmas

2009-12-24T15:00:00.006-05:00

May your heart be filled with

the Wonder of the Season....

I would like to add, that Ace has never had anything put over his head. We swooped the wreath right over, and he never noticed. Nor did he fiddle with it. Then, we dragged him out back through 6 inches of snow covering 12 inches of mud. Again, not a problem. That's where the cooperation ended! He is like trying to photograph a two year old on a sugar high... perpetual motion. We have lots of pics of interesting poses, and there was NO choice of background angle. We would NEVER have gotten him to sit still for Santa! The top one with the cute expression was the result of Mom's genius in making weird noises!

Pole Dancer

2009-12-16T15:40:00.008-05:00

Today I brought a ground pole out into the arena for Ace to step over. He found it to be a very suspicious item. First he snuck up on it with just his front feet.... the camera snapped just as he began his departure.

Then he used it as an excuse to run around like a nut.

After he settled down, I got a rope and led him over it a few times. Actually, I confess, first I tried to lead him to it without a rope, and he balked, then shifted to reverse, and was about to drop the clutch when I saw his little thought process go..."Uh-oh, pulling away from you would probably be a big 'no-no' wouldn't it?" Yes, young man, it would and I appreciate you keeping that in mind... What a good boy!

I left it out there while I groomed my gelding and Copy and I heard him clunk over it a few times on his own for fun. Of course I'm not expecting him to grow up to be a jumper, but he needs to learn to follow me over strange stuff, which he did with no problem. And in doing so, he convinced me he will probably have no natural jumping ability whatsoever as he managed to step on it with all four feet on his way over. I've been told that Copy is quite a bold jumper, but perhaps it skipped a generation!

Measuring Up

2009-12-14T14:45:00.003-05:00

I've only seen Ace once since Farrier day. Between awful weather, running errands, and attending my out of town company Christmas party, it just hasn't worked out. When I came to the barn today at lunch Ace was very happy to see me and whinnied loudly. He was happy because #1 it was lunchtime, #2 it was his turn to go outside, and #3 maybe he likes me just a little. I went right in, put my arm over his back and rubbed both sides of his neck, which is the only way you can snuggle him without being promptly bitten. What I notice immediately is that Ace has grown! He no longer fits in my armpit. His withers were hitting my arm about 4 inches further along. I've had it in the back of my mind to measure him, so today was the day. Ace is 13 hands, 3.25 inches. I also noted when he was playing that he looks much less ass-high which is a good thing. I don't really care how tall he gets (I already have a tall one) but I do want him to be built up hill, and I want as much neck as possible. So this is our first bench mark.

Other than that, Ace had a lot of the devil in him today. He trotted happily to the grooming area and stood without being tied because I have yet to figure out a way to keep Mr. Mouth from constantly fiddling with the snaps, and because he will stand there anyway. But, one time he did push the limits a bit, and in a moment had grabbed his brush caddy and emptied it all over the floor. Then he danced around in a circle, not because he had scared himself but because he knew he was in big trouble. After a brief grooming and event free leg handling, he was turned out to play. I tried to get all the hay scraps picked out of the gateway to the round pen, and he took a break from his playing to try to dump the tub. He had a plan. He wasn't simply investigating the tub, he was targeting the yellow rope handle and trying to dump it. Little pest. He was NOT successful, but it wasn't for lack of trying.

Buddy Bopper

2009-12-04T06:52:00.003-05:00

Ace loves his Buddy Bopper. I have to sneak up on him to take pictures, because as soon as he sees me watching he stops. He spends a lot of time just standing with his chin resting on Buddy, but Buddy gets a lot of workouts and gets dragged all over the place. He's holding up well. He's only deflated once. He does need a little more pressure now that the weather has gotten colder, and I'll try to take care of that this weekend.

Things have been fine with Ace. Last weekend we had a bit of a wrestling match over picking up hooves, and I have the bruises to prove it. I sought some support and advice on COTH, and you can read the discussion here. We made it through, and haven't had any trouble since. The farrier was here this week. I am so thankful for my unflappable farrier. We brought Ace to the crossties, and Kim held him while I wiped the mud off his legs. I thought that might be tricky, but he barely noticed. Then I held him in addition to tying him to one wall or the other. He was well behaved for all but the right front. We had done the left side easily. The right front he always manages to snatch away from me, but not burly Kim. Kim held on, and Ace tried rearing to get away. The third time he got a lot of height and smacked his noggin on the side of the roof trusses. Besides some dust and cobwebs, he was unscathed. It sobered him up though, and he stood still for the rest.

The Wide World

2009-11-23T18:27:00.007-05:00

Ace now has access to his own paddock. First I walked him around the fenceline so he could see where it was, then the next day I turned him out with Hairy. As predicted, he could have cared less about Hairy's company, although he did take a couple of swipes at him in passing.

There is a "chute" from the back door of the arena to this back paddock so he can run in and out. There is planty of mud, a drainage ditch, and a pile of topsoil (which he climbs) so he is getting used to handling himself as well as getting used to stepping in "yucky" stuff.

He goes out there half the day by himself. He is only about 15 feet from the outdoor arena which serves as the sacrifice pen for Mom's two geldings. But, he doesn't hang on the fence at all, and seems to barely notice the others are out there. He is very independent and is still simply thrilled at his new found freedom.

Talky Talky

2009-11-16T16:37:00.004-05:00

One thing I've never mentioned about Ace, is that since he was a few days old, my mother encouraged him to talk. When she comes to the barn, everyone whinnies (mostly demanding food). Of course, Ace wasn't aware of this protocol, so from day one, she would say in a high pitched "baby whinny" voice... "Acey... Hi Acey..." until he answered too. It was very cute to hear that little "weeeheeeheee" coming from the depths of the stall. If it were dark, and Ace and Copy were out, and she wanted to check on their whereabouts, she could call out "Acey... Hi Acey..." and he would answer no matter where he was.

He has continued to be a talker. Today, when I went to the barn, he hadn't noticed my car pull in. He was eating hay with his back to me. So, I called out "Acey... Hi Acey..." and he turned to look, and gave me a big "hello" whinny. "How are you?" I asked? Ace whinnied one short whinny back, "fine, and you?" and returned to his eating. It's nice to have a horse talk to you when you know they're saying something other than "where the heck have you been? Feed me NOW or I swear I'll knock this door/gate down."

My Aching Back

2009-11-14T16:54:00.009-05:00

5 hours later, after also cleaning the house, my back is starting to tighten up. I blame Ace....

Since it is Saturday, Ace had a cross tie session. He seemed to be looking forward to it. I led him the 6 feet from the arena gate to the grooming area without bothering to get a rope. Turned him around, snapped the ties, and left to go get a box of brushes. Ace stood happily fiddling with the snaps. I brushed a bit at the dander and scruff all over his back, then opted for a brief curry and a damp towel just to get the dust off the top.

Then I started on his hooves. Instead of starting with his least favorite, the right front, I started with the left front. No problem. Left hind.... very short attention span... suddenly, he decided the left hind was off limits. I held on for a bit, receiving some muddy hoof prints on my already dirty breeches that have not come clean with the first wash. He got the hoof away. I set the pick down, and muscled back into the fray with two free hands. Much better. I was able to set the hoof down during a quiet moment.

On to the right front. He has a very interesting range of motion with the right shoulder which makes holding on to that one much more of a workout. Also, he started to try to lay on me. Elbow to the ribs... lost the hoof in the process. Stand up, drum on his ribs with my fist..."Thou (thump) shalt (thump) not (thump) lay (thump) on (thump) your (thump) human (thump)." Pick up the hoof again. Ace hoists his weight over on to my back and leans. Thump with the left fist. "Stand UP." Ace hippity hops left on three legs and steps in an empty pail against the wall.

Now, I know it is careless to leave dangerous items laying about the cross ties area, but I had decided to leave that there, along with the plastic brush tote, because A. a plastic bucket with a plastic bale is pretty hard to hurt yourself on. B. I also believe in a little spook-proofing, and you might as well start young. That way, you can leave your 6 year old gelding crosstied knowing that if the weanling decides to float an empty paper bag over the arena gate at him for fun, nothing much will happen. Ace likes to do that to my gelding. It must be an invitation to play, and it's kind of cute especially since Grey is already 99% de-spooked on the cross ties, and I don't worry about those things causing a calamity.

So, Ace steps in the bucket. For a weanling who has been on crossties two or three times, you might expect at least a little calamity. Ace's reaction? "Oops, I stepped in a bucket. Sorry, what I really meant to do was LAY on YOU." I managed to get that hoof picked out and set down nearly on my own agenda, and moved on to the last one.

I lifted the hoof up just enough to pick it. Ace started paddling with it. "whhooooaaa, Eaaassyy." He decided to give me that one. I stood up and rested both elbows across his rump, leaning to catch my breath. "Young Man, you try my patience." Ace looked over his shoulder at me, completely unimpressed.

New Best Friend?

2009-11-05T15:40:00.018-05:00

Because I feel bad about me decision to turn Ace out alone to keep him from beating up on Hairy all day long, and becoming an alpha bully, I splurged and got him a best friend that he can beat up. Meet the Horse Buddy Bopper.

I saw this on Quattro's Blog last winter. I thought of getting it for Grey Horse, but hesitated because I'm pretty sure it would be an expensive sacrificial lamb for that destruction monster. Ace is just about the right size to enjoy it now without immediately destroying it.

My husband and I assembled it last night. I have to say it comes with good instructions and they outfit you with all necessary little supplies. However, they expect to blow it up under human power, and that just isn't realistic. So, we used the air compressor even though the instructions warned against it. Then we stuffed it in the back seat of my car... When I carried it up the barn aisle today, it created a chain reaction of gastrointestinal difficulties in each stall I walked by. The horses, intent on eating their lunch, were a bit.... startled...

Ace wasn't going to go up to it on his own, but willingly followed me with just a tug on his halter. He touched it, but hasn't figured out that it is a wrestle buddy. Just as well. If he had immediately accosted it, I would have been less than pleased with his manners. I'm sure after he gets used to it he will get enjoyment out of it. I let my Grey Horse play with it with supervision. He tried to bite it and stand on it. It stands up on it's own well, but doesn't recover well if you knock it down. I think this has a little to do with the sand footing. However, if a horse tries to stand on it, it does rebound and pop upright again. It should be interesting to follow the life of the Buddy Bopper. However short it may be.

Today Mom was in the barn, so we got you some crossties pictures. Mom hadn't seen Ace's Big Boy act on the cross ties and she was impressed...

He really seems to enjoy his grooming...

But some stuff I do makes him mad...

And some stuff makes him bored, but there is stuff to chew on...

We spray his mane and brush it over to tame those last wayward locks...

Pick his hooves...

And tickle the giblets...

We get used to me reaching under and tightening something around his girth...

When he's all done, I break a cookie in three pieces, untie him, and we work on him yielding his poll to pressure so I can put my arm over his neck. Mom had wandered off by then. Ace's attention span is longer than hers! That's an accomplishment! Yay Ace!

Trailer Training

2009-11-03T15:21:00.006-05:00

The horse trailer happened to be hooked up today, so Ace practiced loading and unloading. He is so brave! He walked right on when asked, and we looked it all over.

We practiced loading and unloading, and pretty soon he was loading ME! He said it was the best game I've come up with so far.

I had Mom and my Step Dad shut the back up and we stood inside and looked out the windows. I tied him but didn't leave him yet. We took a good look at the ramp.

It was a blustery day, and he was very fresh. I didn't have a chain on him since we were practicing the trailer, so it was NOT a good day to try to go for a walk!

The Cross Ties

2009-11-01T14:24:00.003-05:00

Yesterday little Acey stood on the crossties for his grooming just like a big boy. This included picking out all for feet with no problem. Then I left him so I could go to the tack room and get him a cookie. He is still small enough that a Dumor treat has to be broken in thirds for him. He was so cute standing there trying to act all grown up. I'm sure it helps that most of his life he has watched other horses stand there. He did mess with the ties a whole lot but did not move around unless asked. I think next time I am going to try snapping the ties to the upper rings of his halter. Although I've never seen it done I've heard a portion of the the horse owning population does that with no problems It actually makes sense since it removes the ties from temptation's reach.

Our walks are going well. He is very "brave" and eager to go anywhere I ask.

A regular kinda guy

2009-10-26T18:49:00.005-04:00

Today Ace was a perfect gentleman on his walk. He did get to parading around a little when my grey gelding started to run and carry on. Mom came out just a little late to get the best of the showing off.

Mostly we just moseyed around. It was really nice to be able to let him graze without having to keep my eye on him every second and defend my personal space

He is running in and out of his outdoor area all day now, so his life is pretty much back to normal.

The Tree

2009-10-25T19:31:00.003-04:00

I'm still chuckling a little about Ace's walkabout yesterday. He was much more relaxed and did less rearing and frisking around. We grazed and explored up along the paddock, then down the drive. I noticed he was giving the horse trailer parked in the lawn the "hairy eyeball", so we went over to take a closer look. He walked up to it, gaining confidence from me, and we walked around the back. As we turned the second corner, Ace had an "Oh Shit" moment.

All of a sudden, his legs went in every direction and he squatted low to the ground and swapped ends. At first I couldn't tell what spooked him, but when he stood back up he sort of cowered and looked up... Ooohhh the TREE! He was so busy looking at the trailer, he didn't realise until it was too late that he had walked under the low hanging pin oak tree right beside the trailer. A pin oak always tries to reach down and touch the ground with the lower branches, so it is trimmed at about 6 feet from the ground and it's dense limbs are still full of golden chestnut colored leaves spreading in a solid, tent like canopy.

"It's OK Ace, it's just a tree... can you touch it?" Ace reached up warily and sniffed the leaves. Lucky for him the oak tree turned out to be a peaceful creature. He had much less of a reaction to the firewood covered in billowing plastic. That big hulking mass of leaves that came close to swallowing him was much more surprising. You should see the holes and skid marks he left in the lawn.

After our walk I brought him into the cross ties and half tied him with my husband's help. Tim held Ace's second tie while I groomed. I found that Ace loves the inside of his hind legs scratched. He was very steady and stood still seeming to really enjoy his grooming. I don't think it will be long until he will be used to the routine and I will be able to cross tie him myself without incident. In fact, I've never seen him stand in one place that long... ever. He has been in perpetual motion since the day he was born. Oh, by the way, this is his seven month birthday today. Happy Birthday Ace!

Well that went well....

2009-10-23T15:32:00.006-04:00

Today I took Ace on a walkabout. First we went up to the paddock to fraternise with Pinky.

Then we tried to relax and eat grass in the yard. That took awhile. My stepdad brought his fourwheeler past and hooked up to the arena drag because he was working on the footing in the indoor arena. The sand was very compacted, and I was worried when it froze this winter it would be an ice rink. Since it is our turnout of last resort, it imperative that the footing in there remain safe. So he had been adding a new load of sand and leveling it. That set Ace off a little and he got stuck in merry-go-round mode.

I thought he was being pretty good. I would give him an A- for ease of installing the chain over his nose, and removing it. And a B+ for leading. In fact after we had been out 10 minutes Mom commented that he was being really good considering he hadn't been turned out yet today. Hmmmmm... that I didn't know. OK, he was being really, really good!

The "whapper stick" comes in real handy to push him away without having to pull on the lead all the time. He did settle down to eat grass for awhile but remained on high alert. We grazed for about 10 minutes, and worked our way out to the house drive and back. He did rear up a few times playfully but didn't strike or crowd. He just really really felt good to be out. My plan is to take him for a walk each day. I was happy that he did not seem attached to the barn and took his new found freedom all in stride with polite manners. Getting some fresh grass was also important. That will be gone within a month.

Individualization

2009-10-22T16:32:00.004-04:00

Today we tried getting Ace outside a little. First Mom left the big door of the arena open so he could go out into the pipe run area but he would only go out there if she stood out near the fence. Otherwise he was too insecure. He has been very happy being loose in the indoor arena most of the day, but going outside alone was too much for him. He prefers to stay inside and hang around the gates where he can hear other horses and know that he isn't missing anything going on in the barn... like lunch.

Later, we turned him out with Hairy in the outdoor arena. That lasted for about 5 minutes. At first he just walked around and nibbled but then he decided to stretch his legs a bit which he really needed.

After he had run for a few minutes he got anxious for the security of the barn and decided he might try to climb the fence. Not jump… climb.

It was clear he was just going to work himself up, so we caught him. Rather than take him right back to the barn we stopped in the yard to try to calm down and graze.

He did graze a bit but didn’t settle down easily and was still on the move. I guess I’ll have to spend some time leading him outside to get him used to being out again and turn his attention back to more productive activities like grazing. He has not attached himself to Hairy at all and could really care less if Hairy was involved. Hopefully if we don’t let him get himself worked up first he will settle in to graze easier. If it isn’t raining too hard tomorrow I’ll give that a try. At least he was mannerly. After catching him, getting the chain over his nose to bring him back down to earth was a little tricky but otherwise he was not bad to handle.

First Snow

2009-10-16T13:54:00.005-04:00

Today Ace got his first good look at snow. Only out the door, not in it. But it still made an impression. As soon as I turned him loose in the arena I could tell he had noticed that the entire outside world had gone..... blank. Yikes! The end of the world as we know it! Or at least an infestation of something! He did an immediate about face and tried to climb in my pocket, but I was ready for this, and was already slipping out between the gates . He wasn't quick enough. It took awhile for him to get bold enough to go near the doors, but he finally did. ...With a lot of snorting and tail flagging.

Beyond that... I'm tired. Tired of this weaning thing. My belief is that the less you handle a colt, the less chance you have to create bad manners. Yes, you need to handle them, do things that need to be done like grooming and hooves, and teach them to tie and load. But excessive handling beyond the day to day necessity just creates more situations where the colt will test you.... and that many more times for you to fail to appropriately train them. As a handler or trainer, you have to choose your battles. Discretion is the better part of valor. Timing is the better part of horse training. So, Ace gets 10-15 minute training sessions once every week or two, depending on both his mood and my frame of mind.

Now I've worked with a few "outlaw" or supposed "outlaw"horses. All but one of them were not really truely bad if handled correctly. But, if you frequent the internet chat sites, you will hear all kinds of stories about horses who border on being downright vicious. Some turn out to have physiological problems ranging from brain tumors to hidden pain issues. Most of them are just dominant horses who have never gained respect for humans, or fearful horses who have never gained confidence. Both ends of the spectrum are the result of poor handling. Either too much or unfair discipline, or no discipline at all.

After reading one new story today on COTH, the nagging fear that this dominant, high spirited colt might have the potential to grow up to be a real darn handful, prompted me to give him a five minute session. After his decent behavior for the farrier yesterday, I was willing to give him (and me) a day off. But his anxious pushy behavior today changed my mind. All I have to do is put a lead rope on him to judge whether he needs to be taken down a peg or not. Today was one of those days.

I want him to walk on a loose line and follow at my shoulder. This is something he is perfectly capable of and has already learned to do. Today, he was shouldering into my space and trying to shove with his head. Armed with only a rope, and my beloved "Whapper Stick" I circled him once to the left with not much trouble, just a bit of nippiness. To challenge him, I then switched sides and asked him to lead off with me on his right side. First he flat out refused. I turned to face him and on a longer lead pulled him to unlock his brakes, first to the right, then to the left. I expected him to follow me and the rope around each direction in a circle. He did. Then I tried to cross back over to his right side.

He didn't want me over there and backed around to keep me on his left. He stomped first his right hoof, then his left, not really striking, but thinking about it.... "Whap Whap Whap" in the chest, I backed him off 10 feet. Try again. From his right side (I won!) I asked him to step forward. He bulled into me with his neck and right shoulder. "WHAP" high on his neck. Look of suprise from Ace. Ask again. Rear up and start to run backwards. OK, "whap whap whap" on the chest again. "NO rearing." Rear up and run backwards again. "Whap" on the ribs. Submission. Ace sighed, began to chew and walked off on a loose lead with me on his right. "GOOD Boy". "Pet pet pet."

I walked him about for another minute. Stopping twice to pet. He was a bit nippy. Each time he reached for the rope he got poked in the nose with the whapper. "Eh.. no bite". The battle line had been drawn. Ace had challenged my authority. I had responded immediately each time with a startling yet painless form of aggression. Ace had submitted, and was praised. Life was fair. I am boss. Ace is not. End of lesson. Time to go in for lunch. I'll say it again. I'm tired.

Farrier....B+

2009-10-15T15:08:00.004-04:00

Ace was prety good for the farrier. I put him out and let him run for about 15 minutes before we worked on him, then tied him in the grooming area and held the other line like a cross tie. He was a bit impatient with the first hoof, which was the right front. He yanked that one away a few times and pulled back and fussed etc. He was better than I expected with both hind feet. Our farrier is very good with the horses. He rarely asks for me to get after a horse, and it usually has to be fairly extreme before he does. He was able to hang on those hind feet better than I can and as a result had less of a struggle from Ace. When Ace would lean on him or try to bully him with his shoulder, Kim would just shove back a little and "talk horse" to Ace. They got along well, as they have from the beginning, and Kim seemed happy with his behavior for a cocky little weanling. Although, when he came in the barn and I was swooshing Ace around he said "maybe you ought to do that a little bit longer". I will say it again... teaching a horse to tie to the wall for a length of time is the single best thing you can do. After he was tied he knew he was supposed to stand. Not that he was happy about it or anything....

Cross Ties

2009-10-14T18:22:00.002-04:00

Do they call them cross ties because they make everyone cross?

Today Ace went out in the arena by himself. I'm sick and tired of how he is treating Hairy, and Hairy is only reinforcing Ace's dominance. All play dates have been put on hold until we can get him in with Face-Off who will not be pushed around. Ace was good, but finding himself alone he did immediately rinse his mouth. Then he started anxiously ripping hay out of the hay bag. I went and got my gelding and put him on the crossties so Ace wouldn't feel so alone. When we went out for a ride, Ace was fine.

Afterwards, we worked on becoming familiar with the grooming area. I've walked him in there each day, but have been unable to get him to stand. The farrier is coming tomorrow, so standing went to the top of my list of priorities. I shortened one cross tie (they are on blocker rings) and tied Ace to the wall, then moved the lead rope to the other side of his halter, and held that side effectively like a human cross tie, while Mom groomed him. I kept him in line by shoving him around a bit with the "wapper stick" and all went well. He did grow impatient, but I was fairly pleased with his behavior.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's farrier report!

The End of Maternity Leave

2009-10-12T19:12:00.003-04:00

Ace is weaned, and it's time for Copy to go back to work. When I put the saddle on her she gave me the awfullest sour pickle face you've ever seen, but I think she had fun. I haven't ridden her for over two years, but this mare's manners are impecable. I mounted her in front of the barn amidst the normal commotion of tractor, manure spreader, and dogs and she stood like a rock, not even calling back to Ace who was screaming his head off. Then she stuck her "view finder" all the way up (I swear this mare is the most high headed horse I've ever been on) and away we went.

I put hunt tack on her so I wouldn't have to pull my stirrup leathers, but I wished after I had put saddleseat tack on her since it would have been more fun. I only rode her up and down the shoulder of the road aways but she put up a really nice park trot for being barefooted and just off the broodmare shift. Please forgive the washed out color on the full body shot. My camera has had a few problems and is off to Canon for repairs, so I had to fade it a bit so she didn't look like a purple dinosaur.

Setting Boundaries

2009-10-12T15:27:00.002-04:00

Today Ace decided I had left him out in the arena too long and he wanted to go back to his stall and have lunch. So, in typical Saddlebred fashion, he started to run. Not run and scream, or test the gate, just... run. Round and round this way, round and round that way, sliding stop at the gate. He kept sweeping poor Hairy up in his wake. The hoofbeats grew louder and more insistent. I had washed William P. Grey's tail and was picking it out while he napped on the cross ties. That is, he napped until Ace got him stirred up. He became increasingly agitated, and so did I. William strained to the front of the ties, and begged with one front leg up because he wanted to get involved in the shenanigans. The peaceful grooming time was disrupted.

Ace kept coming to the gate to see if his display was having any affect on me. Yes it was... annoying little s__. There was no way I was going to reward this behavior by returning him to his stall so he could enjoy his lunch. I tied the unpicked portion of WP's tail in a knot, stuck my comb in my back pocket and unclipped a rope from the ring on the wall. Ace's expectant little face brightened. "Oh Good, she's going to give me what I want." Think again Mister.

I clipped the rope on his halter, marched him right over to the wall and tied him to a post. Then I went and got Hairy, who was more than relieved to be done with his baby-sitting job, and put him back in his stall closing the gates behind me. Ace whinnied pitifully. This was a revolting development. I went back to my tail picking since I had tied him in my direct line of sight. He tested the rope a few times, (Note to self: when engaging in a battle of wills with teenage horses, best to use the unbreakable nylon shipping halter) but finally stood and sulked. This all took about 3 minutes and Ace admitted defeat. I went back to the arena to have a word with him. He was more than happy to see me and willing to negotiate. I rubbed his right side and picked up a front hoof... easy. I moved to the rear right. He gave it easily but flung the leg around. I held on stubbornly.

Back around to the left side. He had his front hoof ready for me and that went smoothly, but the left rear was even more difficult than the right. Those draft horse people have the right idea when they strap them into stocks. In fact, local lore says one of the old time farriers once picked up a draft colt and set it across the hood of a tractor. Hmmmmm.... I faced his head, picked the hind foot up forward with my left hand, and clung to his tail with my right and held on. I won the wrestling match. I sure hope my farrier appreciates the things I go through for him

Then on to the neck and ears. I remembered Mom saying when I walked into the barn that Ace was in a stinky mood. This was becoming more and more apparent. Ace dove at the rope knot with his teeth and I got a hand on each ear. I cupped one hand lightly around the base of each ear and wiggled with him. I thought, this is a perfect passive aggressive outlet for someone who wants to out stubborn a horse just for kicks. **sigh** Ace gave in and let me rub both ears and his noggin. OK, you can go in now. I got a hold of the cheek piece of his halter, and loosened the knot with my other hand. I could tell Ace was mad but again had decided it was easier just to humor me.

He led quietly back to his stall. I finished picking the tail and put stuff away. The whole time Ace ate his grain, he pounded willfully with his front foot. I've never noticed him doing that. What a little brat he is today.

Back to Normal

2009-10-09T16:41:00.003-04:00

Today Ace was sane enough that he was able to be left alone to play without anyone guarding the gates to prevent escape. I also led him back to his stall without a chain over his nose. He even laid down last night to sleep. And so ends the great Weaning Saga....

Next on the agenda... the farrier is due and ought to be scheduled in the next week. This hasn't been a problem before, but I would really like for him to learn to stand in the grooming area so the farrier can work with better light. We tried standing there for a bit today, but he certainly wasn't still enough to have any work done on his hooves, so we're going to have to work on that.

Kicking the habit....

2009-10-08T16:01:00.002-04:00

The past two days Ace has exhibited a weird behavior that at first I didn't really understand. When I turn him out, for the first 5 minutes while he works out his frustration of not finding Copy out there again, he keeps running to the water bucket and rinsing his mouth every mintue or so. Today we went back to his stall and saw that his water bucket was indeed full, then it hit me....He's trying to break his oral fixation like a smoker. Because he can't go to the mare and nurse to calm himself, he's replacing it with a sip of water! Maybe I need to get him some milk flavored chewing gum! After he settles down and starts playing and exploring it stops. No wonder the poor kid has been a basket case! Too funny!

Establishing the routine

2009-10-07T15:56:00.005-04:00

Today was a lot less stressful. I thought about some of the "moments" we had yesterday, and worked around them today for maximum training effect.

1. Slide stall door open 4 inches
2. Reach arm into stall, clip rope on first halter ring available...
3. Insert "whapper stick" (2 feet of hard black plastic water pipe) and push back on chest.
4. Enter and close door behind you.
5. Snub tasmanian devil to post.

I swear, tying is the best thing I ever taught him.

6. Apply chain shank. Now, I've been handling horses for 31 years, and I taught myself a new trick today. I've always clipped the chain up on the ring behind their right eyeball. Well, if you pull the chain around under their jaw and snap it on the ring behind their left eyeball, you don't have to cross in front of them or fumble around blindly. Ta-Da! I've seen that done on horses at the track but it never ocurred to me the brilliance of it in this situation.
7. Slide door open.
8. Wait for composure to return.
9. Unsnub and lead away, taking that extra rope with you, so you can hold on while you remove the shank. I've learned to take the rope, the chain shank, and the whapper stick with us everywhere we go. You never know when you'll have to throw that rope around the nearest post! And yes, sometimes I start juggling and get tangled up...

Things were A LOT quieter today. Instead of rushing around screaming he was quiet, and took time to play and check things out. His brain is beginning to clear.... He walked instead of dashing around, and even stood still on occassion. Amazing. He was also trust worthy enough that I was able to step away from the gates for a minute without him trying to jump over. I thought again, what would we do without this indoor? This is the best money we ever invested in the horses. I can't imagine trying to turn him out in any other kind of fencing. No wonder people get horses hurt during weaning. Even using our "safe" plank fence paddock, how could we possible guard all that fence in case he decided to throw himself into it?

He even interacted with Hairy a little. Poor Hairy. He's still intimidated by this whirling dervish. In fact, before I took Ace back to his stall, I led him around a bit in the arena. As soon as I had him caught, Hairy came up to him, then followed us around like a puppy dog 2 feet behind. He figured he would take the opportunity to check the little guy out. When Ace returned to his stall, he did cry a little, but it was short. Peace and order are returning to our lives.

As for Copy, she is happily enjoying her time off. Today I put her on cross ties, groomed her a little, and tried my hunt seat saddle on her just to see if it would fit. Her head shot up, her ears cocked back and she shot me a look out of the corner of her eye which said.... "Don't even joke about that! That was NOT funny."

Weaning Day # Whatever

2009-10-06T16:10:00.002-04:00

Things are a bit more peaceful in the barn today. I put Munchkin out in the indoor with poor baby sitter Hairy who has no idea what is going on or what his part is in this. It is a battle to get the chain over his nose. Basically it is like trying to thread a moving needle with mittens on. Frustrating. Then you have to restore order and regain the upper hand, backing him into the corner. He leads nicely and it isn't too difficult to get the chain off again.

Ace ran circles around Hairy screaming his fool head off. I had closed all the big doors which seemed to sort of unnerve him since he is used to being able to see out as well as get out. I stationed myself at the gate with a longe whip to discourage him from trying to come over those. After 15 minutes, Ace was getting warm and more desperate to get out in some direction. And I think Hairy was getting dizzy from standing in the center watching. So during one of Ace's trips to the gate, I got the snap clipped on his halter ring and apprehended him. Then the usual scramble to get the chain situated, and we negotiated both the gate and the walk to his stall quietly and orderly. Negotiating the gate and leading are the only things he has retained in his little brain.

If he was looking for his mother, he missed his chance. She had her head out over the stall watching him, and he strutted right past with his eyes on the horizon. Obviously, he thought, she must be far away if he couldn't hear her. In truth, she just didn't miss him badly enough to say so. Then after I detached myself and squeezed out through the door, he began his bellering and kicking routine. It was a full blown weanling tantrum. I didn't stick around to appreciate it. I put Hairy back in his stall (poor hairy is still confused) went outside to open the doors back up and retrieve William P who was ramming around outside wishing he could join in the excitement. Whatever it was he was sure he was missing it. By the time I got back to the barn Ace had quieted back down.

So the first turn out went fairly well, but all that catching and chain threading and maintaining the upper hand jangles your nerves. Mom, try giving him some raspberry leaves for supper. They are supposed to calm male horses too.

Oh Woe is Me

2009-10-05T15:06:00.006-04:00

Poor little Ace is feeling pretty sorry for himself. He is still calling for Mom now and then, but his little whinny is starting to sound hoarse. He is very anxious for attention and friendship. When you open the door, this is the first thing you see...

But he is being well behaved and respectful. I was in and out of the stall several times to hang his water bucket, and a toy and just to pet him and let him know he hasn't been abandoned.

He has a nice window which he is enjoying. The pasture fence is about 30 feet away, and there are horses there that he can watch.

Copy is (conveniently) in heat this week, so she is calling back to him today and pacing a bit but, nothing dramatic. It looks like they will both survive. Ace is still off his feed. I dropped a horse cookie in his bucket before I left, and he went and got it out and crunched it against the wall. He just isn't interested in the grain that's in there.

All the commotion is starting to tell on everyone's nerves. Even my gelding William P. had had enough. Mom said this morning when she went to take him out his face said "Get me as far away from this as you can".

Yup, still weaned with only a minor glitch...

2009-10-04T15:14:00.002-04:00

Mom fessed up to putting Ace back with Copy yesterday because he hadn't eaten anything. As you can see from the photos, he will not suffer from missing a couple of meals. Yes, I was irritated, and yes, Mom is repentant.

Today Mom tried to herd Copy and Ace out of the run in and back to the arena, and Ace cut Copy off at the pass, put on his herd leader hat, and took charge of the situation.

From Mom's email: Ace was not going to let me dictate his day and after all he is this big bossy stud in his little 6 month old peanut nuts brain. That did it! I was not in the mood to have Acey "take his mare" that he is confusing with his harem not his milk source, and think he is smarter than me. He is back in his weaning stall.

So Mister Smartypants is officially weaned!

Weaned... I think

2009-10-03T18:40:00.005-04:00

The hardest part about this has been getting my Mom to commit to changing her routine. Yes, weaning Ace does complicate things, but he is only going to get bigger, stronger, and more willful if we put this off. So, when I left the barn today, I put Ace in his stall, got Mom to agree that this was final, turned on the easy listening music and left.

Mid-afternoon report was that he ate a little when Mom went back to feed him lunch, and that he commenced kicking the wall since he had an audience. Copy, as usual, seems basically unaffected. I'm sure she will be glad to have the whole stall to herself tonight.

Here are some pictures of Ace this morning playing Cowboys and Indians on the hillside. He was really strutting his stuff along the fence line, but naturally I was not able to catch it on camera.

Interval Weaning Day 5

2009-10-02T15:04:00.003-04:00

This weaning stuff is why you hear stories of horses that are 5 years old and have never been separated from their dams. It's also the reason you here of horses that are shut in a stall their whole lives. I admit it's pretty tempting. Just shut him in a stall and when he's 2 years old, call a trainer to come pick him up.

Today we started by turning Ace out in the indoor with Hairy our "babysitter" horse. Ace was so excited to meet a new hors! He ran and ran and reared up and walked on his hind legs, and showed Hairy all his best cutting horse moves. This lasted about 10 minutes. Hairy was unimpressed. mainly Hairy just didn't want to get bitten or kicked, and he escaped unscathed. When Hairy failed to play back, Ace lost interest. He then decided he really missed his Mom and maybe he ought to see about getting back to her. My mother stood at the gates with a whip to shoosh him away and dissuade him from trying to jump. He continued to run and fuss for another 10 minutes. He was already wet from being out in the rain this morning, and 20 minutes of running had him steaming pretty good. He was also starting to get tired, so we put him back in his stall where I hoped he might settle in and actuallt eat something.

I left him there for 45 minutes. He screamed and fussed, but was at least calm enough to cool off and dry out. The screaming was getting on every one's nerves. We discussed leaving him the rest of the afternoon or putting them back together. Maybe tomorrow we will cut Copy's grain and begin to help dry up her milk supply. She had already been fed quite heavily today, so we put them back together. Ace hasn't had much lunch this week, but he is still fat and slick and can stand to miss a few meals.

Ace is fairly respectful to handle. You have to handle him like an unruly stallion (which at this point he is) but we have been enforcing manners and he has been pretty good with his greatest infraction being rearing. Of course I don't tolerate that. He is learning to respect the chain shank if not humans in general. I remember one of my sister's summer jobs during high school was with a local Standardbred farm. She was one of the staff members charged with bringing the yearling stallions to the barn, halter breaking them, getting them groomed up and ready to go to the sales in the fall. I don't know what I would do if I had to handle 60 untrained yearling stallions every day. Ughh!

Ace was happy to get back to his Mom and get something to drink. I don't blame him. After dealing with that for an hour and a half, I wouldn't mind a drink myself. I'm glad we didn't breed back. I don't think I could do this every year.

Still Weaning...

2009-09-30T16:19:00.003-04:00

We're trying the interval mehod of weaning, so now each day Ace get's seperated from Copy for a meal in his own stall. This amuses him less and less each time. Today he was a little bit angry. First he balked at the door when I asked him to go in. But that didn't last long. Again, he pretty much skipped lunch. And, he got a little more agressive with the stall walls. I just locked him up, gave him hay and grain, and went about my business in the barn. He doesn't cry constantly, but he doesn't eat much either. After about 45 minutes, I was ready to leave so I put them both back out together. Mom said she had a hard time getting him out of the stall herself yesterday. So I ("She who must be obeyed") worked out the routine. I snapped a rope to his halter, snubbed him to the door post, and put the chain over his nose. Good luck threading the needle if he isn't tied up! Then, with the chain on he led out of the stall in a organised fashion.

Really it hasn't been bad. We need to just shut the door and walk away. Many people advise to wean with the phases of the moon, choosing the days the horses will be least aggressive. Each year there is a convenient sticky note in the COTH breeding forum with all the dates. The October dates are this Friday and Saturday. Hang on Acey, your day is coming.

All Alone at the Lunch Table

2009-09-28T16:10:00.003-04:00

Remember high school and the anxious moments as you tried to find a group of friends who ate at the same lunch period so you wouldn't have to sit alone...? Ace had one of those days.

Today we had a high wind warning making it unwise to ride outside, so it was an "Ace Day". Ace ate lunch in his own little stall today. Well, to say that he "ate" is overstating things a bit. He nibbled. Eating would have taken concentration, and his concentration was shot. We finally have an empty stall, and it's the cutest little stall... 8x9 with a south facing window, floor mats, and it's own little spill proof bean pot feeder. Saturday I replaced the door latch that had been yanked off awhile ago so it is "Ace Proof". Today when Ace and Copy came on for lunch, I stuck him in the strange stall all alone. He handled it pretty well. No body slamming or anything, but a lot of crying and stall walking. Copy, two doors down on the opposite side gave a few quiet reassuring nickers, and enjoyed her own lunch in peace and quiet. Like my Mom says, "Copy is as good a mother as she is a rotten mare." You couldn't ask for a better mother. As a mare, she can be a raving ding-bat.

Ace did get half of his lunch eaten. He also enjoyed the window. I turned my gelding out and he went to the pipe corral 2 feet from Ace's window and made monkey-shines so we had to lock him up so he wouldn't incite and encourage bad behavior. When Ace stopped crying and pacing, he tried his best to rearrange the stall mats, but I assure you, my husband has them locked in and it will take more than a whiny weanling to move them.

Prior to lunch time, Ace had a walk and whoa session, and was tied to the wall for grooming. He was very good, allowing me to pick out all for hooves, and handle his ears. He is still very very very ticklish on his flanks and legs. He will allow you to touch them, but he cannot stand still for it. He does not relocate or snatch the legs away, but he flinches and squats something awful. To his credit he has never kicked at nor aimed to kick at a human. When he is mad he bites. He doesn't bite people, but he rearranged the quick release knot in the rope to some unidentifiable Boy Scout Knot that I had to pry apart. All in all, it was a good Ace day.

Sept 21st progress report

2009-09-21T19:48:00.004-04:00

Not much has been going on with Ace. He's growing, and behaving. Now and then I have to show up and play the enforcer, but for the most part, everything is running smoothly. He is shaping up to be very upheaded with nice length of neck, and pretty good hinge at the throat. That coupled with his handsome face is causing Mom and I to really look forward to his training in a few years.

He and Copy spend most of the day from breakfast 'til dark in the indoor round pen which opens out into a small pipe corral. Besides being a nice set up for exercise, this puts Ace front and center at the arena gate where he can see anything that goes on in the barn. Last week I had my Grey horse crosstied 6 feet from the arena gate and was rummaging around in the tack room. I heard sort of a start and a low snort from Grey, and looked out to find a paper feed bag lying on the floor at his feet. The culprit...

He just wanted someone to play with, and was offering Grey his toy.

Progress report on everything else...

Weaning: We now have an empty stall for him, and I need to fix the door latch and otherwise babyproof it.

Gelding: I felt for his testicles today, and the one that had dropped was nowhere to be found! **sigh**

The Great Escape

2009-09-09T14:57:00.005-04:00

When I began to blog, I often wondered what on earth I would write about and would I eventually run out of material? But you know what? Stuff just keeps happening.

Mom's email from 11:51 pm last night...

At 10:30 Richard took Hunter (Rottweiler) out and came in saying "you have a horse loose" always a news item I can do without. He was in flip flops, I grabbed the flashlight and got into my boots fast. There Copy and Ace were, eating grass by the hitching rail. Richard was ahead of me and got the barn lights on, Ace ran for him and the barn. Copy went to Grey's window to flirt and let me catch her too. They had both insulators broken by Grey's stall and the web totally off and on the ground. Nobody hurt and all is well except Copy is coughing again tonight. Glad no one told Ace that when you get out you run like crazy everywhere you are never supposed to go.

The scene of the crime:

And their Accomplice:

The Showdown at the Not OK Corral

2009-09-07T18:19:00.012-04:00

Over the summer, I spent two weeks take home pay on a used pipe round pen. Then, I spent about half that again to buy these rather ingenious Panel Caps to fill the joints and make it safe for Knucklehead who must always rear up and ride his mother around piggyback like a fool. I did all this so that Copy and Ace could have the benefit of grazing in the lush hayfield now that they have trampled down both of their run-ins. This gesture of kindness was pretty much wasted on the unappreciative horses. Well, at least on Copy.

Mom and I led Copy and Ace out to the hayfield. Acey was quite well behaved considering this was the longest walk away from the barn he's ever taken, and it was unknown territory. He sort of led me, but there was no biting, bolting, rearing or carrying on. He was as good as you can expect a young fella to be. Copy, on the other hand, shuffled through her deck of possible personalities and chose "Displeased Herd-Bound Crazymare". This was not helped by William P. who was so jealous seeing his two women walk off out of sight with other horses that he spent the entire time at his window calling for us all to come back.

Copy refused to settle in and graze. She ran the fence because she was suddenly way too far away from the barn, and her barnmates (who mostly don't like her anyway because of her persnickety attitude).

Ace, besides being influenced by Crazymare, was overjoyed at his new playpen with the wide open sky and wonderful view. He would have been running laps anyway.

I finally went in and caught Copy hoping that having her on a rope would settle her in and allow Ace to calm down. She did take a few bites, but told me that in her opinion, the grass here smelled funny. Ace, despite being excited about his new found freedom, and covered in flies since his mother's antics had stirred up and attracted every facefly for a mile, did do some grazing and explored his new "corral" and seemed to say it was OK by him.

After awhile Copy got impatient with me, and the funny smelling grass, and decided to get pushy, stomp around and paw. She did her best to express her opinion that this "corral" was beneath her dignity, not properly placed, and rather a waste of her valuable time. At this point, I was pretty fed up with Ms. Picky Pants. When I snapped her across the back with the lead rope to straighten her out, she threw her head way up and looked down her nose at me in her signature look of scandalised innocence which I find to be the single most entertaining expression I've ever seen on a horse. Even when I'm really really annoyed with her, which I really really was.

At least Ace enjoyed his romp.

Mare Maintenance

2009-09-02T15:17:00.004-04:00

Through all of this, we have not forgotten about our trusty broodmare Copy. In fact, this week the focus has been on Copy's diet. She is the pickiest eater EVER. She will not eat wet food. She will not eat supplements. She will not eat anything she believes has been tampered with. She doesn't finish her meal when she's in a bad mood, most national holidays, every other Tuesday, and days with the letter U in them. Sometimes she just won't eat. Period. She does like pelleted Trotter, but it has to be dry, plain and unmessedaroundwith. She also has to be hungry. Unfortunately, she has a couple of issues that can be helped through supplements.

Primarily, she is a hormonal floozy. I decided to try her on Mare Magic despite the fact that Mom looked at the ingredients and stated "but it's just raspberry leaves." Who cares what it is, it works. This is the week after her heat cycle, normally a wild roller coaster of emotions. She has been noticeably steady and "normal". Success. Of course it didn't come easy. At first she would not eat the Mare Magic. Mom mixed it with applesauce and shot it in with a syringe. After a couple of days she got used to the look and smell of the leaves and decided to eat them. There was no way to sort them out, and she must have forgotten that her breakfast had been tampered with because she began to eat it again.

Secondly, although we feed hay in a net in the arena where she runs in and out, the floor is sand so I got her some Sand Clear as a precaution. Mom sort of forgot about the Sand Clear this week, and made a tactical error. Day 1 she went and got the SmartPak of Sand Clear, opened it in the stall and poured it on Copy's breakfast while Copy was already eating. Remember, Copy does not eat food that has been tampered with. Cinnamon did not help. She knew the cinnamon had been put there to disguise the tampering and she turned up her nose. Then she decided to skip breakfast altogether. Day 2 Mom tried mixing it with applesauce and shooting it in with a syringe. Copy spat it out in a blob. Mom has rescued the blob and mixed with beet pulp trying to get it into a palatable form for Miss Picky Pants. Of course Miss Picky Pants does not like beet pulp. Maybe if it's dry and she's very hungry and isn't daydreaming about something else entirely.

Thirdly, Copy has hay allergies. What has been an occasional shallow cough over the past couple of years has developed into a persistent shallow cough. The humidity and high mold/pollen count this year has made it worse. So, she is having her hay wet down. I asked Mom if she would like me to order a supplement to help her. I could almost hear the weary sigh through the email... Mom isn't game for supplement number three. I asked "can't you just switch her to beet pulp and hide stuff in there?" Mom's reply... "You ARE naive aren't you? Copy won't eat beet pulp. Maybe if it's dry and she's in the mood for beet pulp"

I also ordered her some Cosequin to help her creaky hocks because I would like to start riding her again this fall. I'm pretty sure Mom hasn't even tried that and my gelding will end up getting it. I think we now have enough joint supplement to last us until Easter. So what will she eat? Grass. And Hay, which makes her cough. Oh, and carrots and apples, but they have to be cut into bite size pieces or you can just keep your carrots. **sigh** There are 5 other horses in the barn banging on the walls and begging their hearts out for food (with or without smelly stuff mixed in it) and here we are trying to force feed Miss Picky Pants who is happy to have her pre-foal figure back, and truly is the glossiest trimmest creature on the place.

Instilling some manners and respect

2009-08-29T16:39:00.008-04:00

Yesterday I stopped by the barn with my husband to visit Ace. He hadn't seen him in awhile. I caught Ace and tied him to the wall briefly as, once again, I didn't have barn shoes on. When I turned him loose, he reared straight up as if to say "screw you... you stinky human.... you are NOT the boss of me." In fact, the past week, Ace's entire view of the world has been "screw you". Copy is in heat, and I don't know why some people are naive enough to assume that their yearling or two year old colt will not breed his mother, just because they are related. If I gave Ace a step stool, he'd get the job done today. Yes MA'AM ! On the drive home, my husband said... "you know, that rearing thing is going to have to stop." Well said.

Today was a rainy day, and thus devoted to Ace and his manners. Once I got him caught... not easy since he was busy playing "wild stallion"... I tied Copy and put a chain over Ace's nose for the first time ever. I also had a short riding whip in my hand butt up. Goal for today was "no biting... no striking... and NO rearing." Usually, Mom lets him hold the lead rope which makes him happy and keeps him from biting HER. But, first on today's list of rules was "no biting", and that included the shank.

Ace tried to grab the shank from me. I popped him with the chain. "OUCH, you meany, I'm not staying to play with you." Ace threw it into reverse.... Another **pop** with the chain. Ace's eyes got real wide, and if he had eyebrows, they would have shot up. "The humans have invented new equipment!" He is very very very smart. He immediately stopped to assess my demeanor, the new equipment, and to test out the ground rules. So as not to entice him into his rearing and striking behavior, I stayed back by his shoulder against him with my arm over his back stroking his other side. He reached around to try to bite me instead. **Crack** on the bridge of the nose with the butt of the crop. He didn't see that coming. In fact with the whip in the same hand as the shank, he couldn't really see me move at all, because I didn't want this to become a game which makes him head shy.

I led him off, and practiced "whoa". Again he tested me, but any missteps were met with a light tug on the chain, and any nips towards the shank or me were met with a tap on the snout. In about three minutes he had figured things out. I try not to reprimand with a "No" since that sounds too much like "Whoa". My reprimand is "Eh" or "Quit". We walked and whoaed. While we were whoaed, I touched him all over, and picked up all four feet. Ace stood quietly and respectfully for all of it. No nipping. No fidgeting. You could tell he was thinking hard, and his frequent pooping gave away his inner nervousness as he learned to cope with being attached to this "human with expectations".

I took him with me through the gate to the tack room to get a rope, and tied him to the arena wall for a bit while I talked to me step dad over the gate. He started to paw (his new trick). I stood about 4 feet behind him, and every time he lifted a front leg, I snapped his butt with the whip and told him "Quit!" He would lift a leg, and cock an ear to see if he was going to get away with it or not. Smart smart naughty colt. If my reaction wasn't quick enough **bang** on the wall. Then, because the rearing was so pronounced last time I turned him loose from the wall, I had left the shank on him draped over his shoulder, and when we were done tying, instead of turning him loose, we went for another walkabout on the shank. He was a reformed colt, walking politely, and standing soberly and still while I touched him all over.

So the problems start when you mess with his head (getting the lead snapped and unsnapped) and anytime you are standing in front of him. I did cross in front of him several times so I could repeat my handling on his off side. Anytime I got up by his head, reached between his front legs or touched his chest, he would start trying to nip again. Getting the chain off wasn't too hard. I reached under his chin and unsnapped it from the ring and worked it out of the halter while standing back by his shoulder, the butt of the whip in my left hand ready to rap his nose.

So, yesterday I was worried that I was the part owner of an incorrigible truant stallion, and today I am proud of my smart, trainable colt. As long as you lay down the ground rules, stay consistent, and ask and reprimand for the same things the same way every time, this horse training stuff isn't a problem. It sounds like a big task, I know. It is a huge responsibility to bring up a foal and turn him into a grown up, well trained, honest horse. But don't be fooled into thinking that it is any different when you are handling a trained adult horse. They are learning every day, and every time you handle them, you are teaching them something, be it good or bad. Just remember that.

Clippers...again....

2009-08-17T14:17:00.004-04:00

Today was a clipper lesson. This is by no means the first time he has seen clippers. Every time I clip Copy (every three weeks or so) I rub them on his shoulder and up and down his neck. I even managed to get a short bridle path clipped once when he was a few weeks old. He isn't afraid of the clippers, but in his view of the world, they share similar physical traits with biting or stinging insects, and low flying aircraft and therefore should not be allowed to get too close to his ears. For some reason, he feels the same way about me, and he certainly isn't afraid of me!

So, since his tying lesson had turned into a contest of how high he could paw up the wall, I decided he needed something to think about. First I just put my hand on his poll between his ears. That made him mad, and he tried a few times to take a good chunk out of my ribs. But, he knows he has to give in to that because I am a persistent and insistent human. He is always willing to test me to see if there is a chink in my human armor. After all, there may come a day when humans give in and allow him to continue on with his life doing only those things which seem pleasant and fun. Today was not one of those days.

After he resolved that I was allowed to put my hand between his ears (for today), I tried rubbing the clippers on his neck, then changing them from my free hand to the hand already resting on his poll. Mind you, the clippers are OFF... and cordless. But this still made him mad, and there was more squirming and biting. From there we progressed to him succumbing to me removing the clippers back to his shoulder, and turning them on and off. That is about where we usually leave off. If he will allow me to touch him with my hand holding the vibrating clippers, we call it a day. Today I was particularly determined and was able to touch the running clippers to his halter strap (which sort of cushions the vibration like my hand). At no point did I remove my hand from his poll. This took about 10 minutes, but in the end he stared sullenly at the wall while I turned the clippers on and off, and put first my vibrating hand, then the actual clippers against his halter at his poll.

With babies you have to be quick to reward good behavior, because your window of opportunity will close quickly. I took my hand off his poll, gave him a little pat and unsnapped the rope. He glanced at me in surprise..."You mean I'm done?" Whoopeeee! And away he went!

Kerplunk!

2009-08-10T16:24:00.002-04:00

Today Mom and I led Copy and Ace out to the paddock. He was being very cranky so I had a firm hold of the cheekpiece of his halter. We got in to the paddock, and he decided to try to bolt, but of course I had a firm hold. So, he decided to "throw a fit and fall back in it." I had such a good hold on him that when he reared up he lost his balance and went down, and I went down on top of him. Like Mom says... "better on top than underneath!" I was so pleased that his nasty, no-holds-barred attempt at getting away ended up in him crashing on his own that the dirt stains on my knees were almost worth it. They've been soaking in soft soap in the office sink for 2 hours, and I'm thinking it's not going to come out. I guess I'll have to keep some Lestoil in my barn bag!

First time off the farm

2009-08-09T18:26:00.002-04:00

Ace went for his first trailer ride yesterday, and all went well. We tied Copy and left Ace loose, and just drove about 2 miles around the block. He seemed just fine. I didn't hear any fussing back there, and the trailer hauled smoothly.

Afterwards, I took him out of the stall alone, led him around a bit, then tied him to the wall for five minutes. He did call for Copy, but was pretty well behaved. Then we went to visit each of the other horses, and then turned him back out with Copy. We are taking baby steps towards getting him disconnected from his Mom so weaning will be less traumatic.

Nuts!

2009-07-30T14:38:00.003-04:00

Worst fears realised.... only one testicle is dropped. I was pretty sure that was the case, but I was hoping the vet could find the second one. Sometimes they're itty-bitty, and I'm certainly no expert at what they're supposed to feel like. He put him out and couldn't find the second one.
While he was down and out, he at least got a tetnus booster. Mom said the vet was suprised at how quickly the sedative wore off and Ace got to his feet. I'm not. This little guy is a real live wire.

SoooOOooo, we can take him to the clinic and have them dig it out there. Or endure his shenanigans for awhile longer and hope the second one drops in a timely manner. If he goes to the clinic, we will do it before he is weaned so he can ride with Copy. But, I'm not really eager to put him through that if it's going to drop on it's own in a few months anyway. I guess we could wean him and put him out with the older geldings and see if he shapes up or not. I'm afraid to buddy him up with Grey Horse, that would be like throwing gasoline on a fire trying to put it out! Copy certainly needs a break from being slammed around all the time, and I sort of want my mare back. I've been wishing I could ride her now for awhile. I guess wouldn't hurt him any to shut him up for an hour and ride her anyway.

Raging Hormones... Oh Vet Where Are YOU?!?

2009-07-27T14:27:00.004-04:00

Ace's impending castration has been put off until Thursday, and we can't wait! When I arrived at the barn today, Mom had tried to give Copy and Ace their lunch in a tub in the run in area, and Copy IS.DONE.SHARING. She had her Alpha-Bitch hat on, and Ace was pretty frustrated. He's not used to her telling him no. I went and got a separate pail for Ace and called him inside. That went OK, but he was already ticked off and hormonal, and I could read his little face every time it came out of the bucket..."hmmm, should I bite you're shoulder or just clip you in the knee cap?" I kept wagging my finger at him and reminding him to "be nice". Since he had been running around like a fool, the biting flies were after him making everything worse, so I gave up on the grain and went for a bottle of fly repellent.

In the meantime, Copy came back inside, and the struggle was on again. As I tried to spray Copy, Ace came at her from every direction. When he draped himself over her back and grabbed her withers I realised the only way to diffuse this situation was a "time-out". I went back for a rope, caught the wicked little shit, sprayed him, and tied him to the wall. Peace and Tranquility settled over the barn. Ace has given up trying to pull loose when he's mad, and has been applying himself to learning how to untie knots. He stood casually on three legs and fiddled with the knot while I groomed Copy. Ahhhh peace. What a lovely thing. Copy twisted each leg around showing me where the worst itches were, and I got her nicely polished up.

Then I went back to Ace. He is already a lot better about having his underpinnings worked on, and he got a good rubbing and polishing as well. When I turned him loose, the little rascal grabbed the rag and knocked the brushes down, which spooked him so he darted off with the rag in his mouth. Then he thought the rag was chasing him, so he started to really run forgetting to drop the rag, which was still after him. It chased him all the way outside before he accidentally dropped it and got away from it. ***sigh*** ...children. When I left, they were casually standing around like the whole lunchtime debacle was a distant memory. Thank Heaven!

Edited to add photo and video from Saturday. Ace had just had a successful loading lesson and all was still under control.

Trial Separation

2009-07-24T15:10:00.003-04:00

We are applying ourselves to preparing for this weaning thing which will hopefully take place after he heals from being gelded, which will hopefully take place on Monday if those testicles stay where they are. They come and go at this age, but Mom and I (and Copy) just can't wait to get those suckers out of there.

I signed up three of our horses for a genetic study conducted by Cornell University, which involves, among other things, taking about 30 detailed measurements of each subject. Since it was raining today, I did the Grey Horse, and was contemplating who to do next. Mom pointed at Copy... "is she next?" Now I had in the back of my mind how I was going to contain Ace while I messed with Copy, but hadn't really made a decision yet. There were several options, but when Mom asked "What are you going to do with Stinky?" my reply slipped out confidently "I'm gonna leave him in there." Everyone had been out earlier, but were indoors because heavy thunderstorms have been rolling through all day. So, I just put their halters on and told Mom to take Copy out of the stall and put her on the cross ties which are the next slot down the aisle from their stall. I had complete confidence that Copy would be fine, but I was interested to see how Ace handled it.

Mom closed the sliding door as she left, and I didn't stay to discuss things with Ace. I unsnapped the lead and slipped out the door myself leaving him to figure things out for himself. He was very good. He circled and called, but did not launch himself against the walls, panic, or otherwise try to squeeze through holes not made for horses. Copy, as predicted, could not have cared less. She nickered back for a minute or two confident in the fact that he was still only 6 feet away, but as I went to work with the tape measure, she rested a hind foot, and tuned him out completely. I'm sure she was hoping I would get out the brushes and resume our old spa routine but unfortunately I didn't have time. Maybe we'll do that tomorrow now that we know we can take Copy out by herself.

After I was done measuring (10-15 minutes) I didn't want to just throw Copy back in the stall with the frustrated little monster, who was calming down anyway, so I had Mom take her out in the arena while I went in and got Ace. I cracked the door open, put a hand in and told him to get back, which he did. Then I went in and snapped a rope on and slid the door open. He reared up and wanted to rush out, so I spoke up to him and made him stand. We then walked through at a controlled, yet eager, pace. Again, I didn't want to just turn him loose to run to Copy, so I took him to the wall and tied him in his usual spot for a few minutes and let him further sort out his feelings before I turned him loose.

At no time was he allowed to get panicky or rush around frantically and he returned to Copy in a fairly mannerly fashion. Then we stood at the gate and discussed what a good normal acting equine he had been, and he came over to visit. All in all, it was a very undramatic first separation.

Acting like a grownup

2009-07-20T15:13:00.002-04:00

I was very please with Ace today. He has been so rough on his Mom, that we are starting to develop a weaning agenda. Today when I walked into the barn at lunchtime, Mom says "the plan is, I'm bringing Copy into her stall, and you're going to hold him back and make him behave for a bit." Apparently, he has been a monster.

So, I put a rope on Mr. Bitey Bitey, and Mom took Copy to her stall. He was fine with that, and stood relatively quietly in the arena. After a bit, I led his down the aisle. Mom was with Copy (who could NOT have cared less) in her stall and she said "keep walking him past". Ace led quietly past, and stood in the aisle visiting politely with everyone though the stall fronts.
I said "if we had someone out right now (flies are bad today), I'd just put him in a different stall". Time to build a portable for one of the older horses. Acey needs a big boy room! I want him to spend the winter assigned to the hay drop which is outfitted as a tie stall (and also has a gate across so he doesn't actually have to be tied all the time), but for starters he needs a sturdy box stall.

Then, before I left my husband stopped by and wanted me to take Ace out to show a friend. I went in and haltered him ("my goodness he's mannerly today" says Hubby), then led him out alone to stand in the aisle while Copy munched hay. Everyone acted so normal. It gives me hope for an uneventful weaning.

Ticklish Little Devil

2009-07-18T16:23:00.004-04:00

The other day when I was handling Ace, I realised he is pretty ticklish on his sides. So, today when he was having his tying lesson, I got a hand towel to groom him with. Talk about ticklish! He did his best impression of the Tasmanian Devil. I toweled down his side and under his belly. First he tried to reach around and bite, but I smacked his hiney. So, he took out his anger on the rope. Then I went across his flank, and between his hind legs, and the fun really started. First he crouched until his belly was only about a foot off the ground, then he commenced kicking. It's really difficult to grope a horse, and smack them around at the same time! I pushed him against the wall, put my arm over his back, and just polished away. He was kicking double time with first one hind leg then the other. Armed with the determination that this would be a lot less fun as he got bigger, and Bill Cosby's sage parenting advice ("I brought you into this world, and I can take you out") I polished until he gave in.

All the while, he was attacking the rope, and untying himself, or at least letting out more line. A couple of times he did rear up and fight the rope, just because he couldn't stand to be around me anymore, but I could tell he didn't think it would do him much good. After he submitted to the flanks, I started on the chest, which was just as bad, only closer to the biting end. And ended with the neck and face. Then I picked up each leg, and worked with his tail (which oddly enough, he doesn't mind at all).

After about 15 minutes, he had pretty much given up, but he was still pretty pissed off. I can tell you, if I had waited until he was a yearling or two year old to do some of this, he would have broken some stuff. When he was done, I unsnapped the rope, and pulled him away from the wall, telling him he was free to go. He immediately launched himself back to his mom where he shook off all the nasty human, then he came racing back to me, reared up to his fullest height to tell me just how happy he was to be free of me, than started a bucking and running fit as he worked off his frustrations.

Is there any better toy than an old juice bottle?

Certifiable

2009-07-09T16:30:00.004-04:00

Acey's registration certificate came in the mail this week. It's Beeea-U-teefull! ASHA was kind enough to redesign their paperwork just in time so I could have a fancy new style certificate.

Unfolded it is a whole 11x17 sheet! I'm considering framing it... it's the first time I have ever had my name on the papers as breeder. In fact, it's only the third set of Saddlebred papers I've had my name on at all. We have had many Saddlebreds in and out of here, but the only ones I've actually owned were my first Saddlebred "Oliver", and Ace's Mom.

Naptime

2009-07-01T19:28:00.005-04:00

What a sap!

I went in to worm Copy today while His Highness was taking his afternoon nap. Nothing disturbs naptime. When I scratched his neck, he sprawled right out. He's fun when he's laying down. Even if he starts to get up you can grab him and flatten him and he let's you do whatever you want to. Sort of like a 200 pound dog. After naptime, we had a quick tying lesson. The door was open to the pipe corral, and Copy went outside, but Ace knew he was tied, and didn't test he rope at all. Good Boy!

All Tied Up!

2009-06-24T14:55:00.005-04:00

Time has come for Acey to learn something new about the world and his place in it. He is sure he is the most important thing. Anytime you come to a door or gate, you are met with a wide open mouth. It isn't that he is trying to attack people, he just needs something in his mouth right away. It doesn't matter if it is a bucket, or a rope, maybe your sleeve (with or without flesh) but he has to have it in his mouth. You can't even resort to smacking him because he moves like lightening. He desperately needs to be taken down a peg or two.

So today we had a tying lesson. He has already leaned to give to pressure and is old enough to understand so I went to the wall of the indoor arena and wrapped the rope around a 6x6. He was immediately pleased that the rope was now at eye level so he could chew on it better. But soon his impatience grew. Copy was wandering around the arena happy to be free of the little rugrat. I took up some line as he squirmed from one side to the other. Finally he decided a tantrum was in order and pulled back. This is where those lessons early in life come in handy. He is not used to being able to get away, and has not yet discovered that he may truly be the strongest force in the vicinity even when he is.

I only had the rope wrapped, so it let out enough to cushion the blow as he pulled. When he realized the rope would hold, he launched himself at the wall. Five feet of hardwood was unfazed by the attack. He tried it once more then decided he was tied. He looked back over his shoulder pitifully "where is my M-ah-mmy? I need her." Copy came over to check things out and tell him not to do that, then left again.

"Uh, Mom?"

"MOM!"

"MOMMYYYYY!"

After that he tied quietly with only a little wiggling. Lesson learned. For now...

Your True Colors Are Shining Through

2009-06-22T22:01:00.004-04:00

Yes, Ace is truely Bay. Dark bay, but with red highlights.

And where he is shedding out along his back, he has a wide black dorsal mark.

Ace is absolutely covered in whorls. He has them on both cheeks (just like Mama) which the Bedouins say predict debt and ruin. Besides that, he has a perfect wheatear on his neck. That one foretells misfortune. But in the meantime, it is really very pretty. He has the finest hair coat I've ever seen. He gets that from both his sire and dam.

10 weeks

2009-06-10T21:07:00.006-04:00

Ace is 10 weeks old now. We managed to get a couple of action shots. While I was chasing (Mom was the photographer) there was a moment when he collected up and "paraded" a bit, and in my mind's eye I could see what he would move like as a 3-4 yr old under saddle.

I take my hat off to anyone who can get an exceptional foal photo. They move so darn quick, and have the attention span of a gnat. Of course, it would help if I were to actually groom him.

This is the only grooming we do. Scratch his neck or withers, and he goes through the wildest facial contortions, and snakes his long neck around. See that dab of white in the corner of his mouth? We had just wormed him again. That was just after he kicked my Mom in the knee cap, and bit me in the shoulder. My response? "Boy do I have a treat for you! My little Monster." He was mad because the wormer paste made all the grass taste icky.

It's Official!

2009-06-02T19:27:00.002-04:00

Ace's registered name is "A Sensational Night Out". I haven't got the papers yet, but I noticed that ASHA had charged the registration fee so I logged in, and there he is! #121615

I guess all that hair pulling worked, and I got enough roots!

Not so little anymore... two months

2009-05-28T18:37:00.003-04:00

Here is Ace's 2 month old photo.

You Little Brat!

2009-05-26T15:54:00.002-04:00

I have a nice purple, hoof shaped bruise on my thigh from a Baby Tantrum. Ace decided to create the rear~strike~kick~buck for when he is really upset. It takes about 2 seconds, and ends with him cowkicking while in mid-air. The first time he tried it he connected. I tanned his fanny for him with the lead rope. The second time he tried it (about 10 minutes later) I was well clear. I put him flat on the ground then gave him a lecture. He was willing to be a little better behaved at that point. Pretty soon he is going to be too big for those kinds of shenanigans!

Pulling my hair out over this...

2009-05-21T16:20:00.002-04:00

I think I have figured out why people put off registering their foals. Pulling hair for a DNA test is a pain in the neck! Poor little Acey. He did not like having his soft baby hair pulled. I did it in three separate times over two days. Then I gave him hugs and kisses. Even my fingers hurt. You see, the DNA of a new foal is not yet set inthe blood, and you can get inconclusive results. Therefore, you need to send in hair samples. The test asks for 20-30 hairs from the tail, with roots attached. Ace's tail is so thick and soft. And WELL attached!

Then you have to gather all the hair you managed to pull, make sure the roots are there, and make sure you have enough. Then you have to get the lock taped down neatly and into the envelope. What a hassle. But it's done, and on it's way to UC Davis.

First Trim

2009-05-20T20:52:00.002-04:00

Today Ace got his first visit from the farrier. Mom told Kim that we had been training him for the farrier, and Kim said that meant he wouldn't be because "Babies always make a liar out of you." But he was very good. No pictures again, because obviously, I was holding Baby!

First Haircut

2009-05-15T08:27:00.003-04:00

Acey got his first haircut last night. I was at my Mom's house after work for my sister's birthday party. I really wanted to lead Copy out for grass, but didn't have any help, so I busied myself grooming her. She is fat and slick as a seal. She also deperately needed a haircut, and since I had the clippers out I clipped an inch long "bridle path" on Ace, who couldn't have cared less. He also let me rub the clippers on his ears, but didn't want to stick around very long for that. After we got all slicked up, I turned them out so Ace could run off some steam, then got some lead ropes and promised Copy we would try eating some grass. I concentrated on handling Ace, who was excited to go out in the big world, and Copy tagged along on a long rope. She was all about eating the grass, so all I had to do was keep the rope in my hand (or under my foot as the case may be) while I managed Ace.
He soon got bored and started doing loop-de-doops around me. Every time he crossed Copy's rope, I tried to lift it up so he would go under, but he would reach up, grab it in his mouth and try to take off with it. Then he decided to push me around a little, and I had just run out of patience when my husband finally arrived to bail me out. He took Copy so she could wander further, and Ace suddenly settled down to graze. He hates to be told "No" and would reach down and take out his frustrations on the grass, or stomp his front hoof in anger. It's good for him to learn to be outside in the bugs and stuff. He already stands quietly to be sprayed with fly spray, but those darn flies are always tickling his little baby nose.