Big Brother comes to town…

Bailey has a big brother.  (Actually,he  probably has quite a few.)   His name is Bart.  He is one of  Tracy Casselman’s horses (my sorta new coach), and he is from the same stallion as Bailey.  Crown Attorney babies are apparently quite popular and in demand, are very good jumpers (can we say ‘YAY’!!), although a bit slower to develop.  It is rather neat to have Bart at the barn for the winter.  I can definitely see the family resemblance, although Bart, at 6, is quite well grown, while Bailey, at 2 1/2, is still a baby, one that I have rather high hopes for.

I took a few more pictures today, we were lungeing outside in the sand ring.  The sun was really strong, and it was a beautiful day.  Bailey was really good, both left and right, although when I asked him to trot he decided he’d rather rear and buck, but that’s okay.  He got the beans out, trotted one circle, and I thought that was good enough for now.  I was gonna call it a day.  But…, look closely at the second picture.  See the look in his eye??  That would be the ‘I am trouble’ look.  The little bugger gave me very little warning.  One quick paw with his front foot, and he was down.  Rolling, on the lunge line, with my bloody saddle on!!  My Crosby Vision, the one I had lovingly cleaned and oiled just last night!  That horse is lucky I have a sense of humor, let me tell you.  And he is lucky there was no real damage to my saddle.  I managed to get him up fairly quickly, after getting over my shock, so just some mud and sand on one side.  But I swear, that horse was laughing at me!

On the Lunge…

Today was another lungeing day.  He was so good walking in a circle, and halted when asked – without turning in (major accomplishment!!!) that I called it a day after about 10 minutes.  It’s always better to end on a good note, and I’m pretty sure he gets it so best to quit while we were ahead.  It’s kind of funny though, it takes me about 30 minutes or so, to brush and boot him, and tack him up, for a 10 minute walk on the lunge.

I think he looks like an old pro with his boots, saddle and bridle on, and pretty damn good too.  Or at least a rideable all grown up horse!   (not that my pictures do him any justice.  It’s hard taking a decent pic while holding a lunge line and whip.)  People keep asking me when I am going to get on him.  I still don’t know for sure, but I think when the time is right, I’ll know.  And it’s not yet!

He had his first pedicure with our farrier,  Gordie, on Tuesday, and he was very well behaved.  Gordie is excellent with the horses, especially the nervous or bad ones (Bailey is not one of those, but we do have a little one whom we call the  “Devil child”, she is no match for Gordie!).

You may notice that I don’t have stirrups on my saddle.  Wish I had noticed that when I went to ride North after working with Bailey!  I forgot just how much fun posting trot with no stirrups can be!!

In the second photo, Bailey was very interested in watching Kayleigh ride her horse Neo.  Hopefully he is thinking good thoughts about humans sitting on top of a horse, and not ‘Why the heck doesn’t Neo just buck her off?’  Whatever it was, he was fascinated by them.

Another ‘C’ word…Culprit

I spent some time this morning, doing something that most of my non-horsey friends would think very strange, and incredibly gross.  Looking at poo.  After examining Bailey’s manure very closely, I came to the realization that it must have been worms that caused his bought with colic.  It takes a while for the worms to work through a horse’s system after the dewormer is admininstered, but if a large number are present, they can cause serious discomfort to the horse as they die off and work through.  And there were a lot of visible, dead worms in his manure.  I’ve been reading up on worms, deworming and dewormers, and boy, is there a lot of info, a lot of conflicting info, and a lot of nonsense.  One really good article I would recommend is Equine Parasitology.  A lot of interesting, scientific info there!

Bailey will  be dewormed again in two weeks, this time first thing in the morning so he can go out and bebop around, giving him plenty of space to stretch and roll, so we avoid the whole possibility of getting cast again.

And a quick side note, horses have worms.  All  you can do is to try and control them.  Regular deworming, environmental control, and fecal monitoring are your best tools.  Seasonal checks and balance in the environment should be used to your advantage.  Sometimes deworming a horse will trigger the encysted larvae to develop.  Lots of variables.