Driving Around The Neighborhood

Took Quzqo for a drive yesterday, it was SO nice out, no bugs, not hot, no wind. Just as we were leaving, Bob and his extended family and friends were all returning from a trail ride (that I wasn't invited on, grumble) (not that I would have gone, ha ha)...I'd wondered why there were 10 cars in the parking lot but no people, they were all riding! Happily nobody spooked at the horse and cart and Quz didn't spook at the long line of horses coming down the road at us!

Just as they got down into the field off the road, Bob's horse spooked and bounced around sideways....so I'm not the only one (and no, he wasn't riding an Arabian!)

We went our usual "around the block" route (which is about 5 miles of road driving), and were approaching my friend's house and I was surprised to see...my ex-neighbor's car in the driveway! I saw her disappearing around back, and my friend's Lab, Chester, was bouncing around in the yard. What the heck, I drove Quz up the driveway and into the side yard. Chester barked at us, which brought my friend around the side of the house!

The ex-neighbor was visiting as they were going to go into the back field to hunt mushrooms, and were in the process of getting their riding mower out of the garage so the neighbor could ride out there (too far for her to hobble with her bum knee). I offered to give her a ride IF the cart could fit down the trail. Course it was wide enough, since that's what they drove their tractor/trailer down doing syrup this past spring!

I was SO pleased with Quz, he just marched right through the back yard, ignoring Chester, ignoring cars, trees, back yard stuff, and we followed the friend down the woodsy pathway (she had to pick up the pace cuz Quzqo was all enthused about this new place to go for once! Mighta run her over if she slowed down). About 100 yards into the woods we came into a clearing where the neighbor got out to go search for mushrooms.

I let Quz graze while we waited, feeling like the taxi driver in "Black Beauty", ha ha! At least it wasn't snowing. I got bored after 10 minutes or so, and tried to get Quz to step around the fire pit and move someplace else, but he started acting upset about SOMEthing... this ignorant Monkey took too long to notice he'd about rubbed his BRIDLE OFF!!! His right blinker was down on his cheek, the left blinker was in the middle of his forehead, one ear was behind the crownpiece, holy shit!!

I hollered for help from the other ladies but they were too far away and would have been useless anyway (now that I think about it). Quz started lunging forward in a panic, I got him stopped and jumped out of the cart (THAT is why I never want a Meadowbrook cart!) and ran to his head and managed to pull the bridle back to where it was supposed to be! Goofy horse!!

The ladies were done with their hunt, only finding a couple of giant puffballs but nothing else edible, so the neighbor climbed back in the cart, and we headed back down the path. Quz was more than happy to leave, he KNEW he was heading home!

We stopped in the back yard, the neighbor got out and Quz snagged some more lovely domestic grass from the lawn, and after a bit more chitchat, I pointed the horse towards home and he was on his way, don't try to stop him!!!

That horse never ceases to amaze!

Captain Obvious Rides a Horse

Had a good time with Quzqo yesterday, took him for a drive until he started limping and acting unhappy...he was limping on the leg his knee cut is on, so I didn't know what was up! So we turned around to head back, and within the second the little bugger picked up the pace and merrily trotted, limp-free, back to the barn! He kept trying to slow down but I kept him trotting...make him re-think his little plan!

ANYway, when we got back to the barn I sat on the hill right by the barn and let Himself graze on the knee-high grass there... meanwhile a new boarder and his kids were hand grazing their horse behind us. The dad had put the little girl on the horse's back, and the boys were jealous. All I could see was DISASTER ALERT (read too much Fugly Horse of the Day I'm afraid)... The boys were about 10 or 11, both VERY hefty lads (if you catch my drift). All I know is suddenly I heard thudding hoofbeats and a THUD! I got up and peeked over the hill, one of the boys was slowing getting up from the ground, rubbing his butt, and the dad had the horse by the halter, asking the boy if he was all right.

Obviously the horse didn't care for the little big boy on him bareback, ha ha...and thankfully the dad didn't take it out on the horse like some assholes might. The kid was trying very hard not to cry, and was moving very slowly. "That HURT!" he kept saying repeatedly. Like, duuuuh! Ya think???

Later after I put Quz away, they were coming into the barn with the horse, Dad still had a death grip on the lead right up by the halter, and the boy lamented to me that he'd gotten bucked off!!! I said yeah, I got bucked off a month ago and I'm still recovering. Guess that wasn't what he wanted to hear, ha ha.

Last I heard as they disappeared into the back barn was "Getting bucked off HURTS!"

Guess he won't whine that it's unfair that sis got to sit on the horse any more.

Coulda been a lot worse. Thank goodness for the Michigan Equine Liability Law (i.e. if you kill yourself on a horse, it's your own damned fault)

P.S. Quzqo WAS a perfect gentleman on our drive, other than the "Oh I'm Lame" theatrics. No spooking, no silliness, but I could tell his heart just wasn't in the whole driving thing because he slogged out onto the road like a slug on sedatives. But at least he behaved.

The Day After the Day After the Bowen Therapy

Paging Rod Serling, Rod Serling, please pick up the white courtesy phone! (do they even have those any more?)

Okay, I'm keeping an open mind about this Bowen stuff and all. I did my 3/8 mile hike out to the pasture to catch Quzqo, and he dragged me the 3/8 mile back to the barn. Brushed him without incident, he let me doctor up his new greasy heel infection (love rainy weather!), didn't frankly notice anything particularly different about him.

His nose is getting sunburned and it's starting to crack and peel, so I'd been putting aloe vera gel on it. This usually means a big Drama Queen battle, the instant I raise my goo-smeared fingers towards his face UP goes the head and he keeps his head as high as he can so I can't reach him. If I pull him down with the halter, he moves backwards. Usually I have to blindside him with a quick dab to the nose...as soon as he feels the gel on his nose, he's like "Oh, that stuff" and lowers his head and allows me to massage it in, probably enjoying its cooling smoothness on his chapped nose.

So tonight I'm ready for battle, UP goes the head...I wait a moment, then suddenly, he lowers his head back down, arches his neck prettily, and allows me to apply the gel right then and there without a single bit of fuss! Couldn't believe it, but was true, the first time that's ever happened!

Now the therapy lady did say the Therapy would help settle him down...is this something significant, or just a coincidence? Dunno.

Might ride him tomorrow, see what's different there, if anything.

DooDooDooDoo (Twilight Zone theme)

Blam! Shot Right Down!

Whoops! Looks like the retail price of one of those neato carts is (*gulp*) $2300.00. Yoiks! Cripes, could get a nice Meadowbrook for $900! Ah well, dreams are nice and don't cost anything.

Will just tighten the bolts on my cart, maybe give it a new spray coat of Rustoleum, and enjoy the view of the horse's butt cheeks.

To Dream The Impossible Dream

Well, probably not "Impossible", but bet I'll have to sell off some of the horse collection to pay for it!

Was looking through my web browser bookmarks this morning, and came across this in my "Model Horse" category. I'd assumed it was for model-scaled vehicles, but no, it's for Quzqo-scaled carts:
It's definitely an upgrade from my EZ Entry Cart, and I love the big solid wheels and the extra height (you can look OVER the horse's butt instead of right at it!). I emailed them for prices, so we shall see, I'll have all winter to save up for it, and if I can sell off my old cart, that'll make a huge dent in the price right there.

Nothing at all wrong with the old cart, but I feel now I'm totally hooked on driving, so it's okay to take off the training wheels and graduate to a Big Girl Cart!

I saw a couple of these at the Kentucky Horse Park this past summer, and they are NICE! Hopefully not ridiculously nice (price-wise). We shall see!

Day After Bowen-ing

Stopped at the barn on my way home from work, and found Himself snagging life-sustaining bits of grass from the worn-down pasture...getting near the end of the season, all the good grass has been eaten. Never mind inches away there's shin-high luxurious grass porn so green and sumptuous it's all I can do to not eat it myself. BUT, one day, years ago, a horse had pooped there. The poop is gone, but of course that grass is forever tainted according to the Canon of the Horse, so they'd rather gnaw desultorily on dried Canadian thistle stems than eat poop-grass. It's a horse thing, you wouldn't understand. (Hm, but I merrily put horse poo on my garden and eat the lovely green beans and tomatoes that benefited from that. Maybe I better investigate)

ANYway...Quzqo saw me marching through the weeds toward him, and he left off his thistle-gnawing and walked right up to me. It was so hard to not pat him, but I did give him his peppermint (crap, I forgot to buy peppermints at WalMart today! Better look under the car seats cuz I'm all out!). Managed to halter him without making contact, and he about dragged me to the gate. He didn't want a drink, he wanted IN and he wanted IN NOW!

His leg injury is looking well, so we didn't even stop to smear some Swat on it. Straight to his stall, where Injustice of Injustices, NO FOOD! Oh Noes! He did bump me while he was spinning around to frantically check his grain bucket (it too, was empty), I hope that didn't upset his nerves or Chi or fascia or whatever, that little contact.

Other than his near-hysteria at the sight of an empty hay rack, I can't say I noticed anything too different about him. But it hadn't been 48 hours yet. We'll see what this evening brings!

Bowen, Bowen, Bowen, keep dem dogies Bowen

Bowen Therapy. Ever hear of it? Me neither. Apparently it's a "gentle, non-invasive therapy that helps the whole body naturally rebalance, repair, and heal itself". A friend of mine on Facebook was also a friend at the Arabian show barn where I used to board, and is a practitioner of this new holistic therapy. A friend at the barn (current barn) asked her to take a look at her daughter's horse, because apparently he'd been bolting and bucking and generally endangering the girl's life.

I made a point of stopping by the barn at the time of their appointment, as I was curious, and wanted to see my old friend again. She worked with the horse, it looked like massage with a little chiropractic involved. So I went on out and rounded up Quzqo to bring back in for spa day.

When their session was done, the Bowen therapist came over to visit, and admire the horse (of course). Immediately she was struck by his "energy"....it was apparently radiating off of him like heat waves from blacktop pavement. She held her hands out and just "felt" all that "energy". I was a little amused because right then Quz had his head hanging down, his ears sort of at half-staff, and a hind foot cocked, probably just waiting to be escorted to his dinner.

She ooed and aahed, and put her hand to her face and exclaimed how HOT they were, just HOT from all that hot Arabian Energy...she touched my arm and yes, her hands were hot, but it was summer after all. But hey, I've witnessed some pretty unexplained things with horses over the years, to who am I to say yeah or nay (or neigh).

She tried to touch Himself on the neck, UP went the head, out bulged the eyes, No Touchee!!! She backed off and massaged the air above his back for a few seconds, keeping an eye on his head, looking for some signs of relaxation like licking and chewing or a big yawn. He obliged with a huge jaw-cracker of a yawn, which she celebrated as a "release" of tension and anger. Well, he was yawning when I brought him in from the pasture... maybe that was a tense situation he needed release from, I don't know.

Well, we caught up a bit, and she left, and I threw the horse back in his stall.

Couple of days later I came back to the barn, and as I was leading Quz back to his stall, just for shits and giggles, I stopped him, and put my palms against my face...okay, they were warmish. Got that. Then I held them about six inches away from Quzqo's side about where his heart would be... No B.S. now, I SWEAR I felt hot heat just pouring off of him. Like a radiator! It tingled! I put my hands on my face again, they were hot!! I touched the horse himself, his fur was cool, since we were in the shade. None of that blast furnace heat I felt seconds ago.

As I said, I've witnessed stranger things in the equine world, so...there might be something.

I didn't think Quzqo was in any particular pain, he's certainly not arthritic, hasn't sustained any injury other than his leg cut (which is still healing nicely, it was deeper than I originally thought, but the joint isn't involved). Maybe he torqued himself bucking me off, other than that, he hadn't exhibited anything out of the ordinary.

But when my friend at the barn scheduled another session with the therapist, she (the therapist) emailed me to see if I'd be interested in having Quzqo done. She thought maybe she could help with his hyper sensitivity (No Touchee!!!) and spooking behavior. I know what benefits massage, TTouch therapy and chiropractic helped my old horse, Tezlu, and Quz won't let me massage him, so maybe this might help out. Why the heck not?

So yesterday we had our appointment. She worked first with the show horse, lightly massaging him here and there, stretching this and that. The horse seemed to enjoy it thoroughly...VERY much, if you get my drift (he's a boy... hint hint), and at the end his head and ears were drooping, his tail was swishing slowly, and he looked like the most contented horse on the planet. I thought to myself 'if she can get Quz into that state, I'm sold!'

I brought Quzqo out of his stall where he'd been busy pitching a hissy because there was NO FOOD in there! He marched amicably down the aisle, and into the arena, probably wondering what his Monkey was up to now.

Uh oh, there was another Monkey in the arena. In his experience, that usually means an injection in some part of his body, and I could see he was tensed up, not trusting this new Monkey one bit.

She did some long-distance massage, again remarking on the amount of energy radiating out of him (he does crackle some days, for sure!), and showed me how to calm him by repetitively pulling my hand down the lead rope without touching the actual rope...somehow pulling the energy out of the horse and communicating like another horse. I refrained from making a remark about incense and aromatherapy, maybe some Yanni on the radio. But the horse seemed to enjoy it, and curled his neck around to snuffle at her, at which she pleaded "don't let him bite me!" I guess that's a common reaction she's gotten in the past.

He tolerated that for a few more seconds before backing away, like "Nuh uh, that's enough of that!". She repeated it, he enjoyed it for a bit, then backed away. At this she got kind of misty eyed and emotional, and proclaimed "he's saying it's nice you want to be my friend, but why would anybody want to be MY friend? I don't deserve it."

Course I teared up as well, my poor horsie! He doesn't have any horse friends, hanging out by himself in the field, and avoids the others in the pasture (especially that blue roan that pins his ears at him). My poor, poor boy!

So we kept reassuring him with the rope-stroke (oo, naughty!), and when he backed away, she'd go on to something else. His withers were tight, his poll was tight, his back was tight, he dragged his hind legs (he's always done that, I chalked it up to laziness...too much effort to lift those feet). So for the duration she massaged when he allowed it, massaged long-distance when he didn't, let him take breaks where I walked him around, back to rope-stroking and massage and forehead-tapping (he's supposed to like that she said, and he didn't draw away, so maybe he does). We lost count of the "releases" through huge gaping yawns, at least 20, maybe more. Plenty of licking and chewing, plenty of nibbling and nuzzling (and I didn't even have any treats).

At least three times I heard the bones in his neck and spine "adjust" with loud pops, though she was barely touching him (unlike the chiropractor with his mallet and rubber chisel). Things were progressing very well, until the inevitable happened.

The barn owner started wheeling the hay cart around. Game Over, man! It's DINNER!!! No, he wasn't agitated because he was stressed, he was stressing because all the other horses were getting hay and he'd starve to death trapped in the arena with the funny rope-stroking monkeys!!

I walked him and tried to find a spot in the arena where he couldn't see the delectable second cutting hay being handed out to all and sundry. The therapist worked a bit more, and once dinner service was over, Quzqo focused back on the task at hand, namely lipping at anything he could reach.

Put a gun to my head, I still couldn't say exactly what-all she did, but a few things she pointed out afterwards were different. His back looked flatter, he didn't quite have that deep a dip behind the withers that he had been developing. His butt was looser and flobbier, he had actual floppy man-boobs, being all relaxed on a muscular level. And his right fore hoof now looked at a longer angle than the left, because his shoulder was more relaxed.

I'm not supposed to ride him for 48 hours, so I'm looking forward to seeing what's different. Heck, the Rx is I'm not even supposed to TOUCH him for 48 hours, just the barest minimum such as putting on a halter, or putting Swat on his cut. No petting, no patting, no brushing, no full-body hugs. That will be harder on ME than him. But we don't want to disrupt the healing of the nerves and muscles. Of course he's going to flop himself on the ground and roll and roll, that won't mess up his fascia, but if I were to pat him on the neck...

So we shall see what happens, and if there's marked improvement in his behavior. Apparently the other horse had been dramatically changed from a bolting, fearful menace to a proudly cantering, on-the-bit paragon of equine performance. Don't quite color me skeptical just yet.

For more information on Bowen therapy, there's plenty online information!

First Hurdle Crossed

Finally my back/legs/ribs were at a state that I figured I might be able to at least sit on Quzqo, more to jump the mental hurdle than the physical one. It helped that it was 89 degrees out, and the horse was a limp dishrag energy-wise, ha ha!

There was a family of boarders riding horses in the indoor arena, which would also be good; he'd have company and maybe not feel tense. He wasn't happy when I put the pad on his back (but he never is), I tried some of that hands-off massage and he dropped his head and started licking and chewing!

*I* needed some hands-off massage to calm ME down. But he stood still for me to get on instead of his usual antics (too hot to be naughty), and took off walking before I got my right foot in the stirrup (we need to work on THAT next).

He was pretty much normal (why wouldn't he be?), only once his head shot down and I was afraid he was going to buck (lol), but he was just trying to snarf up some hay on the ground next to a hay wagon in the arena. We walked around, dodging the other horses (dang people who can't steer a QH, lol!). After a few minutes we jog trotted, and only issue was the tweaking of my lower back. And the horse was breaking into a sweat, so we called it quits, I didn't want to torque my spine or something. It was kinda sore, but at least I Did It! And wearing jeans and boots in 89 degree weather isn't that great either, lol!

Next step will be to ride him in the outdoor ring, then maybe go around the fenceline. But not 'til my back is 100% good (or at lest 90%)

His knee wound is slowly healing, it's oozing clear red stuff, but long as it's not pus I guess. It was worse than I first estimated apparently, but at least it IS healing.